Community Development Academy

Academy brochure (PDF)

Community Development Academy is a series of three courses offered by the University of Missouri Community Development Extension Program. The Community Development Academy is an intensive, experiential, five-day course (for noncredit or for three hours undergraduate or graduate credit), which explores ideas and develops practical skills for effectively involving and empowering local citizens and leaders in community-based efforts.

These courses combine leading edge thinking with practical application methods to enhance the capacity of people to work effectively with a broad range of community issues. Each issue requires some form of decision-making process and implementation in the community arena beyond the individual, the family, or business firm.

This professional development experience provides a conceptual base and skills for successfully bringing people (often with diverse views and opinions) together around common issues, helping them learn how to deal collectively with their issues of concern, and giving purposeful direction to their own futures.

* The Community Development Academy Courses can be taken as part of the Community Process Graduate Certificate.

Course Information:

Course 1 Building Communities from the Grassroots
Course 2 Empowering Communities for the Future
Course 3 Creating Capacity for Dynamic Communities

Schedule of upcoming Community Development Academies

Year	Course 1	Course 2	Course 3
2011	September 19-23 Mercy Center St. Louis	only offered in spring	September 19-23 Mercy Center St. Louis
2012	March 26-30 Mercy Center St. Louis	March 26-30 Mercy Center St. Louis	only offered in fall
2012	September 24-28 TBD Kansas City	only offered in spring	September 24-28 TBD Kansas City
2013	March 25-29 TBD Kansas City	March 25-29 TBD Kansas City	only offered in fall
2013	September 23-27 Mercy Center, St. Louis	only offered in spring	September 23-27 Mercy Center, St. Louis

The courses are held in retreat settings at The Mercy Center in West St. Louis County, Missouri, and The Elms Spa & Resort in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, offering the advantage of on-site instructor availability and increased networking opportunities for participants throughout the week. The Academy is open to all people engaged in community development, both volunteers and professionals--in urban, suburban and rural locations. For more information, click on the menu options in the left hand column of this page, or contact:

MU Conference Office; 344 Hearnes Building; Columbia, MO 65211
Tel: 573.882.9552 Fax: 573.882.1953

Accommodation details

Online registration:
http://muconf.missouri.edu/CommDevelopmentAcademy

Mary Simon Leuci, Community Development Program Director
leucim@missouri.edu

Updated 7/30/2009