Name: Lea Marie S.

Sambayon Section: K1
Instructor: Mrs. Desiree Fria Gonzales Date: 10-23-22

Integrated Approach to Community Organization

Interaction across a wide range of local groups In an integrated community-based approach, such a
wide range of organizations work together to create a setting that encourages wellness across a wide
range of contexts and social levels.

Preferring the term ‘approach’ Murray G. Ross (1955) puts forward three main approaches to
Community organization as:

✓ General Content Approach: It focuses on planning and organizing services needed by the
community in general. It either works for strengthening existing services or initiating new ones.
✓ Specific Content Approach: It aims at specific issues or concerns or needs-based interventions
planned and executed by individual organizations or the community itself.
✓ Process Approach: It emphasizes the process by which the community’s capacity is built to
work in a collaborative and coordinated manner so as to institutionalize people’s participation.
Content or activity taken up is secondary. Community organizer adheres to the self-
determination of the community, its indigenous plans, people’s willingness to change; and work
at community’s pace

Typology of Participation

Seven types of community participation (adapted from Pretty 1994 and Cornwall 1996)

1. Manipulative participation (Co-option): Community participation is simply a pretense,

with people's representatives on official boards who are unelected and have no power.

2. Passive participation (Compliance): Communities participate by being told what has been
decided or already happened. Involves unilateral announcements by an administration or
project management without listening to people's responses. The information belongs only to
external professionals.

3. Typology of Participation: Communities participate by being consulted or by answering

questions. External agents define problems and information-gathering processes, and so control
analysis. Such a consultative process does not concede any share in decision-making, and
professionals are under no obligation to take on board people's views.

4. Participation for material incentives: Communities participate by contributing resources

such as labor, in return for material incentives (e.g. food, cash). It is very common to see this
called participation, yet people have no stake in prolonging practices when the incentives end.

5. Typology of Participation: Community participation is seen by external agencies as a means

to achieve project goals. People participate by forming groups to meet predetermined project
objectives; they may be involved in decision-making, but only after major decisions have
already been made by external agents.
 6. Interactive participation (Co-learning): People participate in joint analysis, development
of action plans and formation or strengthening of local institutions. Participation is seen as a
right, not just the means to achieve project goals.

7. Self -mobilization (Collective action): People participate by taking initiatives independently

of external institutions to change systems. They develop contacts with external institutions for
resources and technical advice they need but retain control over how resources are used. Self-
mobilization can spread if governments and NGOs provide an enabling framework of support.
Such self-initiated mobilization may or may not challenge existing distributions of wealth and
power.

Why Participation in CO is important?

Therefore, becoming a part of a community organization means voluntarily being involved with
a local grassroots group working to make long-term changes to the way things are conducted. In various
contexts and at various times, participation can take several kinds.

As a key component of CO, participation is essential for harnessing and strengthening people's
capacities to formulate and execute their own communities' development objectives at all levels. People
have the opportunity to take part in development, enjoy the advantages, make contributions, and
influence the direction and rate of progress. The quality of life in a community can be improved in many
ways by people being involved in community organizing. The first and most obvious way is through
reforming the underlying structures and policies that determine people's day-to-day experiences.

Saul Alinsky's Organizing Power

A power that doesn't have to answer to anyone tries to keep and grow because that's how it
protects the rights that come with having power. There are both financial and social benefits to these
pros. Absolute power tends to make people completely dangerous. They can use their ability to take
political, economic, and social actions as a group to regain power by getting other people to
help. Changes to the rules, practices, or structures of an institution can only be made by people who
work there or by the institution's owners, like landlords. A target can be persuaded by the power of the
people, which can be shown through money, votes, stability, reputation, or any combination of these.

Rules for Radicals, written in 1971 by Saul D. Alinsky, is a guide for political organizers who
want to make real, long-term changes in the world. It's based on his many years of organizing experience
and shows what works no matter where or when. Alinsky says that organizers should start with how
things are instead of how they should be. They have to work within the systems that are already in place
and be patient, knowing that change takes time. Society is afraid of the big changes that come with
revolution, but in reality, everything is always changing. Every truth is different, and you have to accept
that. The organizers need to keep in mind that ethics aren't always black and white, and they need to
always think about how they will reach their end goals. Their end goal is a society that is free, fair, and
equal for everyone. They think democracy is a way to get somewhere else, not an end in itself.

Power should be used for good; this is a key part of making societies that are righteous.
Community organizations are very important for keeping track of and judging development. As people's
power grows, they can come up with more big ideas to fix systemic inequalities. The majority of people
can take back the power that is rightfully theirs through democratic mass-based organizations in which
many people take part.
Paulo Freire's Liberal Education

According to Paulo Freire, author of "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," education is the key to
bringing about social transformation in communities. If we are serious about making a difference in our
community, this must be our first and foremost plan. Anyone, both inside and outside the area, has the
education to stand up to oppressive forces and know how to defend themselves. When it happens, the
community as a whole shift.

Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed is an integration of several philosophical, political,

and educational perspectives. The oppression theory and the liberation source are laid out by Freire.
According to Freire, the key to liberty is the development of critical awareness and the ability to think
for oneself. In order to achieve this goal, a new approach to education is necessary, one that encourages
collaboration between the educator and the learner so that the latter can take part in two-way
conversations and initiate the process of becoming more human through their own reflection and
performance

References

Alinsky, S. (2015). People Power: The Community Organization.

Christens, B. (2014, January). Participation in Community Organizing. Research Gate.

Cornwall. (1996). Seven types of community participation (adapted from Pretty 1994 and Cornwall

1996).

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Ross, M. (1995). Models of Community Organization: Approaches to Community Organization.