COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Community
★ derives from the Old French comuneté, which comes from the Latin communitas
"community", "public spirit" (from Latin communis, "shared in common") share a sense
of space in a given geographical area
★ a group of people gathered together in any geographical area, large or small, who have
common interests, actual or potential recognized in the social welfare field
Development
★ process that creates growth, progress, positive change or the addition of physical,
economic, environmental, social and demographic components
Types of Communities
Geographic Community
★ it may be all the people in specific village, town, neighborhood, district, area or city.
Example: the subdivision the you live in, or village, you are considered sa
geographic cmmunity
Functional Community
★ composed of people who hold common values, share some common function or express
some common interest such as welfare, health, recreation or education. Focused on
the funtion, for example tayo functional community because we function as
students of the school. Pwede din mga doctors, healthworkers, teachers etc.
Definition of Community Development
★ a process where community members come together to take collective action and
generate solutions to common problems
★ helps to build community capacity in order to address issues and take advantage of
opportunities, find common ground and balance competing interests
Outcomes of Community Development
1. Children and families directly involved in community development initiatives may benefit
from increases in skills, knowledge, empowerment and self-efficacy, and experience
enhanced social inclusion and community connectedness (Kenny, 2007)
2. Through community development initiatives, community members can become more
empowered
3. At a community level, community development and empowerment initiatives can achieve
long-term outcomes
Effective community development should be:
❏ a long-term endeavor
❏ well-planned
❏ inclusive and equitable
❏ holistic and integrated into the bigger picture
❏ initiated and supported by community members
❏ of benefit to the community
❏ grounded in experience that leads to best practices
Community Development Approach
Community Engagement
 ★ facilitating understanding, exchange of information to build social capital and enhance
social outcomes through a decision-making process. focused on the interaction of the
community for social enhancement
Women Self-help Group
★ contribution of women in the communities’ development
Community Capacity Building
★ helping communities in obtaining, strengthening, and maintaining the ability to set and
achieve their own development goals
Large Group Capacitation
★ related to an adult education and social psychology development
★ aimed at the increase of activity of the large groups of unemployed or semi-employed
citizens, often with Lower Levels of Literacy (LLL)
Social capital formation
★ cooperation between individuals and large social groups
Nonviolent direct action
★ revealing an existing problem, highlighting an alternative, and demonstrating a possible
solution to an existing social problem
Economic development
★ development of developing countries to increase the level of economic, political, and
social welfare of the community members
Sustainable development
★ achieving, in a balanced way, economic community development and environmental
protection outcomes
Community-driven development (CDD)
★ economic community development approach that moves an emphasis from the activity
of the central government to local communities
Asset-based community development (ABCD)
★ seeks to use the strengths of the community as a means for its stable development
Faith-based community development
★ utilize faith-based communities to cause community development increase
Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR)
★ research that brings together the efforts of the community members and researchers in
the research of the community life and problems
Community Organizing
★ an approach assuming that social change involves conflicts and social struggles that can
be a way to generate collective power for the powerless people
Participatory Planning
★ includes community-based planning
★ community is involved in the strategic and management processes of social planning on
various levels of urban or rural social life
Language-based development, or Language revitalization
★ use of a language as a means of serving the community
★ involves the creation of books, films, and other media in the language development
which is expected to help a community to develop its culture
When to use community development
★ To address social and community issues
★ For disadvantaged communities
★ You have limited time or short-term funding
★ Your focus is improving specific individual skills
Who can do community development?
★ Should be familiar, through training or experience, with the theory, practice and
principles of community development work
★ Have effective and respectful relationships with the communities they are working with
★ Good understanding of community development theory and practice

What is the role of a community development practitioner?

The key role of community development practitioner is to resource and empower the community
(Kenny, 2007).

a. Support community members through the provision of information needed to identify

issues and plan actions.
b. Community development practitioners also connect with and build local networks and
local leaders, undertake community engagement and plan, deliver and evaluate
projects and programs.
c. Community development practice has a focus on facilitation, education and
representational and resourcing skills.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
- Community Organizing is a method whereby a professional social worker helps
individuals, groups, communities or organizations to engage in a planned collective
action in order to deal with social problems within a democratic system of values
- Community Organizing is a continuous sustained process of:

a. Guiding people to understand the existing condition of their own community.

b. Organizing people to work collectively and efficiently on their immediate and
long-term problems
c. Mobilizing people to develop their capacity and readiness to respond and
take action on their problems.
d. Your role as an organizer is to facilitate that process and bring the people
closer to their goal of self-determination.
Importance of Community Organizing
 a. It provides the people with an opportunity to get involved and identify their common
problems.
b. It guides the community in decision making toward self-reliance.

c. It guides people in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of every possible

solution offered by them.

Basic Models of Community Organizing

- Introduced by Jack Rothman

1. Locality Development
- It refers to the type of community work where a worker or agency undertakes an
exercise of evaluating welfare needs and existing services in the area and
suggests a possible blueprint for a more efficient delivery of services, it is termed
as social planning.

2. Social Planning
- It refers to the type of community work where a worker or agency undertakes an
exercise of evaluating welfare needs and existing services in the area and
suggests a possible blueprint for a more efficient delivery of services, it is termed
as social planning.

3. Social Action
- In this type of community organization the community organizer uses all means
to apply pressure on the power structure to give in to demands.

Steps in Community Organizing

1. Area Selection
2. Entry into the Community
3. Social Investigation/Community Study
4. Integration
5. Contact-building/Spotting Potential Leaders
6. Core Group Formation
7. The Formal Setting-Up of the Organization will Involve

Phases of Community Organization

1. Pre-helping phase

a. Formulation of indices for selection of areas to be helped

 b. Identification of the target area/barangay/community

c. Assignment of workers to target areas

d. Establishment of initial linkages between community people and resource systems

e. Gathering initial information about the community

f.Getting people's sanction and commitment

2. Helping Phase

a. Exploration and identification of the Problem

b. Action/ Implementation

c. Evaluation

The Community Worker

A. Functions of a Community Worker

1. Initiator
2. Regulator
3. Information Giver
4. Information Seeker
5. Supporter
6. Evaluator
7. Leader but not a boss

B. Qualities of a Community Worker

1. Energetic
2. Xenial
3. Tactical
4. Enthusiastic
5. Non-Conformist
6. Systematic and Critical Thinker
7. Innovative
8. Optimistic
9. Negotiable
10. Integrity
11. Sympathetic
12. Truthfulness
13. Visionary
14. Active
15. Well- Rounded
16. Hearth Qualities
17. Humility and Open to Sharing
18. Leader
19. Entrepreneurial
20. People-Oriented
21. Easy to deal with
22. Responsive to change
23. Servant
24. Open to Criticism
25. Non-traditional/Irreverent
26. Flexible
27. Creative and Resourceful
28. Sense of Humor
29. Tenacious
30. Acculturated