MACD Revised Curriculum (Fall 2007)

Required Courses

MACD 5010 Professional Communication for the Field
This course enables the student to engage in a writing process that produces well supported arguments and other professional correspondence for a variety of purposes, contexts, and audiences. Engaging in simulations or scenarios relevant to the field of community development, the student will become proficient and confident in both oral and written skills.

MACD 5120 Historical Perspectives on Community Development
Using Chicago as its primary laboratory, this course examines the history of the theories and the realities of community development. The objective of the course is to develop a systematic understanding of how specific urban systems--such as housing, transportation, education, and employment-were established, how they have changed over time, and what people can do to influence the rate and direction of change.

MACD 5130 Urban Politics and Community Development
This course examines the political environment that community organizations and their leaders address in the work of community development. It explores the context of community-based development and seeks to develop a new understanding of municipal, state and federal politics for present day practitioners. Of particular emphasis in this course is how community development exploits natural cultural assets in the formation of a new political community and its social economic networks.

MACD 5140 Cultural Competence in Community Development
This experiential learning course is intended to advance students' ability to effectively engage in and facilitate community development activities in a culturally diverse context. Students will examine the key fundamentals of cultural diversity, such as nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, age, gender and physical ability and investigate how these fundamentals relate to the main aspects of community development. The course will examine key cultural dimensions and students will research how they are manifested in the field. The primary objective of this course is to challenge students to pursue their learning beyond an intellectual pursuit to an enhanced applicable cultural competence, so as to serve as effective development facilitators.

MACD 5210 Applied Research Methods
This course examines the many uses of applied research for community work. It is important because people often understand a community from the research reports written about it. In other cases, research is used to shape public debate and define the solutions that are considered acceptable. Students will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of traditional and other methods, including appreciative inquiry, along with the moral presuppositions of each method and the ethical implications of their use. Students will learn how to cut through technical clutter and make their own credible initial analyses using readily available information. Concepts will be illustrated by practical examples from the fields of housing, crime, public transit, schooling and school funding, tax policy, and other.

MACD 5310 Principles and Process of Community Development
The purpose of this foundational course is to provide a comprehensive background in the theories of community development, with a particular focus on asset-based community development. The course is designed to enable students to understand the current competing programs of community development and to shape their own views on the viability of the different models and approaches. The course provides an introduction to the four key areas of community development, as addressed in the specializations.

Specializations (Certificates):
Degree students select one four-course specialization.

I. Community Building :

MACD 5450 Appreciative Inquiry: Building Communities from Within
This course will introduce Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as an approach to community building. Building communities from the inside requires a systematic approach that taps into, draws upon, and integrates the knowledge, skills and participation of community stakeholders. The course will explore the theoretical bases, underlying principles, methodology, practice implications and benefits of using AI to build communities. Students will experience the advantages of an appreciative approach to community building and facilitating the process of change within communities.

MACD 5451 Asset-based Community Development
Each and every community boosts a unique combination of assets upon which to build its future. Included in this combination of assets are the gifts of individuals, the capacities of citizen associations and the resources of local institutions. This course will teach participants how to access and map these assets as an essential first step toward building community.   

MACD 5452 Capacities and Competencies for Mobilizing Community Leadership
A community building leader is one who facilitates continuous, self-renewing efforts by community residents and professionals to engage in collective action of problem solving and enrichment that results in improved lives, greater equity and, strengthened relationships. This course will examine the theories and key competencies for leadership development in the context of community building.

MACD 5453 Building Sustainable Communities
A sustainable community is one in which nothing and no one is wasted. A sustainable community can provide for all of its residents and promote their health, co-exist with the natural world, and remain in the control of those who depend upon it. But some serious obstacles to sustainable, healthy communities exist. The 'gospel of growth' has created systems out of proportion and out of community control, resulting in some alarming breakdowns in the provision of necessities for life-food, energy, shelter, water, clean air and waste removal. This class will address these systems and their breakdown, introduce alternatives, and examine creative, courageous practices committed to waste nothing and no one.

II. Community Organizing

MACD 5550 Principles and Practices of Community Organizing
This course introduces the field of community organizing, in which organizations seek to impact public policy by building power at the grassroots, through bringing together large numbers of concerned people. It explores the theory of community organizing and the perspectives that organizers bring to their work. It introduces the tools and skills that organizers and leaders in community organizations use, looking a variety of methodologies. It examines case studies of community organizing campaigns, and provides an introduction to the current trends and prominent organizations in the field, with an emphasis on evaluating effectiveness in achieving organizational goals.

MACD 5551 Community Organizing: Field Experience
This field-based practicum provides a supervised experience in working with a community organization to build a community meeting. Students will get experience in membership recruitment, issue identification, issue campaign development, leadership development, turnout, media relations and meeting planning. Each class will be held in a neighborhood with residents of that community involved, so that at the end, the students' work fits into an ongoing agenda of a community organization.

MACD 5552 Comparative Studies in Community Organizing
Chicago has long and storied history in field of community organizing. Few other cities have enjoyed a comparable variety of organizing traditions actively shaping public discourse so prominently and over such an extended period. Using case studies, this course will examine the myriad of ways organized community groups in Chicago seek accountability from elected officials, corporations and institutions as well as increased direct representation within decision-making bodies and social reform.

MACD 5553 Changing Public Policy through Grass-roots Action
This course builds on the previous three courses in the community organizations specialization to examine how grassroots action can effect public policy change in larger arenas, such as at the city, state and national levels. We will examine how larger organizations build upon local bases, build in accountability, and maintain democratic processes, while acting effectively in the larger and more powerful political units where many critical political decisions are made. How can a methodology developed to empower individuals create large institutions without losing its soul? What changes when the action moves from the neighborhood to the state capital or to Washington, DC.

III. Housing and Economic Development

MACD 5650 Introduction to Community Economies
This course provides an introduction to the economic life of neighborhoods and cities. It examines the many types of trade relationships that neighborhood residents engage in, some trades relying on money and some not. The international and national context within which local economies exist is considered, including both the restrictions and the opportunities created by global powers. Students will examine the strengths and weaknesses of economies based solely on monetary cash values and discuss the possibilities for exchanges measured in "time dollars" and other non-cash values.

MACD 5651 Government Housing Policy and Local Communities
This course centers on the development of US Housing policy as a by product confluence of events after World War II: Returning GI's with money and desire to live not with parents, migrations from South, and the previously created New Deal programs that encouraged construction. These worked together to produce suburbanization and reinforce racial divides. The course will then examine the Chicago experience: racial turnover, public housing, the impact of the landmark Gautreaux case and its aftermath.

MACD 5652 Practices of Community Economic Development
This course provides case studies and practical examples of community-based economic development. The most common government programs that affect local neighborhoods are examined in terms of their usefulness for community development. The course also considers legal and procedural matters that local entrepreneurs must deal with, such as developing a business plan, liability issues, finding marketing and other needed services, and obtaining capital.

MACD 5653 Construction and Management of Affordable Housing
The construction and management of affordable housing is a specialized business, requiring specific skills and programmatic knowledge. However the provision of quality affordable housing to families with very low and moderate income also demands attention to broader community concerns and personal needs beyond "bricks and mortar". The course will cover the basics of developing and managing federally regulated housing programs, with emphasis on the operation of community development corporations.

IV. Congregational-based Community Development

MACD 5750 Wholistic Strategies for Congregational-based Community Development
This course examines the concepts and practices of congregational-based community development, especially for culturally and economically diverse communities. The course provides a theoretical and practical foundation for engagement in wholistic community development. Participants will be introduced to the principles and strategies of resident-based community organizing, collaboration and mobilization; the role of the church in community transformation, leadership development, community exegesis; and understanding the ramifications of institutional racism on urban communities.

MACD 5751 Congregational-based Community Economic Development
Congregational-based community economic development is the process by which residents of a low income community work with one another through the church and locally based organizations to improve their economic well-being and increase control over their economic lives. The course examines theory, methods and best practices of community economic development; ways to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the local economy; and provides a larger context for analysis through an overview of regional, national and global economies. Further, the course will identify a variety of critical economic development strategies from organizing for economic benefits to job creation and linkage, business development and individual asset development. The course will examine the significant contribution of the institutional church in the field of community economic development.

MACD 5752 Organizational and Leadership Development
Congregational-based community development is the involvement of faith-based institutions in projects designed to revitalize their communities, establish sustainable economic development initiatives, attract investments, build affordable housing, and encourage entrepreneurship. In order to launch their projects, congregations often form a separate nonprofit community development corporation (CDC) or partner with an existing CDC, foundation, local government, or other congregations. This course examines the organizational and leadership resources required to establish a viable nonprofit community development corporation from a congregational base.

MACD 5753 Faith, Justice and Public Policy
The course will examine current public policy issues impacting low income communities and the biblical examples of response. We will explore various methodologies of engaging people of faith in moving from charity to development, from individual actions to "up the river" systems and policies changes. The course includes opportunities to experience local initiatives around public education, environment, reducing poverty and prison/justice and down to earth application of moving from charity to changing the policies behind the problems.

Electives
Degree students select two electives. Electives may be selected from the introductory courses of the other three specializations in the program, from courses in North Park University 's nonprofit management program, from courses in the faith and public health program at North Park Theological Seminary, from SCUPE's GTUS program or the following MACD courses:

MACD 5600 Finance and Fundraising for Community Development (elective from current curriculum)
This course will introduce students to advanced theories and strategies of financial management and fundraising for community-based organizations. The course is an integrated learning experience that examines planning and development for programs and projects, and a critical role that fundraising plays in the life of the organization. The focus will be on understanding and utilizing these processes in the context of a community development.

MACD 5950 Topics in Community Development (elective from current curriculum)
The topics course is designed to address emerging issues in the field of community development. It is not intended to address content routinely covered in the curriculum and will be offered as a supplemental elective in the curriculum, as warranted by student demand and adequate enrollment.

MACD 5910 Independent Study (1 -3 SH) (elective from current curriculum)
This course provides opportunity to study in detail a topic chosen by the student in consultation with a MACD faculty member whose approval is prerequisite for the course. Repeatable.