Technical Assistance
Stronger community organizations build stronger communities. As part of their engagement with the community, CCRS faculty and staff provide a variety of technical assistance, training and management support to community-based nonprofit organizations and government entities.

Technical assistance is available on a variety of topics including board governance, strategic planning, and fundraising. Longer-term and more sustained assistance has been provided to support on-going initiatives in planning, program development and evaluation.

Please contact us 302-573-4475 for more information.

Professional Development
We provide a variety of professional development opportunities designed for community leaders, practicing professionals and other interested individuals. These programs, ranging from short seminars to 14-week certificate programs, give dedicated professionals the skills they need to promote social and economic justice within their communities and organizations.

CCRS offers many professional development programs including:

• Nonprofit Management Certificate Course - Introductory
16-week course offered each Spring in which participants learn how to handle the key management challenges facing nonprofit organizations: planning strategically, using computers, controlling finances, developing human resources, fostering leadership, lobbying and advocacy, designing and evaluating programs, and marketing and fundraising. Click on the course title above to link to a full description of the course, including curriculum, coursework, and reflections from past students. NOW ACCEPTING REGISTRATIONS FOR SPRING 2010--Click here for more information.

• Nonprofit Management -Advanced
A rigorous training program for professionals who have held senior management positions for more than five years. These courses will provide advanced training on partnerships and collaborations, accountability and evaluation, resource development, legal issues, and human resources management. Click on the course title above to link to a full description of the course, including curriculum, coursework, and reflections from past students.

• Community-based Community Development
This fall semester course meets every other weekend each Fall, and provides professional development training for administrators, staff, board directors and founders of urban and rural Community Development Corporations, Community-Based Development Organizations, neighborhood planning councils, banks and financial institutions, and public agencies in organizational capacity building, leadership development, community organizing, project planning, and financial packaging in Community-Based Economic Development. Click on the course title above to link to a full description of the course, including curriculum, coursework, and reflections from past students.

• Brownfields Redevelopment and Environmental Justice
This 8-week certificate course is designed to engage public, private and community stakeholders in obtaining knowledge and developing skills needed to address the major aspects of redeveloping Brownfields, and other contaminated sites, in ways that insure comprehensive and inclusive economic and community development planning that benefits those negatively affected by blighted and contaminated land and buildings as well as the broader public. The sustainable reuse of Brownfield sites is the new planning answer to the issues of urban and rural revitalization, an antidote to sprawl, and the re-creation of viable, healthy, communities. The course is designed to provide professional development training to community leaders, CDCs, private developers, state and local public agency regulators, environmentalists, banks and financial institutions, attorneys and realtors in understanding current issues, policies, and laws that facilitate, encourage and deter the cleanup/ remediation, community involvement, and cost of developing Brownfields.

• Faith-Based Community Development
This one-week certification course provides professional development training for religious and faith leaders, laypersons, public and private sector decision-makers, bankers and financial managers in Faith-Based Community Economic Development. Religious and faith leaders from churches, mosques, and synagogues interested in planning and implementing commercial real estate development, employment training, housing development, child care, work force development training, or business development enterprise will gain knowledge and skills to successfully address these areas, engage in effective Community Building activities, and understand how to build sustainable community development organizations where appropriate.

• Parent and Family Leadership Education
In an effort to insure school success for all children, The Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, the Rodel Foundation and The University of Delaware’s Center for Community Research and Service, are developing The PACT Parent Leadership Corps. PACT is training parent leaders to establish "communities" of parents with the skills and information necessary to successfully support one another and their children, as well as to effectively interact with the schools. With such communities, Delaware can make progress toward meeting the challenge of one of our most pressing educational problems: closing the achievement gap. We know that while all parents want their children to succeed, they need information and support to prepare their children for academic success, navigate their children through the educational system, and advocate for school change. While individual parents alone may not be able to change the educational and economic futures of their children, a community of parents working together can.
E-mail us for more information.

• Partners in Eliminating Racism
PIER training groups are offered to students, teachers, faith-based leaders, grassroots community leaders, parents, executives, and professionals. The training incorporates peer support strategies to develop effective leaders who can assist people to achieve good lives and move communities toward economic justice and greater respect and caring for all. Once people finish a PIER certification class they can become a part of an ever-growing network of community leaders who meet periodically to offer support and assistance to one another in taking on the challenge of creating caring communities and a safe world. Some graduates become a part of an ever-growing core of PIER group leaders, expanding the training offered to ever-larger numbers of people. We are particularly pleased that currently there is a PIER young peoples' network growing from the solid work being carried out with high school students. E-mail us for more information.