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The goal of the community
development program is three fold:
- improve decision
making in local communities
- empower communities
to guide their own decisions
- improve the social
and economic well being of citizens
Our focus on community
and economic decision making seeks to improve the capacity of citizens,
community leaders and policy makers to understand and respond to external
and internal forces for change. These include the problems and opportunities
that arise from social and demographic change and the dynamics of local
economies in a global context.
Our Extension programs
address municipal finance, economic development, and land use planning.
We conduct research
on a broad range of community issues, provide research-based extension
and outreach programming, and ensure that our graduates have a well-rounded
perspective on the causes and consequences of economic, social and demographic
change.
Our disciplinary perspectives
incorporate demography, from which our faculty and students assess the
role of population processes in social and economic change. Close involvement
with Penn State's Population Research Institute enhances our strength
in this area.
We offer graduate
education programs in Community and Economic Development in the form of
an innovative Master’s degree program and a World Campus Graduate
Certificate. Instruction in the CEDev programs emphasizes training entry
and mid-career practitioners in public, non-profit, or private organizations
for dealing with the variety of development issues in America’s towns,
boroughs, small cities, community organizations, neighborhoods, and rural
areas.
These programs also focus on individual and family well being, emphasizing
income and poverty; employment and underemployment; community attachment,
involvement and satisfaction; and physical health and mortality. Course
work provides students with the skills necessary to assess the implications
of social and economic change for the well being of families and individuals.
While many universities focus attention on larger urban and metropolitan
areas, this is an applied multidisciplinary program that draws on the
significant expertise in development of faculty in AERS.
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