Importance of Community Dynamics and

Community Action
According to Zamor (2005), community is a familiar thread used to bring
people together to advocate and support each other in the fight to overcome
those threats. As human beings, we need a sense of belonging, and that sense of
belonging is what connects us to the many relationships we develop.
Communities are also rich in resources, that is where their collective
aspect comes into play. All members of many communities (family, work,
neighborhood, etc.), and constantly move in and out of them, depending on the
situation. Community is where we find comfort in difficult times.

Importance of Understanding Community Dynamics and Community

Action COMMUNITY
A small or large social unit (a group of living things) who have something
in common, such as norms, religion, values, or identity. Communities often
share a sense of place that is situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a
country, village, town, or neighborhood) or in virtual space through
communication platforms. Durable relations that extend beyond immediate
genealogical ties also define a sense of community. People tend to define those
social ties as important to their identity, practice, and roles in social institutions
(such as family, home, work, government, society, or humanity at-large).

DYNAMICS
The forces or properties that stimulate growth, development, or change
within a system or process "the dynamics of changing social relations".
Communities are critical for successful agroecosystems. In addition to
increasing private profit, they provide contexts that support or discourage
sustainability and processes that augment participation

COMMUNITY DYNAMICS
It applies to any changes taking place within a group. Such improvements
can be made by collective action. Community shifts arise when decision makers
or members take action. Such activities relate to the creation or advancement of
goods, services and policies that specifically support a particular community.
Factors such as the needs of the society, the interests of the citizens and the
availability of resources have been addressed in the process.
Community dynamics and collective intervention fall under the umbrella of
economics because they are highly dependent on human resources [the labor
force]. Those are mentioned, but it is fair to suggest that economics plays a
critical role in the understanding of community dynamics through collective
action.
Community Dynamics is the change and development involved in a
community that includes all forms of living organisms.
COMMUNITY ACTION
This is putting communities as the center of the services development and
services delivery. This initiative aims to cater the primary needs of the communities
before implementing it. In such way, **community action** will help the community
dynamics or the degree of improvement of the community. It is important to
understand these two because these will propel the success and stability of the
communities. They go hand in hand and are proportionally related.
Community action includes a broad range of activities and is sometimes
described as ‘social action' or ‘community engagement'. These activities can vary in
their objective, the role the community plays, the types of activities involved, their
scale and their integration within the council. What they have in common is that they
all involve greater engagement of local citizens in the planning, design and delivery of
local services.
Why is Community Action Important?
Community action is about putting communities at the heart of their own local
services. Involving communities in the design and delivery of services can help to
achieve a number of objectives, including:

a. Building community and social capacity – helping the community to share

knowledge, skills and ideas.
b. Community resilience – helping the community to support itself.
c. Prevention – a focus on early access to services or support, engagement in
design, cross-sector collaboration and partnerships.
d. Maintaining and creating wealth – for example helping people into employment
or developing community enterprises.

Role of the Community

The role the community plays can include community consultation, joint
planning, joint design, joint delivery and community-led activities.
The types of activity can include:
 Asset transfer (either through formal transfer to bodies such as parish councils
or community interest companies, or transfer of their management to local
community and voluntary groups).
 Making better use of physical resources, such as council-owned buildings, to
support community-led activities.
 Community engagement in decision-making (for example through public
engagement events where the community helps to decide local priorities, co-
design or co-commission services).
 Community networks
 Community grants
Issues Affecting People in the Community
A. Causes of Poverty
 Low to moderate economic growth
 Slow poverty reduction growth
 Low employment and quality of work
 Lack of fully developed agriculture
 Inflation occurs when crisis happens
 Overpopulation
 High level of inequality in income
 Exposure to risks
B. Marginalization
The process whereby something or someone is pushed to the edge of a
group and accorded lesser importance. This is predominantly a social
phenomenon by which a minority or sub-group is excluded, and their needs or
desires ignored.
 Immigrants, Refugees, and Migrants
 Women and Girls
 Victims of Human Trafficking
 Children and Youth
 People of Differing Sexual Orientation (LGBT community)
 People of Differing Religions
 Developmentally Delayed, Physically Disabled, or Mentally ill People
 Incarcerated People (and their Families)
 People of Low Socioeconomic Status
 Unemployed People
 People of a Particular Ethnicity/Country of Origin
 People with a Differing Political Orientation
The Role of the Youth in Community Action
The saying stresses "KABATAAN ANG PAG-ASA NANG BAYAN". Youth can change
the world through community development
A. Youth as Community Organizers
When governments won’t engage youth, community groups and
nonprofits can step in to engage youth as community organizers. Through
training and empowerment, they can develop unique, powerful campaigns
that engage many people, including children, youth, adults, families and
elders.
B. Youth and Government
Participating in regular and sustained government positions, roles and
activities can allow youth community developers to change the world. Roles
should be rule voting and frequent, and focus on engaging diverse young
people.
C. Youth as Planners
Young people can participate as community planners in community
development work. Using education and training, they can learn the skills and
knowledge they need, and applying their knowledge they can guide their
peers, younger people and adults, too.

Perspectives of Community Action

There are many ways to think about community perspectives. The module
emphasizes the different perspectives on community action.

Social Perspective
A community can also be defined by describing the social and political
networks that link individuals, community organizations, and leaders.
Understanding these networks is critical to planning efforts in engagement. For
example, tracing social ties among individuals may help engagement leaders to
identify a community’s leadership, understand its behavior patterns, identify its
high-risk groups, and strengthen its networks (Minkler et al., 1997).

Civil Society Perspective

According to Kamensky (2020), “Civil society” adherents see society as being
largely comprised of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that
act collectively or individually on behalf of their larger community. From this
perspective, good public management implies that the development and delivery of
government services should be highly distributed, and that government decisions
should be made as close to the point of delivery as possible.
Civil Society perspective has a continuum. One end is based on the importance
of individuals. Individualists tend toward libertarian philosophies. The other end is
based on the importance of community. Communitarians favor a civil society that
emphasizes communities and societies over individuals. They also tend to be liberal
on economic issues (e.g., environmental protection, public education) and
conservative on social issues (e.g., character education, faith-based programs). This
second strand is also related to populism, which proposes reining in the power of
both government and business.

Community action Perspectives on Local/ Grassroots Level

According to Terry (2016), community grass roots organization that is too quick to
confer its credibility, legitimacy and respect on other stakeholders.
 Politicians. Politicians are going to politic (i.e., favor groups more likely to
vote in their favor, especially in an organized and denser manner). Here, the
grass roots community group might be better positioned to offer guidance
understood in political terms.
 Government officials. Government officials are there to seek favor from the
politicians referred to above. Here, the grass roots community organization may
be most effective publicly reminding the government officials of the goals of the
community development initiative.
 Nonprofits. Just as a politician must politic, nonprofits must raise
money. They use the statistical (and individual) profiles in material poverty of
community members to raise money. Before moving on to another community,
the nonprofits will need to use the statistical (and, to a lesser degree, individual)
profiles in material wealth or income improvement to show success so that the
nonprofit can be entrusted to work in the next community. Knowing this, a

grass roots community organization can publicly encourage nonprofits to

direct their benefits, programming jobs to the low-income in the community.
Systems Perspective
From a systems perspective, a community is similar to a living creature,
comprising different parts that represent specialized functions, activities, or
interests, each operating within specific boundaries to meet community needs. For
example, schools focus on education, the transportation sector focuses on moving
people and products, economic entities focus on enterprise and employment, faith
organizations focus on the spiritual and physical well-being of people, and health
care agencies focus on the prevention and treatment of diseases and injuries (Henry,
2011). For the community to function well, each part has to effectively carry out its
role in relation to the whole organism. A healthy community has well-connected,
interdependent sectors that share responsibility for recognizing and resolving
problems and enhancing its well- being. Successfully addressing a community’s
complex problems requires integration, collaboration, and coordination of resources
from all parts (Thompson et al., 1990). From a systems perspective, then,
collaboration is a logical approach to health improvement.

Virtual Perspective
Some communities map onto geographically defined areas, but today,
individuals rely more and more on computer-mediated communications to access
information, meet people, and make decisions that affect their lives (Kozinets, 2002).
Examples of computer-mediated forms of communication include email, instant or
text messaging, e-chat rooms, and social networking sites such as Facebook,
YouTube, and Twitter (Flavian et al., 2005). Social groups or groups with a common
interest that interact in an organized fashion on the Internet are considered “virtual
communities” (Rheingold, 2000; Ridings et al., 2002). Without question, these virtual
communities are potential partners for community-engaged health promotion and
research.

Individual Perspective
Individuals have their own sense of community membership that is beyond
the definitions of community applied by researchers and engagement leaders.
Moreover, they may have a sense of belonging to more than one community. In
addition, their sense of membership can change over time and may affect their
participation in community activities (Minkler et al., 2004).
The philosopher and psychologist William James shed light on this issue in his
writings. James thought it important to consider two perspectives on identity: the
“I,” or how a person thinks about himself or herself, and the “me,” or how others see
and think about that person. Sometimes these two views agree and result in a shared
sense of an identity, but other times they do not. People should not make
assumptions about identity based on appearance, language, or cultural origin; nor
should they make assumptions about an individual’s perspective based on his or her
identity (James, 1890). Today, the multiple communities that might be relevant for
any individual — including families, workplace, and social, religious, and political
associations — suggest that individuals are thinking about themselves in more
complex ways than was the norm in years past.
The eligibility criteria that scientists, policy makers, and others develop for social
programs and research projects reflect one way that people perceive a group of
proposed participants, but how much those criteria reflect the participants’ actual
view of themselves is uncertain. Practitioners of community engagement need to
learn how individuals understand their identity and connections, enter into
relationships, and form communities.

Functions of Communities in Terms of Structures,

Dynamics, and Processes

Communities are complex entities that can be characterized by their

structure (the types and numbers of species present) and dynamics (how
communities change over time). Understanding community structure and dynamics
enables community ecologists to manage ecosystems more effectively.
Community structure

Community structure means the internal structure of an employment area,

town, city, neighborhood or another urban area. It includes the population and
housing, jobs and production, service and leisure time areas, along with transport
routes and technical networks, their location and relationships. Community
structure development is controlled with land use planning and building
permission schemes.
Community dynamics

This is the changes in community structure and composition over time.

Sometimes these changes are induced by environmental disturbances such as
volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, fires, and climate change. Communities with a
stable structure are said to be at equilibrium.

Community Process

The essence of community is a generalizing process, which is to say a process by

which the activities in pursuit of a wide variety of interests of a local population are both
enhanced and coordinated. Within a local society there are many interests or goals which
people share.
Five Functions of Community
Roland Warren, in The Community in America (1963), identified five locality-
relevant functions which any community must satisfy if it is to survive. Although
any single community organization usually has one or another of these as
its primary function, societies tend to be over-determined (they satisfy their needs in
multiple ways so that there is no single link in the chain that is irreplaceable) and
most organizations play some role in all five functions.
The institutions which serve these functions are integrated to each other both
horizontally and vertically. These five functions serve as a useful framework for
analyzing the community in which you are working, and role your organization (and
other organizations) play within it.

The five functions are:

1. Production-Distribution-Consumption
No community can survive if it does not provide some way for its people
to make a living and obtain the material resources that they need for
living. This involves, first of all, the industrial sector (broadly
understood). Someone has to take raw material and fashion it into some sort
of useful product. It is also the transportation/warehousing/retail sector,
since somehow the goods that are produced have to be moved to and
through the market. Finally, production and distribution are useless if there
is no one

to buy or use it, if there is no “market.” When Henry Ford was criticized for
paying his laborers the princely sum of $5 a day (a lot of money in 1920), he
replied that all those cars he was making were no good if no one could afford
to buy them.
2. Socialization
Second, no community can survive it does not arrange for its
continuation. A way must be found for children to learn what they will need
to know to be adults; for workers to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities
to do their jobs; for in-migrants (whether they are from the neighboring State
or from across the ocean) to learn “how we do things here.”
3. Social Control
Communities are incredibly complex systems. For all those players
(whether human or corporate) are to move around and “do their thing,”
there have to be “traffic rules” to keep them from crashing into each other.
Only the smallest part of social control is “busting bad guys”; much of it is an
 issue of forming and enforcing contracts (mutual agreements about who will
do what to whom how and with what) and supporting the “social contract”
(those “rules” of what is expected of one that were learned through
socialization). This function is also often referred to as “boundary
maintenance.”
4. Social Participation
The first three functions to be done “for” (or “to”) the people in a
community. But it would all be beside the point if the people weren’t part of
it. In part, the community needs the human resources of its people to get the
job done. In part, it is through participation that much of those
functions is accomplished (for example, suppose they threw a sale and nobody
came?). And much of socialization and social control is accomplished as a by-
product of social participation.
5. Mutual Support
Finally, one of the purposes of community is to “share the journey,”
and to motivate and encourage each other along the way. In fact, some would
say that this is the primary reason for community (except for mutual
support, why not live as a hermit?). Much of this is done informally, although
we recognize an entire sector of the economy (the nonprofit, or “third”
sector) as existing for this purpose.

Identifying these five functions is a major step in understanding the

community. But one must also understand the relationship among the
functions. Organizations, individuals, and institutions that focus on one or another
of these functions tend to come together around their common interests (this is called
a “horizontal pattern” of integration), as well as fitting into a larger arrangement of
external relations within which the individual or corporation must fit (this is called
a “vertical pattern” of integration). The horizontal pattern strengthens the common
focus; the vertical pattern strengthens the ability to spread one’s interests more
broadly into the community. The following table provides illustrative examples of
each of the functions and their patterns:

Locality-Relevant Functions
Function Typical unit Horizontal Vertical Pattern
Pattern
Production- Company Chamber of National Corporation
distribution- Commerce
consumption
Socialization Public school Board of State department of
Education education
Social control Municipal City Council State Government
government
Social Church Council of Denominational Body
Participation Churches
Mutual Support Voluntary health Community National health
association welfare council association
 Typologies of Communities

Types of Community in Sociology

There are two types of communities rural and urban communities, due to
different social conditions in both rural and urban areas.

Rural Community

Rural community is a natural phenomenon. It is present in every society of

the world having distinct culture and pattern of social life. It is actually a product of
natural free will of the people having extreme similarity in their objectives and
ambitions of living. Agriculture is the main identity and element. People of this
community mostly have. Face to face ‘interaction with high degree of homogeneity in
their identities. Basic urban facilities like school, hospital, market, municipal office,
police station etc. are usually missing in this community.

Urban Community

Urban community is the opposite of rural community. The urban people

lifestyle is highly impersonal with each other along high degree of complexity and
heterogeneity in their living style and identities. It is actually a product of rational
choice. A complex division of labor with specialization in their jobs is the identity of
urban community. Modern civic facilities are usually available.

Richard Millington defines five different types of communities:

1. Interest. Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.

2. Action. Communities of people trying to bring about change.

3. Place. Communities of people brought together by geographic boundaries.

4. Practice. Communities of people in the same profession or undertake the

same activities.
5. Circumstance. Communities of people brought together by external
events/situations.

Categories of Community according to Socialinsilico (2014)

1. A community of interest
A community of interest consists of members who are interested in –
and passionate about – the same topic. The topic could be a TV show, a
celebrity figure or a subject area such as an historical event. Community
members come together with the purpose of sharing their enthusiasm and
knowledge about this topic. Given that members might be located anywhere
in the world; online tools are vital for the ongoing interactions of the
 community.

2. A community of practice
The term community of practice was originally introduced as an
concept in the field of education to refer to groups where members who share
a profession or craft come together to share experiences and expertise, and
thereby improve themselves professionally or personally. MOOCs could be a
particularly interesting example of online communities of practice, except that
in many cases the tools available for direct interaction among members of a
course are very limited, if they exist at all.

3. A community of inquiry
A community of inquiry also has an educational focus, the aim being
to bring together people involved in considering a problem from an
empirical or conceptual perspective. The idea is that, by bringing together
different members of the community, a greater overall understanding of the
subject at hand might be obtained. Science as a community falls into this
category, as might hack days and similar participatory events where the end
output is not clearly known in advance.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/climateinteractive/13944682478/

The story of the group of blindfolded men each trying (incorrectly!) to identify
an elephant is an example of when a community of inquiry would be useful. In such
cases, each person would pool their experience to create a bigger picture

4. A community of action
This type of community is focused on bringing about change in the
world. The Open Access community would fall into this category. As the
Open Knowledge Festival showed, if the unifying ideology is large enough, a
community of action may in fact be comprised of multiple sub-communities.
So the “Open” community includes communities interested in Open Data,
 Open Spending, Open Education and Open Science. Each of these may be

able to learn from similar challenges faced by the others. Online tools can be
important for these groups to coordinate their activities as well as to share
news and resources about what they have achieved with others who may be
interested, but who are not active members of the communities of action.

5. A community of place
A community of place consists of members who are co-located – this
might include a neighborhood watch scheme, a parent-teacher association at
the local school, or a group of independent shop keepers from the same part
of a town. It’s likely that most members will know, or get to know, each other
in person due to the opportunities for meeting up offline that are afforded by
them being in the same location.

6. A community of circumstance
This type of community consists of people who come together to share
experiences related to being in a particular life situation or other
circumstance, rather than a shared interest. This might include health
communities – from people fighting cancer, to those experiencing adverse drug
reactions – as well as LBGT communities.

Paul James and his colleagues have developed a taxonomy that maps
community relations, and recognizes that actual communities can be characterized
by different kinds of relations at the same time.
A. Grounded community relations. This involves enduring attachment to
particular places and particular people. It is the dominant form taken by
customary and tribal communities. In these kinds of communities, the land is
fundamental to identity.
B. Life-style community relations. This involves giving primacy to communities
coming together around particular chosen ways of life, such as morally
charged or interest-based relations or just living or working in the same
location. Hence the following sub-forms:
 community-life as morally bounded, a form taken by many traditional faith-
based communities.
 community-life as interest-based, including sporting, leisure-based and
business communities which come together for regular moments of
engagement.
 community-life as proximately-related, where neighborhood or commonality
of association forms a community of convenience, or a community of place.
C. Projected community relations. This is where a community is self-
consciously treated as an entity to be projected and re-created. It can be projected
as through thin advertising slogan, for example gated community, or can take
the form of ongoing associations of people who seek political integration,
communities of practice based on professional projects, associative communities
which seek to enhance and support individual creativity, autonomy and
mutuality. A nation is one of the largest forms of projected or imagined
 community.

Community Action Modalities and

Interrelationship of Self
Three (3) Different Community Action Modalities

1. Community capacity building (CCB)

This focuses on enabling all members of the community, including the
poorest and the most disadvantaged, to develop skills and competencies so
as to take greater control of their own lives and also contributes to inclusive
local development.
According to Stuart (2014), Community Capacity Building (CCB) is
about promoting the ‘capacity’ of local communities to develop, implement and
sustain their own solutions to problems in a way that helps them shape and
exercise control over their physical, social, economic and cultural
environments. Stuart (2014) stresses that Community Capacity Building
(CCB) should be:
A. Continuous process
Community capacity building should not be about pilot schemes
and short-term interventions (Mowbray, 2005) it needs to involve
long-term commitment and a willingness to ask hard questions.
B. Involves Local Leadership
Community capacity building should be a bottom-up approach
that is community led. But this is one of those cases where a
commitment to social justice is crucial. It is important to consider
who is included in the “community” that is leading the process.
Who is excluded from community leadership? Whose voices are
missing from community debate? Whose interests are being
served?
C. Community-Led
The bottom up approach, then it is important that the
communities take responsibility for their own development. It was
argued that without an underpinning of social justice, there is a
danger that this can mean that we ignore structural issues that are
beyond the control of a single community. Community capacity
building needs to go hand-in-hand with a commitment to social
change

The Aspen Institute (1996) identifies eight outcomes of community capacity

building:
 Expanding, diverse, inclusive community participation
 Expanding leadership base
 Strengthening individual skills
 Encouraging a shared understanding and vision
 Strategic community agenda
 Facilitating consistent, tangible progress toward goals
 Creating effective community organizations and institutions
 Promoting resource utilization by the community

2. Community Resilience
It denotes that helping the community to support itself
 Why is community resilience important?
Communities are increasingly complex, and so are the
challenges they face. Human-caused and natural disasters are more
frequent and costly. Factors like climate change, globalization, and
increased urbanization can bring disaster related risks to greater
numbers of people.
Addressing these threats calls for an approach that combines
what we know about preparing for disasters with what we know
about actions that strengthen communities every day. Community
resilience focuses on enhancing the day-to-day health and wellbeing
of communities to reduce the negative impacts of disasters.
3. Community Wealth Building (CWB)
According to Partners (2014), CWB builds on local talents, capacities
and institutions, rebuilding capital to strengthen and create locally-owned
family and community owned businesses.
 Strengthening Communities
Community wealth building is a fast-growing economic
development movement that strengthens our communities through
broader democratic ownership and control of business and jobs. It
builds on local talents, capacities and institutions, rebuilding capital to
strengthen and create locally-owned family and community owned
businesses that are anchored in place.
The community wealth building field includes a broad range
of models and innovations that have been steadily growing power
over the past 30 years or more: cooperatives, employee-owned
companies, social enterprise, land trusts, family businesses,
community development financial institutions and banks. These
structures and models are part of a growing system that aims at
improving the ability of communities and individuals to:
 increase asset ownership;
 create anchor jobs locally by broadening ownership over capital;
 help achieve key environmental goals (including decreasing
carbon emissions);
 expand the provision of public services by strengthening the
municipal tax base; and
 ensure local economic stability.
 Investing Locally
Significantly strengthening and growing local capital is critical.
Strategies include:
 building new, and strengthening existing, community-based
financial institutions;
 preventing local financial resources from “leaking out” away;
  leveraging the use of procurement and investment from
existing local anchor institutions such as hospitals, universities,
foundations, cultural institutions, and city government; and
 working aligned impact investors and financial institutions to
grow affordable capital committed to building local wealth.

Five Modalities Model of Community Development (Shelton, 2010)

When considering community development as a part of marketing activities,

corporations often forget the most basic requirements of inter-dependency and value
creation. In 1986, researchers McMillan and Chavis wrote about defining a sense of
community that it must have the following elements: 1) membership, 2) influence, 3)
integration and fulfillment of needs, and 4) shared emotional connection.

1. INFORM - In its most basic sense, informing communications are ones that
help educate people about something whether it be a product, service, or the
problem that such product or service addresses. For example, a company
that sells do-it-yourself home repair supplies might simply advertise the low
price of lumber available at their store. While this would be a form of
"information" it is of transitive value and only relevant to those immediately
in need of the particular goods on sale. Instead such a company could
construct a website answering questions about how best to do various
repair or construction projects. How, for example, to use that lumber to
build a treehouse.
2. ENTERTAIN - Getting people to laugh has been a mainstay of advertising since
virtually the first commercial messages were distributed. Whether as humor,
spectacle, or narrative the notion that an advertising message can be coupled
with some kind of entertaining content is well worn and works in the social
space as readily as in other mediums. Finding those opportunities to create
an entertaining envelope for your ad message which is also adopted by a
community is somewhat more difficult than the womanistic pleasure we get
 from a good commercial on primetime TV. But a number of simple
mechanisms are evolving.
3. SUPPORT -Facilitating the customer's experience of a product or service,
typically by hosting an open collaborative space for customers to interact
with each other. This can be moderated, mediated, or merely contributed to
by the company with the objective in any such participation being to
enhance the quality and credibility of the discussions. So for example,
providing more accurate information is good, deleting an accurate (though
negative) comments is bad.
4. CONNECT - Helping members of your market connect with one another
hopefully toward some purpose that is related to the company's product or
service. This can be as simple as hosting content and community on related
topics or as sophisticated as providing a matching system that allows
participants to identify themselves to others with compatible interests or
objectives.
5. COLLABORATE - Truly the most powerful of the engagement modalities, when
you can collaborate with your market, or at least help them to collaborate with
one another, you provide the greatest (and most lasting value). As with any of
these approaches, it is more powerful when directly related to the company's
products or services, but this is also a place where "corporate social
responsibility" elements often can appear.

The Importance and Benefits of Giving Back to your Community

According to Madeline Ames (2014), importance on giving back to the community

is volunteering your time to support a cause you are passionate about is something
you will never regret. Ames (2014) stresses that volunteering is spending time and
enriching your community is a great way to broaden your perceptions of the world.
By immersing yourself in a community and surrounding yourself with people who
are dedicated to bettering the world, you can learn so much about how the world
works.

She denotes that without volunteers, many of the services and events we enjoy
in our communities would not be so readily available. Spending time helping out at
local shelters or food banks provides an important service to less fortunate
neighbors. Giving back to the place you call home helps to unite the community and
bridge some of the social, economic and political gaps.

What are some of the benefits of volunteering?

Donating your time to support those around you is extremely beneficial, both
for you and your community. It is statistically proven that people who volunteer
regularly are healthier both physically and mentally. Individuals who have
volunteered throughout their lifetime typically live longer and have better
psychological well-being. In addition to the health benefits, volunteering gives
people a sense of purpose. The fulfilling feeling of giving back and contributing to
society is unparalleled.

Forms of Community Engagement

According to Wagner, W. & Owen (2014), there are eight (8) forms of
community engagement, here as follows:
 Forms of Community Engagement

1. Direct Service
Giving personal time and energy to address immediate community
needs. Examples include tutoring, serving food at as shelter, building or
repairing homes, and neighborhood park clean‐ ups.
2. Community Research
Exploring community to learn about its assets and how it is being
affected by current social problems. This form of community engagement
provides knowledge that other efforts can build upon.
3. Advocacy and Education
Using various modes of persuasion (e.g., petitions, marches, letter‐
writing) to convince government or corporate decision‐makers to make choices
that will benefit the community. Raising public awareness of social issues by
giving speeches to community groups, distributing written materials to the
general public, or providing educational activities in schools.
4. Capacity Building
Working with the diverse constituencies of community and building
on existing assets to solve problems and make it a better place. Creating a
space or everyone in the community to have a say in what the community
should be like and how to get there.
5. Political Involvement
Participating in processes of government such as campaigning and
voting. This includes keeping informed about issues in the local, national,
and global communities in order to voted responsibly and engaging in
discourse and debate about current social issues.
6. Socially Responsible Personal and Professional Behavior
Maintaining a sense of responsibility to the welfare of others when
making personal or professional decisions. Using one’s career or professional
training to benefit the community. This category describes personal lifestyle
choices that reflect commitment to one’s values: recycling, driving a hybrid
car, or bicycling to work; buying or not buying certain products because of
unjust corporate policies or choosing to work for companies with socially just
priorities.
7. Philanthropic Giving
Donating funding or needed items; organizing or participating in
fundraising events.
8. Participation in Associations
Participating in community organizations that develop the social
networks that provide a foundation for community‐building efforts including
civic associations, sports leagues, church choirs, and school boards.
 According to Graeme Stuart (2017) there is a relationship between community
engagement and community development

The relationship between community engagement and community development

Community engagement is at the heart of community development. According to

Smart (2017), community development discusses the difference between community-
based work. She suggests that community-based work is characterized by:
 Decision-making power rests with the agency
 The problem or issue is defined by the agency
 There are defined timelines
Outcomes are pre-specified, often changes in specific behaviors or
knowledge levels. Community development is characterized:
 Power relations between agency and community members are constantly
negotiated
 The problem or issue is first named by the community, then defined in a way
that advances the shared interests of the community and the agency
 Work is longer term in duration
 The desired outcome is an increase in the community members’ capacities
 The desired long-term outcomes usually include change at the neighborhood
or community level.
As can be seen, one of the differences is that the community is much more
engaged in community development. In strengths-based approaches to community
development (such as asset-based community development).Community
engagement is particularly important because of their emphasis on being
community led or building communities from the inside out.
Community development, however, involves much more than simply engaging the
community. Likewise, community engagement is not simply about community
development. As well as its role in community development, community
engagement plays an important role in planning and decision-making, and in
service delivery.
Even though community engagement is at the heart of community development, it
is still important to recognize that they are separate and involve different skills.

Importance of Solidarity in Promoting National and

Global Community Development
According to Javier Fiz Pé rez (2018), solidarity is an important value for any
society, as well as for the entire global community. This idea of community —
essential in the Christian tradition — means finding an area of unity amidst the
diversity that characterizes human societies, and the recognition of a set of
common, universal values that characterize us as human beings with dignity.
In order for this to become a reality, it’s necessary to establish a consensus
about fundamental values, work to extend the principles of peace, equity, and well-
being, and establish a basic principle of mutual recognition and reciprocity.

Solidarity as a value
Solidarity is a value par excellence, characterized by mutual collaboration
between individuals which makes it possible to overcome the most terrible
disasters, such as wars, plagues, diseases, etc. This applies as well to helping
relatives, friends and acquaintances who find themselves in difficult situations, so
that they can overcome obstacles and move forward.
Solidarity allows us to overcome the adversities that present themselves
throughout life. A person who practices solidarity does not hesitate to collaborate
and support all those who are in disadvantaged situations, in contrast to people
who are indifferent to the needs of others and more self-centered.
We must encourage an attitude of solidarity in the young, since solidarity can
be seen as the basis of many other human values. In a special way it helps one
develop valuable friendships in family and social settings, based on virtues such as
kindness, support, respect, and tolerance.

Solidarity and sociology

From the perspective of sociology, solidarity can be described as the adherence
of each one of the members of a human community to the same values. According
to French sociologist Emile Durkheim, solidarity can be seen in three ways:
 Community solidarity is a feeling of unity based on common interests or
goals, shared by many individuals, which makes them belong to the same
social group, work together towards achieving the same goals, or fight together
for the same cause.
 Organic solidarity, seen in a company, is the interdependence that exists
among the various individuals due to the strong specialization of each one of
them and the division of technical labor in different functions.
 In contrast to the previous kinds, mechanical solidarity is characterized by
a total competence and independence of each individual in most of the jobs,
in which case the individuals have no need of the others.
Christian solidarity
Solidarity is part of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, and as such is
defined as the consideration of the set of characteristics or aspects that relate or
unite people, and the mutual help, interaction, collaboration and service that this
set of relationships promotes and encourages. This collaboration and interaction
must contribute to the development, growth, and progress of all human beings
based on Christian and gospel values.
The great value of this vision lies in its foundation. We do not practice
solidarity simply because there’s a social convenience; rather, we are supportive
because every human being enjoys a unique and unrepeatable dignity that is given
by God.
Some social issues that may answered by solidarity of national and global
community. Some of this was identified by the United Nations such as the following:
1. Poverty Eradication
Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive
resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include
hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic
services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of
participation in decision- making. Various social groups bear
disproportionate burden of poverty.
The World Social Summit identified poverty eradication as an ethical,
social, political and economic imperative of mankind and called on
governments to address the root causes of poverty, provide for basic needs
for all and ensure that the poor have access to productive resources,
including credit, education and training. Recognizing insufficient progress in the
poverty reduction, the 24th special session of the General Assembly devoted
to the review of the Copenhagen commitments, decided to set up targets to
reduce the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by one half by
2015. This target has been endorsed by the Millennium Summit as
Millennium Development Goal 1.
Poverty eradication must be mainstreamed into the national policies
and actions in accordance with the internationally agreed development goals
forming part of the broad United Nations Development Agenda, forged at UN
conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields. The
Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017),
proclaimed by the General Assembly in December 2007 aims at supporting
such a broad framework for poverty eradication, emphasizing the need to
strengthen the leadership role of the United Nations in promoting
international cooperation for development, critical for the eradication of
poverty.
A social perspective on development requires addressing poverty in all
its dimensions. It promotes people-centered approach to poverty eradication
advocating the empowerment of people living in poverty through their full
participation in all aspects of political, economic and social life, especially in
the design and implementation of policies that affect the poorest and most
vulnerable groups of society. An integrated strategy towards poverty
eradication necessitates implementing policies geared to more equitable
distribution of wealth and income and social protection coverage.
2. Inequality
Extraordinary economic growth and widespread improvements in well-
being have failed to close the deep divides across countries and within
societies.
 More than 70 per cent of the world population now live in countries
where income inequality has increased in the last three decades. Inequalities
between social groups, including those based on age, gender, race, ethnicity,
migrant status and disability, are pervasive in developed and developing
countries alike.
UN DESA has been calling attention to inequality and its consequences
for many years. Fifteen years ago, DESA warned that growing inequality
could jeopardize the achievement of the internationally agreed development
goals. In 2013, DESA argued that addressing inequalities is not only a moral
imperative but also necessary in order to unleash the human and productive
potential of each country’s population and to bring development towards a
socially-sustainable path.
Inequality has since moved to the forefront of the policy debate.
“Leave no one behind” is the rallying cry of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. And reducing inequality within and among countries is Goal
10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If the vision of a shared
future is to be carried forward, everyone will have to seize every opportunity
to take bold and decisive action to reduce inequality.
3. Social Inclusion
The World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995
defined an inclusive society as “a society for all’, in which every individual,
each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to play (United
Nations, 1995, para 66). Such an inclusive society is equipped with
mechanisms which accommodate diversity, and facilitate/enable people’s
active participation in their political, economic and social lives. As such, it
over-rides differences of race, gender, class, generation, and geography, and
ensures equal opportunities for all to achieve full potential in life, regardless
of origin. Such a society fosters, at the same time, emanates from well-being
of each individual, mutual trust, sense of belonging and inter-connectedness.
The goal of social integration is to create “a more stable, safe and just
society for all”, in which every individual, each with rights and
responsibilities, has an active role to play. Such an inclusive society must
be based on the principles of embracing – not coercing or forcing –
diversity and using participatory processes that involve all stakeholders in
the decision-making
that affects their lives.
Social inclusion is the process by which efforts are made to ensure
equal opportunities – that everyone, regardless of their background, can
achieve their full potential in life. Such efforts include policies and actions
that promote equal access to (public) services as well as enable citizen’s
participation in the decision-making processes that affect their lives.
Social cohesion is a related concept that parallels that of social
integration in many respects. A socially cohesive society is one where all
groups have a sense of belonging, participation, inclusion, recognition and
legitimacy. Such societies are not necessarily demographically homogenous.
Rather, by respecting diversity, they harness the potential residing in their
societal diversity (in terms of ideas, opinions, skills, etc.). Therefore, they are
 less prone to slip into destructive patterns of tension and conflict when
different interests collide.
4. Employment and Decent Work
Unemployment and underemployment lies at the core of poverty. For
the poor, labor is often the only asset they can use to improve their well-being.
Hence the creation of productive employment opportunities is essential for
achieving poverty reduction and sustainable economic and social
development. It is crucial to provide decent jobs that both secure income and
empowerment for the poor, especially women and younger people.
Rapid economic growth can potentially bring a high rate of
expansion of productive and remunerative employment, which can lead to a
reduction in poverty. Nevertheless, the contribution of the growth process to
poverty reduction does not depend only on the rate of economic growth,
but also on the ability of the poor to respond to the increasing demand for
labor in the more productive categories of employment.
Given the importance of employment for poverty reduction, job-
creation should occupy a central place in national poverty reduction
strategies. Many employment strategies are often related to agricultural and
rural development and include using labor-intensive agricultural
technologies; developing small and medium-size enterprises, and
promoting micro projects in rural areas. Many strategies promote self-
employment, non-farm employment in rural areas, targeted employment
interventions, microfinance and credit as means of employment
generation, skill formation and training.
Such strategies, however, often address the quantity of employment
while the qualitative dimensions, such as equity, security, dignity and freedom
are often absent or minimal. In general, national poverty reduction strategies
including Poverty Reduction Strategies do not comment on employment
programs, social protection or rights at work. Neither do they offer in-depth
analysis of the effects of policies on poverty reduction.
A social perspective on development emphasizes the view that the best
route to socio-economic development, poverty eradication and personal
wellbeing is through decent work. Productive employment opportunities will
contribute substantially to achieving the internationally agreed development
goals, especially the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty
by 2015.
There should be a focus on creating better and more productive jobs,
particularly those that can absorb the high concentrations of working poor.
Among the necessary elements for creating such jobs are investing in labor-
intensive industries, especially agriculture, encouraging a shift in the
structure of employment to higher productivity occupations and sectors,
and upgrading job quality in the informal economy. In addition, there
should also be a focus on providing poor people with the necessary skills
and assets that will enable them to take full advantage of any expansion in
employment potential.