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New Online Course: Enabling Community-Based Leadership in Design

Posted on 6 December 2021

Written by:

Sophia de Sousa

We are delighted to announce that we have now launched Enabling Community-Based Leadership in Design: Sustainable Development of Historic Faith Buildings, a free online course, co-created with our partners at The Open University through our Empowering Design Practices (EDP) research project.

This course has been developed for anyone interested in supporting and/or leading a community-led process for the sustainable development of historic places of worship. It is a course for communities and professionals alike, relevant to community members, faith leaders, architects, heritage and community development officers, funders and anyone supporting projects to reimagine and adapt historic faith buildings for the benefit of the communities they serve.

It offers a structured journey through the key knowledge and practical skills needed to enable community engagement and leadership in design, and introduces how the different practical resources developed by EDP over the years can be used in the process.

It is available for free online, and you can join anytime and study at your own pace.

By the end of this course, you will know how to enable community initiatives that adapt, re-imagine, and revitalise historic faith buildings. You can also obtain a Futurelearn training certificate and create a portfolio, although these are not requirements of accessing the course. 

The course is available on the Futurelearn platform and was produced by the EDP team in collaboration with UNESCO UniTwin Complex Systems Digital Campus. This is a live learning space for us as well, and we welcome your feedback on how we can continue to iterate and improve the course.

You can register for the course here.