This essay is an attempt to elaborate on the three approaches of community work.

According to
Gray (2009) there are three models of community work which are community development,
social planning and social action. Community workers work with groups, families and also
individuals. This essay aims to examine these models giving strength and weakness that these
models possess. Each of these approaches requires that the social worker plays different
professional roles which require professional skill and knowledge.

Community development today is aimed at improving material conditions and attitudes of people
towards each other, as relating to social work, it continued to be directed at purposive change in
community through encouraging them to participate democratically in development. Hardley,
(1987) defines community development as a professional function carried out by people aiming
to deliver community development service. Batten (1970) added that community development is
an educational process aiming at personal growth towards self-direction and responsibility. Its
objectives of the intervention focus on coping with emotions and noting behavioral patterns and
the mode of intervention centers around co-operation. It assumes that people have the right to
participate in decisions, to strive to create the environment they desire, to make informed
decisions and reject or modify externally imposed conditions. This participatory democracy is
the best method of conducting community business. Maximizing human interaction in a
community will increase the potential for positive development. Creating a community dialogue
and interaction among citizens will motivate citizens to work on behalf of their community.

Community development can inspire people to act on their problems, the worker to learn and
take decisions that assist communities they are serving and those whom they intend to serve in
future hence it becomes a learning platform for the community worker. It is the goal of social
work to make change in the community and develop the communities. This believed to be
achieved through developing human beings because they are that makes up the community.
Providing them with a learning platform and inspire ring them to take action and change their
lives is one such way that is from community development. Community development also
recognise many agencies that contribute to community learning and development and link them
to work together with people for community development there by increasing the ability of
individuals and groups to influence community circumstances. This is the strength that
community development has upon community work practice.

However, community development may not be suitable for immediate challenges faced because
it is a process and even an outcome. The role of external factors may be larger in community
development than with other strategies of community work. It uses consistency models which
can result in harm to the community. In that case it might be best to opt for other strategies that
may suit batter with community goals like social planning

Social planning usually takes the top down approach. It emphasizes on solving specific social
problems such as lack of adequate housing or very high crime rate. It is often initiated by
community officials or planners or as the result of state programs. Social worker in community
plans serves in the roles that include acting on own or others’ behalf to change a public policy,
criticisms and recommendations regarding government programmes and their absence,
Informing and educating the public on issues affecting community wellbeing and conducting
applied research that generates information to help the community document its needs and
strength(Butcher 2009). These roles are for the benefit of the community and for its development
through social planning. In community social planning, there is participation of the community
members which carries with it feelings of ownership and builds a strong base of intervention in
the community.it ensures that the intervention will have more credibility in all segments of the
community. In this case, social planning might be the best as compared to other methods.

In such examination of social planning, it is justice to suggest that it has its weakness that
amount to the use of other method like social action. The planning process may ignore the
community views on a certain problems as they assume that there are some matters that cannot
be understood by everyone. Social action approaches assume the existence of an aggrieved or
disadvantaged segment of the population that needs to be organized to make demands on the
larger community for increased resources or equal treatment (Zastrow 2013). Gumbo(2004)
distinguishes between power-based and transformative social action models. Power-based
organizers believe there is a power imbalance and they must work to shift or build power.
However, transformative models believe that the power structure/system is fundamentally
flawed, and they work to radically restructure it. In this fight, it is clear that in the end, some of
the members of the society are left out and do not benefit from this approach hence it has a
weakness.

Social action is a radical approach to solving problems of the society. It is the gathering and
mobilization of community members to bring or reject change through collective power that is
legally permitted and challenging to the authority that is not in line with the needs of the people
who have the right to make decisions on their lives. Social action promotes local involvement in
community issues, sharing of information, democratizing the system of action, the tackling of
community problems that have been neglected by authorities and promotes involvement of
communities and their leadership to respond to issues that would have taken long to address
(Hall 1997). It is a best method as is shorten time through forcing the authorities to respond fast
to people’s needs as required by the law in most cases.

On the other hand of social action is a confrontationist approach when dealing with work issues.
This may have undesirable political effects since it is often promoted and instigated by people
outside the respective communities (Hardly 1987). It may have short term effects on
development because it is short fix approach which may take short cuts in development issues
resulting in unsustainable development projects. It may result in communities being neglected or
suffering from unfounded political ailments Social action puts pressure on authorities but does
not see to the proper implementation of the projects that they would have pressurized authorities
for. Regarding these weakness, it might not be the best approach in community social work as
there are possibilities of undesirable outcomes especially for long term projects. Much of its
effort focuses on radical changes within a short period of time.

The essay above has briefly examined three approaches to community work which are
community development, social planning and social action. This has been achieved through
giving out their strength and weaknesses as they are applied to the practice. It has been revealed
that no such approach does not have weaknesses and this call for the social workers to
understand these approaches before implementing them.
REFERENCES

Batten T.R. 1970 The human factor in community work London, Oxford University press

Butcher, H. (2009) Conceptualising Community Social Work – A response to Ahan York.

British Journal of Social Work

Gray, M. (Ed) 2009 Social work; theories & methods.

Gumbo, P. (2004)Lessons for Social Workers Practising Community Work in Regional

Development Studies, Vol. 7.

Hall, N. (1997)“Building the Capacity of Social Workers’ Association in Africa: the Case of
Zimbabwe,” in Journal of Social Development in Africa, Volume 12, No. 2.

Hardley, R.(1987) A Community Social Worker’s Handbook. London and New York: Tavistock
Publications.

Zastrow,C.H.(2013) The Practice of Social Work: A Comprehensive Worktext, Aurora

University; S4Carlisle Publishing Services