A free online, self-paced and interactive course designed to help people increase their odds of building a successful community improvement effort is available from the University of Wyoming Extension.

Social Action in Rural Communities is at http://bit.ly/UWESocialAction.

This course examines why some community improvement efforts succeed and why some fail and looks at social interactions and group processes related to community projects.

“Successful community improvement ventures follow similar paths of organizing, public relations, engagement and planning,” said Duane Williams, extension community development specialist. “Skipping a key step can generate obstacles, delays and weak community support.”