A Professional Development Training and Certification

The Worcester College Corps higher education institutions are proud of undergraduate and graduate students’ service and volunteerism engagement. To aid in making those experiences more authentic and provide individuals with better awareness of their ability to impact their community, we developed professional development training. It is an online, multi-module asynchronous training to provide student volunteers with information and resources to build a historical and cultural understanding of Worcester and improve inclusivity and support antiracism and social and health equity in our community.

The Worcester College Corps hopes to bring about real change on our campuses, worksites, schools, and in our community through this training. We realize that engaging in this challenging activity can bring discomfort and tension. By taking on this racial and social justice work and practice and having these difficult conversations, you are helping build a community that creates equity for all groups. As we launch the pilot version of the training, please complete this form to provide essential feedback.

Students who complete the 3 training modules will receive a certificate, awarded by the United Way of Central Massachusetts (the organization that houses the College Corps).

Learning Outcomes From The Training Include

• • Knowledge and skills to engage more authentically with community members
• • Awareness of the Worcester community and its rich history and diversity
• • To value and enact reciprocity between the community and campuses
• • Identify one’s civic agency
• • Awareness of your mindset and skillset to be able to impact their community
• • Develop an active citizen mindset
• • Understand the importance of an anti-racist stance in community engagement
• • Cultivate a praxis of cultural reflection
• • Nurture humility in the work we do

Participants can expect to commit to 2-3 hours to complete the training in its entirety. Each of the 3 modules provides additional readings and resources and reflective questions to amplify the content.

The Readiness for Community Engagement is available via Google Classroom. You will need a Gmail account to access the training (i.e., username@gmail.com).

If you attempt to log in to the classroom via the module links below and are prompted for a classroom code, please enter: hycygxl

If problematic, use the following invite link to access the training: https://classroom.google.com/c/NjE0MDI4OTM1MzM4?hl=en&cjc=psuuesb