UW Extension offers community building course

The University of Wyoming Extension is offering a free online, self-paced and interactive course designed to help people increase their odds of building a successful community improvement effort.

Social Action in Rural Communities is at . This course examines why some community improvement efforts succeed and why some fail and looks at social interactions and group processes related to community projects.

According to the course description, most community projects involve multiple people and as such depend on social interaction and group process. Although the actual group processes may differ a bit in nature and sequence, research has found several common elements for success. The Social Action in Rural Communities course is designed to help people understand and utilize these findings to increase their odds of building a successful community improvement effort.

“Successful community improvement ventures follow similar paths of organizing, public relations, engagement and planning,” Duane Williams, extension community development specialist said. “Skipping a key step can generate obstacles, delays and weak community support.”

For a list of UW’s extension learning courses including free online class opportunities, visit https://extension.catalog.instructure.com.