Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship

Quarter 2 Handouts #3

Community-Action Initiatives Based on its Core Values and Principles

What Do We Mean by Values, Principles, And Assumptions?

The terms values, principles, and assumptions are sometimes used as if they all mean the same thing – the
underlying truths on which we base our dealings with the world. In fact, although they are all “truths” to some
extent, they are different in meaning and substance. Although we realize how similar they are, we’ll try to
consider each of the three. Understanding the definitions of the aforementioned terms will help us sort out
especially when we operate on facts or well-examined experiences, when we apply moral or ethical rules or
judgments, and when we respond to emotions or biases or unexamined “knowledge” that may not be accurate.

VALUES
Values are our guidelines for living and in choosing the right behavior. Each of us has a set of deeply held beliefs
about how the world should be. For some people, that set of beliefs is largely dictated by a particular religion,
denomination/ sect, culture, peer group, or the society at large. For others, it has been arrived at through
careful thought and reflection on various experiences. For most of us, it is probably a combination of the two.
Values often concern the core issues of our lives: personal relationships, morality, gender and social roles, race,
social classes, and the organization of the society, to name just a few.

PRINCIPLES
Principles are the fundamental scientific, logical, or moral/ethical “truths” arising from experience, knowledge,
and values on which we base our actions and thinking.

ASSUMPTIONS
Assumptions are the next level of truths. The ones we feel to be irrelevant we can take for granted, given the
principles we have accepted. If we accept, for instance, that life is an “unalienable right” – a right of every
human being that cannot be taken away – then we will usually assume that killing another person is wrong, or
at least that we don’t have the right to do it.

Methodologies and Approaches of Community Actions

Partnership building - is a way for your organization to expand its capacity and value across your expanding
network of stakeholders. It is a relationship between individuals, organizations, or groups that is characterized
by mutual cooperation towards the achievement of a specified goal. Partnerships may take several forms and
characteristics, depending on the needs of the strategy and desires of the partners.

Community profiling – a comprehensive description of the needs of a population that is defined or defines
itself, as a community, and the resources that exist within that community carried out with the active
involvement of the community itself for the purpose of developing an action plan or other means in improving
the quality of life within the community. (Hawlin & Percy – Smith, 2007.p.5

Assessment - serves and identifies the available resources to address the unmet needs of the community's most
vulnerable residents. These assessments help determine the underlying causes and conditions of poverty within
one’s community and identify unmet needs. The assessment then guides our work to implement programs that
will help our most vulnerable residents out of poverty.

Community Action Planning - The community action plan is one of the participatory tools used to build the
capacity of community members in taking action in accordance with the problems, needs, and potentials of the
community.

Resource mobilization - refers to all activities involved in securing new and additional resources for your
organization. It also involves making better use of, and maximizing existing resources.
Social action -is about people coming together to help improve their lives and solve the problems that are
important in their communities. It involves people giving their time and other resources for the common good,
in a range of forms – from volunteering and community-owned services to community organizations or
bayanihan acts. While many of these activities occur without the support of the public sector (in which case the
role of public servants is to ensure that the right conditions are in place for social action to thrive), some require
more specific support from the public sector.

Evaluation - There are many good reasons for a community group to evaluate its efforts. When done properly,
evaluation can improve efforts to promote health and development at any level -- from a small local non-profit
group to a state wide or even national effort. Evaluation offers the following advantages for groups of almost
any size:

 Collecting information about how things are done and its results help us understand how
community initiatives develop, offering lessons other groups can profit from.
 Providing ongoing feedback can improve community work by encouraging continuous adjustments
of programs, policies, and other interventions.
 By involving community members, people who haven't had a voice may gain the opportunity to
better understand and improve local efforts.
 Finally, evaluation can help hold groups accountable to the community and to the grant makers who
provide funding. It can also help hold grant makers accountable to the communities that they serve.