This course will provide participants with an overview of black land loss, planning, zoning, gentrification and historic preservation. It will cover some of the basic information about the Board of Zoning Appeals, Planning Commission, and permitting. The lessons will also provide an understanding of leadership by defining both positive and negative leadership traits. It will define a group’s stages of development and how to attract, lead and develop followers while building consensus in a group setting. The participants will begin to recognize the relationship between an individual’s leadership skills and attributes and their effect on how a person is perceived by others as a leader. It will provide participants with an understanding of how to assess and improve their community engagement capacity while identifying the key challenges they might face in their community work and how to overcome these obstacles.