Abstract:
The Art of Change is a 13-week interdisciplinary course that was developed to equip students with the skills and tools they need to support and lead change-based initiatives for a better world. Building on foundational principles of community engagement, students will learn about theories of change, systems thinking, organizational theory and structures, and facilitation techniques and tools used to support community change. Case studies of real-life change initiatives will ground these theories in real-life contexts that help students to understand both how change happens and how individuals can make change when tackling real-world issues. Students also have an opportunity to work on a collaborative project with community partners that applies learning towards a real-life community issue.
In this course package you will find the 1) course outline (along with suggested readings), 2) assignment details and evaluation rubrics, 3) week-by-week course slide deck templates 4) podcast episodes relating to change initiatives in Hamilton, Ontario and beyond that were produced specifically with the course's learning objectives in mind, 5) Virtual Engagement Toolkit e-book for planning and facilitating virtual community dialogues.