Community Development Concepts and Applications in Health and Social Services
Curriculum guideline
Lecture: 4 hours/week
In this course, students engage in a variety of learning activities such as lecture, class discussions, small group work and workshops, community experiences, research, and student presentations.
Definitions and theories of community
Ecological Frameworks and System Theory
- Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory
- Foundations of community development
Fundamental Planning Approaches in Health and Social Services Settings
- Community development as a method, practice, process, movement
- Theoretical underpinnings, applications and examples of each approach
Assets Based Community Development (ABCD)
- Needs maps versus assets maps
- The role of the community developer
Understanding worldviews
- Reflexivity
- Whiteness and intersectionality
- Stigma, prejudice and discrimination
Key concepts linked to community development
- Citizenship and citizen power
- Capacity building
Community Development and Leisure, Recreation, and Therapeutic Recreation
- Community development through leisure education
- Applying community development concepts and approaches to therapeutic recreation client groups andcontexts
- Program planning, implementation, and evaluation
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- identify a worldview and how it influences beliefs, understandings, assumptions, and decision-making;
- understand and apply the central concepts of system theory and ecological frameworks to community organizing;
- compare and contrast definitions of community and approaches to community building;
- understand the fundamental approaches to planning and be capable of identifying them in practice;
- compare and contrast models of community development;
- describe the links between community development, recreation and therapeutic recreation;
- engage actively and appropriately with community organizations to better understand the realities of community development in various contexts.
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. An evaluation schedule is presented at the beginning of the course. This is a graded course.
Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:
- Testing
- Written assignments
- Presentations
- Service-Learning project
Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of a student’s grade performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the instructor’s course outline and allowed for in the course curriculum guideline.
This course may have an assignment that has been identified as part of the TR Department Research Framework and therefore the assignment must be passed at a minimum of a C (60%) level in order for a student to achieve a C (60%) final grade in the course. Each course outline will clearly identify these research framework assignments if relevant.
All students in the Therapeutic Recreation program, both diploma and degree students, are required to attain a minimum of 60% (C letter grade) in all courses utilized for credit towards a Diploma and/or Degree in Therapeutic Recreation in order to progress in the program.
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required readings and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.
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