Community Engagement 12

FINALS

Topic: Community Development as a Process for Community-Action

Community Development (CD) is defined as a process wherein community members come together to
take collective action and generate solutions to common problems and pursue community well-being
(economic, social, environmental, and cultural). Ford (1987) outlined and described significant
features of CD.

Features
Builds community capacity
Builds community
Linked with community
work and planning
Empowers individuals and
groups
Strengthens the community
Strengthens civil society
Builds active citizenship
Inculcates the principles of
community action
Supports establishment of
strong communities
Characteristics
Community Development (CD) facilitates building the community’s capacity
to address issues, find common ground, and balance competing interests. It
is a process which requires both a conscious and conscientious effort to do
something.
Community Development (CD) is about community building where the
process is as important as the results. The challenge lies on the balancing of
long-term solutions and short term actions.
Community Development (CD) involves networking and linking
nongovernmental organizations, universities, and government institutions
to advance the local community well-being.
Community Development (CD) processes, through community building and
community organizing, empower individuals and groups by providing
them with skills they need to effect change.
Community Development (CD) emphasizes self-help, mutual support,
capacity development, neighborhood integration, and promotion of
collective action.
Community Development (CD) strengthens civil society through prioritization
of community actions and aligns their perspectives in the development of
social, economic, and environmental policies.
Community Development (CD) strengthens the capacity of people as active
citizens through their community groups, organizations, and networks;
establishes a dialogue with the citizens to shape and determine change in
their communities.
Community Development (CD) has set of core values and social principles
that include human rights, social inclusion, equality and respect for
diversity, and specific skills and knowledge base.
Community Development (CD) helps the people to recognize and develop
their abilities and organize themselves to respond to common problems. It
supports the establishment of a strong community that controls and uses
assets to promote social justice and improve the quality of community life.

The features of Community Development (CD) signify life-affirming and liberating processes. Community
Development (CD) embraces values and principles that preserve human dignity, empowers the voiceless,
capacitates the weak, and provides opportunities for the least, the lost, and the last.

The table below presents three significant forms of action in Community Development (CD) which were
identified by Gilchrist and Taylor (2011).

Forms of Action Description

Collective action
Informal education
Organization development
It is the process of finding the power of combined voices and determination,
mobilizing people, acting for their mutual benefit, or championing the
interest of those who cannot stand up for themselves.
It is learning that takes place predominantly through direct involvement in
community activities.
Help organizations by enabling the members to achieve their goals. The
organization also has to be accountable it its members and the wider
community.
Community Engagement 12

FINALS – Lesson 1: THE SOCIAL SITUATION

THE Philippines is rich in natural resources and in cultural heritage. However, because of problems with
historical and structural roots, the country addresses from economic, political, social, and ecological issues.

Brief overview of the social situation

ECONOMIC ISSUES
There is relatively high poverty incidence in the country. Although the economy has started to pick up, it
fluctuates because of environmental problems, political uncertainties, and crime rates. The fluctuations affect
income improvements, retrain economic development, and negatively affect the development of the people,
especially the poor.

ECOLOGICAL ISSUES
The natural resources of the country have been imperiled by unrelenting exploitation. Land degradation
remains a problem of poor families who depend on land. Man-made activities such as logging and slash-and-
burn that cause deforestation persist. The quality of water continues to deteriorate, and the increase in
population results in an increase in human encroachment of the country’s natural resources.

POLITICAL ISSUES
Despite the restoration of democratic political institutions and the development of participatory and
community-oriented development strategies, the country is still far from having a stable, strong, and
functioning democracy. Corruption, nepotism, patron-client relations, cronyism, and political conflict persist.

SOCIAL ISSUES
The social sector still faces massive challenges in terms of access to basic social services despite the gains in
health, education, and nutritional statutes. The greater challenge is how to provide people’s access to basic
education and health services. Also, the housing issue persists. The state and magnitude of poverty affect the
marginalized, the disadvantaged, and the vulnerable sectors of the society.

Through a scientific moment of historical awareness, the past can be carefully analyzed. As indicated by
Holland and Henriot (1984), the Scientific Moment of Historical Awareness describes social change according
to various stages.

1. The first stage of racism is called paternalism. The main racial conflict occurred between the white planters
and the black slave population.

2. The second stage of racism is discrimination. With emancipation, black citizens in the US faced a new form
of racism. They were thrown in the industrial economy where the black labor competed with white labor, and
both were at the mercy of the white entrepreneurial class.

3. The third stage is marginalization. With a shrinking industrial economy, structural unemployment is
heavily concentrated among nonwhite. An urban permanent underclass is developing—a class of people who
are isolated from the economic mainstream and ignored.

Social analysis looks into the structures of our society, including government, law, education, labor, church
and family. These structures have to be analyzed and understood in order to address the roots of our society’s
problems.

Community Engagement 12
FINALS

Topic: Core Values and Principles

Develop Guiding Principles for a Community Youth Organization

To assess your understanding of the core values and principles of community engagement, formulate a set of
guiding principles for a community youth organization. The principles will serve as the foundation or
framework of the organization. They will guide what the organization does.
The following are the recommended parts of the Community Youth Guiding Principles:

1. Organizational Core Values—These are the standards of organizational behavior. These guide how things
are done in the organization, how people in the organization behave, and what practices are observed. These
become the bases of the members’ identity.

2. Organizational Mission – This is the organization’s reason for existence. The mission statement is a means
to share the goal of an organization. It communicates what is important to and the direction of the
organization. Also, it projects its organizational competencies.

3. Organizational Vision – This is the organization’s picture of the future. This is a set of ideals and principles
that the organization holds on to. The vision serves as the inspiration and drive among its members.

4. Organizational Image – This is the unique element or niche of the organization.

5. Guiding principles – These are the organization’s beliefs and philosophy concerning what the organization
does, why it does it, and how it does it.

--You can now proceed to FINALS - Final Task No. 3--