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Humane Society University –
Graduate School of Political Management Certificate in Community Advocacy
The HSU/GSPM Graduate Certificate in Community Advocacy is designed to meet the educational needs of students preparing to become leaders of community activism or to become change agents for public policy in any area of animal welfare. It responds to a specific need to bring together a concentration focused exclusively on challenging and building community awareness. This need has recently become more acute with the re-emergence of grassroots mobilization as a key component to community advocacy.
The growing centrality of grassroots participation by individuals in the political process to affect substantive change in the body politic or commonweal has recently re–emerged. This recognition had faded somewhat in the mid-twentieth century as broadcast media became viewed as either the principal or even the only way to move the body politic. The return of grassroots activism is due to the success of recent political campaigns that have stressed traditional grassroots techniques buttressed by such new technologies as micro-targeting and the new media spawned by the Internet.
The Certificate consists of six courses (18 credit hours) that bring together the necessary practical skills with a deep understanding of the basic philosophies through which communities can be organized to bring about change in the commonweal. The six courses include:
PMgt 200 -- Leadership Styles
Learning to lead comes from an understanding of how leadership is exercised. A key aspect of leadership is learning to “bridge” from one’s own perspective on issues to incorporating the views of others in building allies. Adjunct Professor Kathleen Shafer.
PMgt 233 -- Grassroots Politics
Use of micro-targeting and database layering technology to identify potential advocates plus a study of motivational techniques to mobilize volunteers for political campaigns, lobbying efforts, and community advocacy. Techniques used by grassroots organizers to help corporations, unions, civic and nonprofit organizations, and special interest groups achieve strategic goals. Adjunct Professor Edward Grefe.
PMgt 265.15 -- State and Local Government Politics
Taking action to accomplish a political goal by targeting the community efforts towards those who make the decisions at the state and local level. Students focus on crafting lobbying strategies at the community level to influence both those elected to office and those who seek to be elected to offices at the state and local level. Adjunct Professor Christopher Shank.
PMgt 269 -- Focus Group Research
Focus on the research and design model needed to prepare a plan for changing community attitudes – how the community currently views the issues, what messages might enable the community to shift its views, who within the community must be recruited to help lead the change, and what sort of volunteers would be important to help make the project a success. Adjunct Professor Brian Tringali.
PSPR 204 -- Media Relations in the New Media World
This course focuses on the state of contemporary media – online and off – and its impact on issues, politics and the key factors influencing reportorial and editorial coverage of business, government and not-for-profit interests. Special emphasis is on the advent of the Internet, the rise of citizen journalism, and the impact of blogs and other social media. Adjunct Professor Don Bates.
PMgt 292 -- Advanced Practicum in Community Advocacy
Students are taught by trained practitioners in a semester-long application of community advocacy techniques to either build a plan that can then be implemented or to conduct a campaign and report on the results. In the Practicum students will be responsible for completing a Campaign Plan by following a prescribed outline. Adjunct Professor Sean Gagen.
For more information on this program, contact the Humane Society University at hsu@hsus.org or 301-548-7731.
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HSU/GSPM Graduate Certificate in Community Advocacy - Courses
