Community Capacity Building Certificate

We are looking for community leaders of all sorts: you may be a quiet supporter, always there to move everyone forward. You might be inspiring and charismatic—or seeking your own inspiration. You might even be wondering if change is possible at all.

It’s our aim that the Community Capacity Building Certificate will provide you with that answer, time to reflect, build deeper relationships with yourself, community and the land, and to move forward the change you’d like to see in the world.

Together, we’ll learn to engage community by sharing our own lived experience, hearing from guests and adopting new tools to understand how to build projects and movements.

This free program, which we offer in collaboration with community organizations and groups, accredits and recognizes the rich learning that occurs in community project work. You will share a virtual classroom with 40 other learners, for six hours a week, for six months. There you’ll choose, plan, implement and evaluate a real project that will have a positive impact in your community.

We also recognize that true leadership and community capacity comes from developing our own skills and mindsets. This certificate will offer creative and expressive methods to keep our own learning and reflection a part of the change we’d like to see in the world.

• Become a more effective community leader by learning the theory and practice of community-engaged work
• Get the tools you need to make a positive difference, determine your community’s needs, build connections with community members 
• Get experience that you can easily put into practice and demonstrate as community work in a résumé, portfolio or school application
• Throughout our program, plan and implement a project that will serve your community

Who can benefit from this program?

The program is ideal for people who want to expand their skills, share them with others and make a positive difference in their communities. This includes all community members. We’d like to work alongside you to best support your community and your time in the program.

We are happily in solidarity with Indigenous People, Black People, People of Colour, the elderly, newcomers, refugees, drug users, sex workers, the LGBTQIAS2+ community, those practising religion, Autistic People, people who live with mental illness, physical illness, neurodivergence, those with accessibility needs, non-readers, the d/Deaf community, trauma survivors, intergenerational trauma survivors, young people, low-income people, people who are houseless, parents, caretakers, those with families, and those without families. If an identity you hold is unseen, please let us know so that we can learn and hopefully connect you into this community of learners.

We recognize that discussions about building community and social justice may take us to places that can be triggering. We will support you in the best way we can. We will work together in class to build a strong container for our program, with input from each person. We are supported in class by the presence of our class Elder and we will encourage you and help you access resources outside of class as well.