The UMOJA: Coming Together To Build Community UWC Short Course allows participants to explore and foster an understanding of the multiple, complex dynamics within a community. UMOJA 2026 will provide an open and challenging learning environment for a diverse group of youth, drawing on experiential teaching methods and engagements with community as well as nature, to empower them become change makers that can play a role in building strong and sustainable communities while accompanying them in identifying their own projects.

Definition of Community: “A social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity”. This definition does not confine the idea of community and allows for exploring many different sides of it.

Umoja 2026 Overall Program Goal is: “To provide an open and challenging learning environment for a diverse group of youth, drawing on experiential teaching methods and engagements with community as well as nature, that empowers participants and endows them with unique skills to become change makers”