Topics to be announced at beginning of each semester. No more than 3 units may be taken in one section.

For architects, planners, and developers, understanding how to effectively engage the community is a critical skill set. Thus, we have proposed to link a new community engagement curriculum to campus efforts. DCRP is sponsoring a two-week intensive workshop on community engagement that will focus on a real-life campus issue. Students will work with instructor Heather Imboden (Communities in Collaboration), as well as guest experts in community engagement around development projects, to develop different approaches to working with the community. In this one-credit class, to be held January 4 - 15, 2020, students will gain concrete tools and a framework for planning and conducting community engagement to incorporate public priorities into their projects. Building on the principles and best practices for public participation, students will learn, through practice, how to build and implement an engagement plan, including how to identify and prioritize key stakeholders and how to select appropriate techniques for gathering input, including using social media and online tools. Students will discuss the importance of framing public participation with an equity lens; collaborating with community partners; and preparing in advance to incorporate learnings. In addition, students will have space to discuss the importance of empathy and cultural humility in engagement processes. Updated for 2021, this course will address our new realities of conducting engagement virtually while still centering the voices of the most impacted communities. The ongoing quarantine has interfered with some traditional ways of connecting with community, but it has opened up new opportunities for reaching community members who have traditionally been left out of civic conversation. In this class we will continue to imagine new ways of working to incorporate community voice into plans and policies.

Instructor: Heather Imboden

Repeat Rules