Thousands of individuals manage America’s 19,000 cities, towns, and villages — both career staff members and elected officials — who dedicate their lives and careers to bettering the places we all call home. Where can they turn for help? Where can they improve themselves as civil servants and stewards of their community? The answer is National League of Cities University (NLCU).
With a curriculum covering everything from economic development and housing to nuanced explorations of community health and cyber security, NLCU offers courses in diverse lengths and learning environments, meeting city staff and elected officers where they are in a timeline and format that works for them.
Explore this trimester’s courses and enroll today.
Data Literacy for Electeds
Jan. 30 – Mar. 7, Self-Guided
Electeds have many responsibilities as they serve their constituents, including making policy decisions. It is imperative that these decisions are made with the best possible understanding of the landscape they serve and the data available to describe this landscape, and the potential impact of their decisions. However, most elected leaders are not elected because of their data “savvy” — it is not a requirement for the job. Additionally, calls for improvements to data infrastructure to improve data literacy, capacity and quality toward improving equity in our cities, towns and villages are strong.
Supporting Small-Scale Development
Jan. 30 – Mar. 10, Live Instruction
Learn what city and agency leaders can do to lower barriers to small-scale development, such as ADUs, duplexes, townhouses and fourplexes. Sessions are led by facilitators with real-world experience in both local government and the development of small-scale infill projects. Sessions take place over six weeks and include virtual peer learning sessions, group office hours and closed-door coaching for you and your team.
Wastewater Capacity Building
Jan. 30 – Apr. 4, Self-Guided
Since the pandemic, wastewater monitoring has emerged as a proven public health tool that can be used to track pathogens, infectious diseases, viruses opioids, and more. This course will equip city leaders with the knowledge and tools to build, implement and sustain effective wastewater monitoring systems that can transform decision-making and address immediate health risks, including the impacts of drug use in communities and the growing threat of bird flu to lives and livelihoods in agricultural communities.
Cybersecurity & Infrastructure: An Upskilling Program for City IT Workers
Feb. 13 – Apr. 4, Self-Guided with Live Instruction
The Cybersecurity Program will educate city leadership and staff regarding federal cybersecurity funding policies and programs, and provide opportunities for course registrants to acquire the highest priority and value cybersecurity training and select solutions to secure their organizations against cyber threats. The program will be inherently different from other market approaches because of the holistic focus on educating leadership/management while upskilling existing staff by employing a decentralized collaborative model/platform to facilitate extremely low-cost force multiplication of existing staff capabilities.
Governing Cities for Health Equity and Wellbeing 101
Feb. 13 – Mar. 6, Self-Guided
This course will teach city leaders and staff through how the work they do for residents impacts the overall health, equity and wellbeing of their community. This course covers concepts such as the social determinants of health, racial equity and wellbeing as part of a greater framework for improving health equity through municipal work. Course participants can begin to connect these critical concepts to their work through seven core Capacities for Action developed through NLC’s Cities of Opportunity initiative.
Retail as a Catalyst for Economic Development
Feb. 13 – Apr. 4. Self-Guided with Live Instruction
Join this course accompanied by four office hour sessions, to start or continue your city’s retail and economic development journey. This course will focus on how to attract and retain valuable businesses while honoring the vision and goals of each individual community. The course was developed by the national leading retail recruitment firm, Retail Strategies, to demonstrate to local officials why retail should be part of a community’s economic development strategy.
