Introduction

As we all are pretty much concerned with the old saying that goes “Give a man fish; he has food for the
day. Teach him how to catch fish; he has food for the rest of his life”. If we feed people and fulfill their
basic needs, we are indeed making them dependent on us. They will be able to satisfy their own needs if
we teach them how to function. The idea of community development is the same. It facilitates the life of
the people in community. In general, community development is a social learning mechanism that seeks
to inspire individuals and engage them as people rightfully for socio - economic development. The
primary goal of community building is to change the status quo through progress. Participation,
empowerment, and education are needed for community growth. People's lives are changed via
community growth, which encourages self-sufficiency and self-reliance through education. As a general
social mechanism, community development empowers people and engages them as members of the
community in a concerted effort to achieve economic growth and development. Community
development is critical because it lays the groundwork for a city's efforts to better the lives of its
residents. It builds solid, diverse communities capable of attracting and retaining talent, launching and
growing companies, and overcoming challenges. People would be happier, healthier, and wealthier, and
they will live a lot longer (Michael Straza, 2020).

Young people in community development

Let’s talk about how a young people can contribute and what they can bring in the table as far as
community development is concerned. If we look at the stat, in 2014, nearly a third of Australian adults
(5.8 million people) engaged in volunteer work in the community (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS],
2015a). In 2018, Australia was officially listed out with sixth rank out of 146 countries in the world in
terms of volunteerism(Dooris & Heritage , 2013). There are lots of perks of getting involved oneself in
community development activities for a young person. Aside from the tangible benefit to the group,
participation in these initiatives is likely to gain their progress, personal development, self-confidence,
and health by offering young people with valuable experiences in life and a sense of worth. Youth
participation in public planning, decision-making, and engagement has gained little attention in the past,
but youth involvement in community growth is growing. Nonprofit agencies, volunteer services, and
nonprofit groups will all benefit from youth involvement. Youth can be better planning and evaluation
resource and since they are in a position to become long-term contributors, they will assist long-term
community efforts. When community groups work with youth, not only do they prosper, but the youth
themselves gain as well. Youth involvement in the community allows them to develop into
compassionate people who can go on to do similar work as adults. Youth who volunteer in their
societies often gain leadership skills, demonstrate the importance of helping others, and acquire
relevant work experience. Therefore, youth participation in community development has to be always
encouraged. Youth should always be given an opportunity to contribute and offer their input because
they bring newer approach and mindset in the work they put which is always like a breath of a fresh air.
At government levels, they should always look forward to connect and include youth in the evaluation of
current and future policies to link them to policy efforts. What youth involvement in community work
does is it enables young people to address serious issues and become active members of their
communities. From a governmental viewpoint, it is also a healthy exercise to regularly evaluate youth
engagement programs to recognize and build on strengths, identify and correct shortcomings, and aid in
the development of more active youth participation. They are an important part of community growth
and this thing should be seriously acknowledged. Community organizations may help youth develop
useful skills and train them to become civically active adults through youth collaboration(R. V. Barnett
and M. Kumaran, 2012). The development of community is a unique cycle including all fragments of the
locality, including the regularly forgotten youthful individuals. The critical segment to this cycle is found
in the creation and upkeep of channels of cooperation and correspondence among different local
gatherings that in any case are coordinated toward their more restricted interests. Through these
connections, people cooperate with each other, and start to commonly comprehend basic requirements
and set out consciousness of open doors for association. Where these connections can be set up and
kept up in order to emerge and therefore evolve the community.

Youth leadership for community program and policy planning holds a crucial importance because
community development enables youth leadership to emerge and evolve and that is something
everyone wants to see. Youths should be interested in the creation of community policies and services.
As they transition to adulthood and the expectations that come with it, their degree of cognitive, moral,
and social growth allows them to rise to more complex challenges(Berk, 2005). Identifying youth issues,
designing youth programs, guiding youth program implementation, and serving youth in their
community are all essential positions that youth leaders should play. Organizational and cultural
improvements that represent the interests of youth will encourage youth to participate more actively in
future decision-making as more constructive engagement occurs. Youth, adults, colleges, organizations,
and communities can all profit from increased involvement in youth as they become more active in
community leadership roles(Larson, 2006).
Critical analysis

If we have to be really critical about community development approach, we see lots of tensions, debates
and wider theoretical issues in contemporary society. There has been a problem in a grassroots level as
we can now observe a pattern that many with formal educational qualifications are referred to and paid
employment is given to those with formal educational qualifications rather than grass-roots members.
Many global community development projects are rapidly forming a "financial arm" of credentialed and
well-paid business professionals whose job is to raise funds but instead to carry out community
development work. We can really see that contemporary issues are not dealt with grass root approach
but it has all come down and stooped to being a monetary exercise and that is really unfortunate. While
we all understand and say, if social entrepreneurship and capacity–building are to thrive, community
development must adopt new discourses. However, there is a lot of debate in the field about how to
react to these new discourses(Sue Kenny , 2002). Health, education, crime reduction, jobs and training,
business growth, family cohesion, and housing are all areas that community development planning
needs to strengthen. To its core, "Nonprofit community-based organizations whose distinguishing
characteristic is their emphasis on cultivating physical and economic assets in their neighborhoods" are
what Community Development Corporations are but we are observing so many instances where
organizations are not being true to their core because of so many different reasons. Monetary exercises
in the name of community development have chipped in such a way that we can’t even expect
transparency in so many occasions. The failure to monitor assignment to experimental and control
groups or populations using a combination of poor effects and crude calculation, as well as the lack of a
clearly defined causal model of the community development process, have all been major issues in
contemporary community development. However, all said and done we cannot just deny the fact that
community development is a major factor to implement change. We find always pros and cons to every
kind of thing but except for the few lack of transparency, community development has always carried a
positive note with it. It helps in evolving societies and especially with the involvement of youth; it gives
birth to next leaders who runs societies and countries later on. We know for a fact that leaders are not
home made. They are nurtured and they are made and community programs are the way to go for
anyone to evolve themselves for the betterment of their own personality as well as for the societies they
lives in. Community development is highly problem solving approach that everyone can participate. If
you're working on a youth suicide reduction campaign, for example, it's important to include as many
young people as possible. People who have been personally influenced by youth suicide, such as friends
or family members of those who have attempted suicide or young people who have survived suicide
attempts, should also be included(Dunn , 1997). These kinds of action and activities are something that
brings actual change. Nothing can bring a change in societies if it’s not for actionable community
development activities.

Conclusion

In nutshell, here I tried to sketch how crucial is community development for the overall change in the
societies. What sort of role and responsibilities youth carry in such developments is what has been
written here in a detailed way. Throughout an essay I have tried to draw how community development
has always been a way forward to implement a change but also critically analyze some of the
wrongdoings that tend to happen in the name of community development. However, community
development is probably an only actionable way from where leaders emerge who later on go on to run
societies and countries.

References

Berk. (2005, 3 7). Integrating Youth into community Development implications for policy planning and
program. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228881883

Dooris & Heritage. (2013, 3 2). What about community development progress in Australia? Available
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Dunn. (1997, 10 3). Encouraging and involvement of youth in community activities. Available from:
https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/involve-those-
affected/main

Larson. (2006, 6 8). Integrating youth into community development and for policy planning. Available
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Michael Straza. (2020, 12 17). Importance of community development and how to contribute in the city.
Available from: https://www.consultstraza.com/community-development-what-it-is-its-importance-
and-how-to-contribute-in-your-city/

R. V. Barnett and M. Kumaran. (2012, 3 4). Youth and community development. Available from:
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ent.shtml

Sue Kenny. (2002, 10 4). Tensions and dilemmas in community development. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31132922_Tensions_and_dilemmas_in_community_develop
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