Planning, facilitating and creating an organizational culture conducive to community engagement and volunteer participation requires managers capable of working collaboratively to build projects that engage the public in meaningful, goal-directed work that addresses organizational mission and meets identified community needs. This course is designed to teach the elements of planning, administration and management with a focus on the unique concerns of community engagement and volunteer involvement in the nonprofit and public sector. We will draw on material from the field of volunteer, nonprofit and public-sector administration, case studies and ongoing research being conducted at the RGK Center. In addition to skills necessary for domestic and international service, we will contextualize the learning within a variety of nonprofit-community engagement scenarios which may include topics such as: collective impact, grassroots advocacy, technology, and innovative applications of community engagement in the social service settings.
Specifically, the course will provide insight into:
- An awareness of basic policy issues facing the field of community engagement and volunteerism.
- Critically assessing the term “community” and contemporary strategies of “engaging” community.
- Exposure to strategies of the practice of community engagement, such as stakeholder analysis and community asset mapping.
- Knowledge of project planning and administration, assessing risk, creating policy documents, and techniques for project assessment.
- The ability to carve out and create meaningful pieces of work including the development of job descriptions, interviewing, orientation, training, supervision and management of volunteer personnel.
- How volunteer management skills are transferable to other intra-organizational and inter-organizational nonprofit management scenarios, such as nonprofits working in collective impact initiatives.
Additional Specifications:
- The course satisfies the Nonprofit Portfolio course requirement with a core RGK Center faculty member.