Community Resilience Builder Program 2025-2026
Section outline
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Overview & Syllabus
Fall 2025, Certificate Program, 5 CEUs
Program description
The 10-month intergenerational Master Volunteer Program for Building Community Resilience guides participants in creating the conditions for resilience and regenerative well-being. Community Builders will learn to apply frameworks, strategies, and tools that build resilient and just communities in their respective fields of work, areas of interest, and environments.
This program is for everyone who wants to "do" something, is interested in personal growth, and is interested in supporting communities to navigate challenges related to public and mental health, climate change, community and economic vitality, equity, education, public safety, and public policy.
The program thrives on its diverse participants with backgrounds, interests, and experiences, which include educators, human services providers, mental health and health care providers, business leaders and professionals, law enforcement, community leaders, faith-based community leaders and members, community activists, policymakers, and community members at large.
Each month, sessions will focus on a specific topic shared by faculty members from different fields. Sessions will take place on the first Saturday of the month from 9:30 am to 4 pm, and there will be a Zoom session every second Tuesday from 7 to 8 pm. The total number of hours of instruction is 50 hours. Upon completion, participants will be awarded a certificate from Cornell University with five Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
Program dates
First Saturday and second Tuesday of each month: October 4 & 14, November 1 & 11, December 6 & 9, January 3 & 13, February 7 &10, March 7 & 10, April 4 & 14, May 2 & 12, June 6 & 9, July 7 (Zoom) & 11
Final session and graduation are on July 11.
Saturdays 9:30 am – 4 pm in person, Tuesdays 7 – 8 pm via Zoom.
Program Learning Outcomes
1. Provide well-grounded insights into frameworks that support community resilience and well-being.
2. Apply approaches that create a sense of belonging.
3. Identify and practice ways of knowing beyond their current experiences.
4. Adopt practices that support regenerative well-being for themselves and their communities.
5. Present to an audience, in a variety of venues, the principles of community resilience and well-being.
SESSION
SUBJECT
OBJECTIVE
Session 1:
Oct 4, 2025
Framework for resilient communities and belonging
Faculty: Dr. Julika von Stackelberg
- Participants will learn to connect their learning process to the frameworks applied to build resilient and regenerative communities and belonging.
- Participants will understand their role as volunteers following the program.
- Participants will gain insight into the process of developing their program projects.
Oct 14
Project discussion
- Participants will have the opportunity to share and discuss ideas for their projects and clarify open questions.
- Participants will begin to outline their project plans.
Session 2:
Nov 1, 2025
Science of Resilience and Wellbeing
Faculty: Anastasia Shown
- Participants will understand the mechanisms that promote resilience in individuals.
- Participants will gain insight into the factors that foster well-being in individuals.
- Participants will be able to connect the science of resilience with the concepts that make up healthy and regenerative communities.
Nov 11
Follow-up from sessions 1 & 2;
Project discussion
- Spark ideas and connect personal motivation with community needs.
Session 3:
Dec 6, 2025
Leadership
Faculty: Dr. Ebony Green
- Participants will get to know leadership styles that support community building.
- Participants will be able to integrate leadership practices that support regenerative well-being.
- Participants will identify and assess the strengths that they can build on.
Dec 9, 2025
Guest Lecturer: Nichol Chase, Garrison Institute (1.5-hr Session)
In this experiential session, participants will learn to live and lead from the “resilient zone”—a dynamic state of balance that supports clarity and calm amid stress. Participants will engage in trauma-informed somatic and mindfulness practices that build emotional regulation and self-awareness. Through reflection and dialogue, participants will explore the interconnection between personal and community well-being and co-create sustainable practices for healing, resilience, and collective care.
Session 4:
Jan 3, 2026
Critical reflection on historical and social backgrounds
Faculty: Inaudy Gil
- Participants will connect the impact and influence of past events on the present structures and social dynamics.
- Participants will understand the impact of past events on the internal systems that contribute to the health and well-being of individuals.
January 13
Project Huddle
- Map Needs & Assets
- Ground project ideas in real context
Session 5:
Feb 7, 2026
Protective factors and regenerative environments
Faculty: Caitlin O’Brien & Erik Schellenberg
- Participants will be able to articulate five protective factors for individuals.
- Participants will learn to see the interdependence between individual well-being and regenerative environments.
Feb 10
Project Huddle
- Align personal interests with community opportunities
Session 6:
March 7, 2026
Just Transition
Faculty: Good Work Institute
- Participants will become familiar with the five Just Transition principles: advancing ecological repair, democratizing communities, wealth, and work, driving racial justice and social equity, retaining and restoring cultural diversity, and re-localizing economic power.
March 10
Project Huddle
- Design for impact
- Develop a clear, feasible, and measurable project plan.
Session 7:
April 4, 2026
Social imaginaries, letting go, and healing
Faculty: Dr. Scott Peters
- Participants will become familiar with the concept of social imaginaries and their role in community building.
- Participants will learn to break down ideas and identify possible causes of harm.
- Participants will experience the effect of love-based interactions.
April 14
Project check-in
· Build confidence and accountability
Session 8:
May 2, 2026
Circular Economies & Living in the resilient zone, self-care, self-repair, and community-care
Faculty: Casey Plasker
- Participants will learn about the concept and examples of circular economies.
- Participants will become familiar with the concepts of somatic practices.
- Participants will develop a plan that supports their well-being and effectiveness as volunteers and leaders.
- Participants will learn steps that support self-repair when harm occurs.
- Participants will understand the connection between individual and collective well-being.
May 12
Guest lecturer
Session 9:
June 6, 2026
Community/World Café training and toolbox-ing
Faculty: Beverly Braxton
- Participants will learn to plan, organize, and facilitate a community/world café.
- Participants will learn tools to facilitate constructive dialogues.
- Participants will gain insight into conflict resolution and mediation processes.
June 9
Project Huddle & Presentation Planning
· Ensuring projects have momentum beyond the training.
July 7
Guest lecturer
Session 10:
July 11, 2026
Project presentations and celebration
- Participants are able to summarize their learnings and describe how they plan to apply them in a specific environment.
- Participants will present their learning process and projects to their cohort and the community.
- Participants will gain insights into the varied learning processes of their peers, fostering their humility.
Changes in faculty are possible, and the Zoom sessions are open to co-design to meet the participants' interests and needs.
Readings, Resources, and Materials:
All resources and materials will be stored on an online learning platform called Moodle. Upon program start, participants will have access to the Moddle, which also provides a space for holding group chats with the cohort.
Project Requirement:
The program is designed to stimulate transformative learning processes in its participants. Outcomes are emergent and individual. Participants are asked to document part of their experience with this process through creative practices such as journaling, writing, drawing, picture taking, movement, etc. The documentation of the participants' experiences will be discussed throughout the program, and the program will culminate in a public presentation that will showcase the internal processes of the master volunteers.
Volunteer Requirements:
The Community Resilience Builder Program follows the concept of other Master Volunteer programs, like the Master Gardener or Food Preserver programs, designed to build community capacity through volunteer services. To build capacity and resilience in Orange County, all participants must volunteer for at least 30 hours within one year upon completing the program. Volunteer opportunities include growing this program, supporting professional development, providing community workshops, engaging with a community investment project, and more. Upon completion, Master Volunteers and Cornell Cooperative Extension will determine together what engagement best matches the Volunteer’s interest and community needs.
Commitment:
This program is generously funded by Orange & Rockland Utilities to address climate justice and build community resilience in Western Orange County. As such, the participant’s effort and time are appreciated and supported with a stipend of $1,000, which will be divided into monthly payments for each session attended.
Program Faculty:
Beverly Braxton is a former classroom teacher who over the course of her 30-year teaching career integrated mediation and conflict resolution in her work with students, parents, and colleagues. She has received numerous teaching awards and honors, including awards for Exemplary Community Service and Accomplishment. Since her retirement in 2010, Beverly has become a community advocate. In 2014, she founded Family Central NY an all-volunteer, non-profit, grassroots parenting support network that provides parenting information, resources, and workshops. In 2021, Beverly launched the organization, We the People Warwick to address the growing tensions in her town by identifying ways to bridge divides, build connections, and unite the community.
Nichol Chase, Nichol Chase is an educator, program leader, and thought leader at the intersection of contemplative wisdom, resilience science, and trauma-informed care. With over 15 years of experience, she has developed and led faculty training, research-backed programs, and large-scale initiatives that equip professionals in high-stress environments with practical, evidence-based tools for well-being.
With a background as an opera singer and ballerina, Nichol brings a multidimensional and artistic approach to healing and resilience. As the Founder and Director of Educational Programming at the Wisdom Building Method School, Nichol has designed a trauma-informed 300-hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training, integrating somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, and interpersonal neurobiology into resilience-based movement, music, and mindfulness practices. She has worked extensively with Garrison Institute’s Contemplative-Based Resilience (CBR) Program, UCSF’s Climate Resilience Course, and institutions such as Esalen and Kripalu.
Inaudy Gil, MS, is the Executive Director of the Orange County NY Human Rights Commission and founder of IIJ Consulting, a firm that works with local and international companies in achieving their goals to develop their leadership under a DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) lens and ultimately be more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive of the communities they serve. Inaudy works across industries and sectors no matter where they are in their DEI journey.
Born in the Dominican Republic, she immigrated to the United States as a child and has lived in the Hudson Valley since 2003. She has worked tirelessly for over 20 years to eliminate oppression, racism, sexism, homophobia, and gender inequality in her community. Her expertise includes working in the areas of social justice, diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion, and gender violence issues, namely intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Inaudy has also been an English as a Second Language Instructor at SUNY Orange for over 12 years.
Inaudy has been in her role as the Executive Director of the Orange County NY Human Rights Commission for over 6 years and holds a Master’s in Science from SUNY Hunter College and an Executive Certification for Diversity and Inclusion from eCornell. Her clients have included multinational corporations, small companies, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, community groups, and government agencies.
Dr. Ebony Green is a child of humble beginnings. She lost her father at the age of 7 and struggled to make sense of the loss. Growing up in rural northwest New York, she knew she was different. She spent her childhood struggling to fit in and dreamed about changing the world by creating a space where everyone could fit regardless of difference. She has since devoted herself to creating containers of learning, peace, joy, and happiness for children and adults.
Dr. Green, CEO of Hello Kind Soul is a teacher, principal, district leader, and nationally recognized champion for inclusion. She draws on over 25 years of experience in leading schools, organizations, and people into deep introspection and building confidence to change. She has an intuitive ability to create conditions of safety for vulnerability, deep reflection, and dreaming big for students, staff, and institutions. Through her keynote speeches, consulting services and the Hello Kind Soul podcast, she helps audiences understand complex ideas and simplify in a way such that everyone, irrespective of difference, can find a space to connect, learn, grow, and build.
Susan Grove, (she/her) is a white, working/middle class, cisgendered parent who strives to express callings and longings to facilitate learning, support collaboration, organize information, engage conflict, connect across difference, create lasting conditions for greater equity, and contribute toward justice in her communities based in Poughkeepsie, NY (Wappinger-Munsee-Lenape land) and the wider Mahicantuck Valley. Suan also joins on behalf of the Good Work Institute.
Micah (he/him) is of mixed race (black and white) and mixed religion, and grew up in two different socio-economic homes. He is a cisgendered, working/middle class parent of two living on Munsee/Lenape land in the Mahicantuck Valley, commonly referred today as Kingston, NY, working to prove possibility and to liberate the imagination in order to see a Just Transition. Micah also joins on behalf of the Good Work Institute.
Caitlin O’Brien is the RAPP Program Manager, working for Cornell Cooperative Extension Orange County. She deeply enjoys her work with Kinship Families, and how it unites her passions for advocacy, education, resilience, and youth development. She lives in Orange County, New York with her husband and two young sons. Her hope for this blog is to create a space for the community to find resources in an open and affirming space, and she dreams of a future with more love and connection in the community around her.
Dr. Scott Peters, is a professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. He is also currently serving a term as the School of Agriculture Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota. From 2012-2017, he served as Faculty Co-Director of a national consortium devoted to supporting engaged learning and research in arts, humanities, and design fields: Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. He currently serves as co-editor of a Cornell University Press book series, “Publicly Engaged Scholars: Identities, Purposes, and Practices.” As a historical sociologist positioned in the newly emerging field of civic studies, he uses narrative inquiry and analysis tools to study the public purposes and work of academic professionals and institutions.
Casey Plasker is the Founder and Chief Impact Officer at Circularly PBC—a women- and queer-owned, Certified B Corp™ on a mission to build the infrastructure required for a just and circular economy.
For over a decade, Casey has worked at the forefront of circularity—helping businesses, communities, and regions move beyond linear models and toward circular, community-centered, and radically equitable systems. She has led or advised more than 50 organizations in embedding circularity and sustainability, including over 10 successful B Corp Certifications, and dozens of circular economy initiatives across the food, housing, textiles, and energy sectors—always with the goal of keeping materials in use and building community resilience.
Casey also serves as the North American Associate for Circle Economy Foundation, a global circular economy think tank, and contributes to networks including the US Circular Cities Initiative, NYSAR3, CR0WD, and Build Reuse. She founded and co-leads the B Corp Circularity Network Group, connecting over 50 B Corps advancing circular practices worldwide and counting.
Casey holds a Master’s in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and is a TRUE Advisor. Based in New York’s Hudson Valley with her partner and dog, she is committed to building a future where waste no longer exists, communities are resilient, decentralized, and rooted in care.
Erik Schellenberg is the natural resources educator at CCE Orange. He is passionate about the living world and wants to support any and all work that aims to restore health to the land and all the beings and cultures that inhabit it. This includes delivering programming related to water health, soil management, forest health, and sustainable agricultural systems. In both graduate studies and personal life Erik has worked with and lived in indigenous communities and has seen first-hand the power of treating the land with the same respect and care we would give to our closest relations.
Aja Schmeltz (she/her/ella), is an Afro-Latina raising 3 daughters with her partner of 20+ years, growing food and medicine, creating art, loving hard and strengthening connections in her beloved communities. The Just Transition is central to her work, both personally and professionally, because she strongly believes that a successful community is made up of individuals working collaboratively on all fronts to create avenues to build a healthier, thriving, more sustainable environment. In addition to her role as a Worker Trustee at Good Work Institute, Aja sits on the boards of Wild Earth, Land to Learn and the People's Wellness Initiative, is a member of the Hudson Valley Food Systems Coalition and is a thought-partner for many initiatives and organizations throughout the region.
Anastasia Shown is the Program Manager for the Institute of Writing and Thinking at Bard College. Prior to joining Bard, Shown worked as an educator in Africa, Latin America and North America, working in higher education and with K-12 schools. In 2023 she became a National Geographic Explorer for her education work in Costa Rica. She has worked as a social worker, university lecturer, program administrator, curriculum writer, social studies teacher, and DEI consultant. Shown fulfilled her B.A. at Indiana University and the University of Ghana, majoring in Women Studies. She earned her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice.
Dr. Julika von Stackelberg is a community builder who works with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), where she facilitates professional development workshops and training that build capacity to support community resilience. Julika developed and now coordinates the Community Resilience Builder Program, which expertly trains volunteers to apply frameworks that promote regenerative well-being. Through her research, Julika engages communities to collectively develop healing-informed frameworks that lead to social and ecological well-being in the context of climate change and emerging technologies like AI. Julika holds a bachelor's in African Studies and Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and a master’s in Social Justice and Community Organizing from Prescott College, as well as a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education from Prescott College.
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