This course is a space for sharing and learning about successful citizen-led community development. We will unpack the principles, practices, and tools that put local assets and action at the centre any project, program, or community-organizing process. It offers a “time-out” for you to question conventional community development practices and beliefs and to re-evaluate your role and the role of your organization in stimulating and supporting genuine asset-based and citizen-led development (ABCD).
This seven-week online course will introduce you to Indigenous principles and practices for community work that build upon strengths and assets for action. We work to create an open space to learn from one another's lived experiences and stories of community building. Our goal is to provide you with community-building tools and methods to meet the needs of present-day Indigenous families, communities, and Nations. By the end of the course, you will identify changes you want to see in your community or organization and create an engagement plan to begin putting your learning into action. Remember that community building is a long-term undertaking that braids together many voices, visions, and partners. Our approach is informed by more than a decade of working with Indigenous graduates, mentors, and Elders and emphasizes the abundance of gifts, talents, and contributions that are alive and well in all Indigenous communities.
Women leaders across the globe are dealing with dispossession from resources, capabilities, and a form of discursive 'development' which is deeply rooted in a capitalist and patriarchal order. In the current milieu - as women leaders face further marginalization, cultural exclusivity, and the Covid-19 pandemic - we offer this online discourse hinged on power, patriarchy, and justice to support and facilitate a process of enhanced critical thinking and alternatives towards feminist ecological justice. This course aims to inspire and empower you - women leaders across the world - to engage in purposeful and justice-oriented leadership, and to design ways to inculcate processes, systems, and structures towards the above issues in the communities you are engaged with. Apart from leading towards a better world, and taking on leadership with more content, strategies, and with more conviction and confidence, the course is geared to improving our homes, workplaces, societies, and states. In this seven-week course, we will focus on a political understanding of gender, power, and patriarchy in the current milieu. We will also delve into leadership not just as a discourse but also as a lived alternative. We will work to understand, critique, and explore various progressive alternatives of change and justice. We will look into various leadership models and draw lessons from the feminist movement.
The unprecedented convergence of the forces of globalization, urbanization, changing demographics, and climate change are already fundamentally changing the way we live and work. The full magnitude of the impact on jobs, work, and workers is not yet fully understood. Against this complex backdrop, there are very real concerns and anxiety among workers, organizations, and governments about the future of work and the very nature of work itself. This requires a deeper understanding of the different changes underway, and which of these should be embraced, which should be resisted, and how best to prepare for the future that is unique for each individual, community and economy. Starting with the history and evolution of the principle of ‘work’, and touching on topics such as the Industrial Revolution and the labour movement to provide some historical context and grounding, this ambitious course will help participants better understand the magnitude and intensity of the current changes shaping the world of work and provide a peek into what is to come. While taking a global view on the issue, the course will also delve into specific examples that are rooted in local contexts. Real-life case studies will be shared that draw on a wide range of contexts, from the informal sector in South Asia to the resource-based economy that has long been the backbone of Atlantic Canada, and the gig economy that is now so prevalent in the service sector, globally. The course will provide opportunities for meaningful interactions with a selection of dynamic leaders and thinkers, and include the perspectives of policy, industry, labour, community, academia, research, and civil society. This will comprise identifying strategies for a just transition including future-proof skills development, retooling for the future and life-long learning, ideas around universal labour guarantee and social protection, as well as investments in green technologies.
Indigenous women traditionally held places of honour, respect, and leadership within their families and communities as our advisors and caretakers of life, lands, and resources. Indigenous women are natural leaders and decision-makers; keepers of knowledge, culture and language; protectors of land and water; activists and cycle-breakers. Indigenous women are reclaiming their rightful place as leaders.
Download the PDF: https://issuu.com/coadystfx/docs/indigenous_women_in_leadership_prog_desc_april_202
January 18 - March 21, 2024
Application deadline: November 24, 2023
Online Delivery
Facilitators: Addy Strickland and Alaa Salih
We hear about leadership all the time – in the contexts of our workplaces, governments, schools, and communities… but what is leadership really?
This course is intended to support young professionals in the early stages of their careers (less than 5 years) in the workforce as they explore what leadership means to them in the context of their work and future goals. It will offer participants the chance to grow their understanding of what leadership means, explore their own personal strengths as leaders, learn new skills, and begin to think through how they can apply their leadership in the workplace.
The facilitation style for this course is highly participatory, and prioritizes self-reflection and participant-driven learning. Course participants will be actively involved in shaping their own experience, and should not expect a more traditional lecture-based classroom.
Email: stfxonline@stfx.ca
