Community Development & Leadership

This service learning/cooperative education program allows you to earn a Certificate in Change Agency or a pre-university Associate in Arts degree while learning skills that prepare you to organize and run campaigns for social change.

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This program is currently under development at College of Alameda. We will begin accepting students to the program by the Fall of 2010.

Mission

College of Alameda seeks to be a civically engaged college devoted to an “ethic of service” in its educational vision and mission. Community Development & Leadership at College of Alameda entails the school itself being engaged as part of the community, with students going into the community offering mutually beneficial learn-by-doing services to multiple community partners, developing a long-term active and mutually beneficial partnership between community partners and the college.

The Community Development & Leadership program will offer an applied politics Certificate in Change Agency and an Associate in Arts degree in change agency. Graduates will be prepared to manage social change campaigns, engage in urban and community development work, and apply various related skill sets in re-visioning our future.

Internships in organizations involved in social change will be a major component of the student’s educational experience. The program will offer students a range of projects rooted in cutting-edge skills for organizing and running campaigns for social change, from the level of their local community to working on large political campaigns.

As well, we have established “pathways to success” that take a student from an A.A. degree into a four-year degree program with any one of three San Francisco Bay Area universities. These pathways will allow students to seek professional careers in public service and community leadership.

Projects and partnerships

Programs in violence prevention and property management, now in development, will be officially unveiled in November of 2009.

This program is tied to the Sustainable Peralta Initiative, which shares our vision for an educational experience rooted in a “Green Curriculum.” We believe that education must incorporate principles of sustainability, empowering people with the knowledge, values & skills to create a future that is socially just and economically viable while being ecologically sound and promoting a healthy quality of life and psychological well-being.

CDL is a partnership between the Peralta Colleges (housed at College of Alameda) and a consortium of Bay Area Community Change organizations committed to empowering people to change their own communities.

You can contact Community Development & Leadership at cdl@peralta.edu