Change Leaders to Engage on Issues of Poverty, Climate Change, Gender Inequality, and Political Turmoil
As Coady International Institute marks 60 years of asset-based, citizen-led and community-driven development, work on an innovative slate of course offerings for 2020 is well underway. These courses renew Coady’s commitment to build resilient communities, strengthen inclusive economies, and promote accountable democracies through the mobilization of community change leaders on a local and global level.
The new flagship program for development leaders from around the world will be a ten-month course on Leadership for Citizen-Led Development. This course will bring together a diverse cohort of learners and leaders committed to fostering social, economic, and political change in an exciting new three-phase program beginning in April 2020 and completing in February 2021.
The redesign follows a yearlong educational program review that took into account feedback from staff, alumni, and partner organizations. Coady Director of Education Anthony Scoggins led the design team of six Coady program staff.
“The new flagship program will leverage the power and impact of the Coady classroom experience, by extending our engagement with and support for Coady participants beyond their relatively brief time on campus to their workplaces and home communities,” Scoggins says.
The design of the new program is all about finding new and innovative ways to maximize impact on the ground through shared learnings, peer support, coaching, and networking.
Over a ten-month period, Leadership for Citizen-Led Development will include a one-month pre-residential phase (April 2020); a three-month residential phase (May 9 – August 1, 2020), at Coady Institute, on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada; and a five-month post-residential phase (September 2020 – February 2021).
“We are harnessing the capacities of new technologies to connect our partner organizations and individual change leaders around the world as they grapple day-to-day with the major challenges of our time such as extreme poverty, climate change, gender inequality, and political turmoil,” Scoggins says. “The design of the new program is all about finding new and innovative ways to maximize impact on the ground through shared learnings, peer support, coaching, and networking.”
Building on the traditions of the Antigonish Movement’s commitment to adult education, the new Coady program will be a blend of classroom, community, and on-line engagement that builds on participants’ lived experience and knowledge. Coady takes a participant-focused, participatory approach to education that is learner-centered, asset-based, and holds the potential for both personal growth and societal transformation.
Coady’s Executive Director Gord Cunningham is excited about Leadership for Citizen-Led Development.
“The new flagship is a potential game changer for us, an opportunity to engage with participants after they return to their communities and organizations around the change initiatives they are driving,” Cunningham says.
“The program is designed for a world in which the old “North-South” divide no longer applies. Development is no longer something that is done ‘over there’. Communities around the world are grappling with similar issues and challenges of economic inequality, climate change, and political alienation. Coady views this new program as a vehicle to bring together change leaders from all corners of the world, including Nova Scotia and the Canadian North!”
Learn more at by visiting Leadership for Citizen-Led Development.