What is a Capacity-Building Institute?

Capacity-Building Institutes (CBI) bring people together to collaboratively identify solutions to specific problems. Participants may come from across disciplines, departments, and/or institutions. A CBI builds the capacity of each member of the group and their respective organizations to solve identified problem(s) and to explore ways that other individual or organizational stakeholders can contribute to solution(s).

The strength of a CBI is in the way people who may not typically work together converge to expand collective knowledge and develop strategies to address a common goal. Examples of goals that CBI participants can address are:

  • improving the overall accessibility of a postsecondary institution to people with disabilities
  • applying universal design of instruction campus-wide
  • assuring that information technology is accessible to all faculty, staff, and students