THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

Definitions and Types of Community

• A place or geographic locale in which one’s needs for sustenance are met
• A pattern of social interactions
• A symbolic identification that gives meaning to one’s identity
• A location which is defined by the pace of its development
• A venue for meeting the bio-psycho-social- political-spiritual needs of
the people
 Functions of Community population, problems growing
out of immigration, and
There are five functions of a
changes in oppressed
community which define the purpose
populations after the Civil
of a community according to Warren.
War.
• Production, consumption and • Industrialization brought
distribution about problems of working
hours and conditions, safety,
• Socialization
and child labor.
• Social control • Immigration of a large number
of people from different parts
• Social participation of the world. These people
• Mutual support brought with them their social
and religious institutions and
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT cultural practices that caused
OF COMMUNITY a variety of social problems.
ORGANIZATION • These problems were relevant
Western Beginning of to the emergence of
Community Organization Method community organization
practice as they were affected
 The extent that social work by ideological currents
was identified with that prevalent during this period.
reform movements in the
united states at the end of
the nineteenth and early days
of the twentieth centuries.
 Reform efforts were directed
toward achieving change in
social provisions, legislation,
and methods of rendering
services to people
1865 to 1914
• During this period between
the end of civil war and 1915 to 1929
beginning of World War 1, a • This period was after the
number of social issues World War I.
emerged in the United States • There was heavy demand on
that had a strong impact upon production created by the
welfare practices. aftermath of war.
• These social issues were the • Urbanization increased
rapid industrialization of the markedly,
country the urbanization of its industrial
 potential
escalated, and racial conflict
intensified
• This period brought major
crises in civil liberties. There
was a wave of raids and
deportations due to anxiety
about the Russian Revolution
and the intensification of the
Ku Klux Klan who targeted
the blacks, Jews, and the
foreign born.
• Psychoanalysis was developed
as a prominent idea during
this period. Psychoanalytic
practice was oriented toward
changing the individual and
not the system. Social workers
became pre-occupied with the
person and forgot the
situation. Social workers
departed from charity
approach to psychotherapy in
helping the person.
1915 to 1929
In 1920, Joseph K. Hart wrote
a text entitled Community
Organization that gave social
workers a guidebook in using
the organizing skill. However,
community organization
practice during this period
was aimed at enhancing
agencies oriented towards
personal adjustment.
• This period saw a continued
increase in the number of
welfare institutions such as
the Community Chest and
United Fund. These welfare
agencies function to solicit
funds to support national
and local agencies’ needs for
financing in the delivery of
social welfare activities and
services.
• The first decade of the 20th
century saw the development
of increasing professionalism
among those who helped the
poor that led to the charity
organization societies to found
schools of philanthropy
which later became schools of
social work.
• Social survey to obtain factors
necessary for panning was
developed.
• The growing cadre of welfare
professionals, volunteers and
supporters was interested in
organizing rational and
systematic approach to the
welfare of needs of
communities.
• This led to the establishment
of councils to function as the
planning arm of the
community chest and united
funds.
1929 to 1954
• This period was characterized
by social conditions such as:
great depression, government
interventions, and the growth
of unionism. World War II
also happened during this
period.
• Depression issues included
the vast increase in
unemployment, failures of the
bank and stock market, and
mortgage foreclosures that
 deprived many of their homes, However, the economy
farms and small businesses. remained capitalist.
• There was a growth of • The development of the
government intervention. As community organization as a
a result of the depression, profession was seen in the
government programs shift from local to national
expanded. Government emphasis and was a time of
expenditures, programs and intensive efforts to
controls grew. The conceptualize the nature of
government became an community organization
employer, producer of goods practice.
and services and a vast • Three concerns emerged
resource to restore industrial during this period:
processes. The federal 1. The relation between
government became the most community organization and
significant planner and social work as some
promoter of welfare programs contented that community
of social security and organization was not a
minimum wage. legitimate form of social work
• There was also growth of practice while some
Unionism as stimulated by established the affinity of
depression. The passage of community organization to the
the National Labor Relations basic values and concerns of
Act in 1935mrked the social work.
beginning of an era in which 2. An interest in the objectives of
government facilitated the community organization as to
development of unions and conduct community
thereby became less biased organization to strengthen
protector of business community cohesion and/or
interests. So strong unions in to prevent or ameliorate
different workplaces were social problems.
formed. 3. The appropriate role of the
• World War II advanced the practitioner whether to give
trend toward community help or to foster self-
planning under national determination.
auspices, both public and
private. 1955 to 1968
• Many came to regard • This period coincides with the
government as the preferred end of McCarthy era.
means for developing society, McCarthyism is the practice of
rather than business. making accusations of
subversion or treason without
 proper regard for evidence. rights and developing pride in
During the McCarthy era, their special identity.
hundreds of Americans were
• Late in this period, other
accused of being communists
groups asserted themselves:
or communist sympathizers
the gay men and lesbians
and became the subject of
demanded social and
aggressive investigations
economic rights and fought
• A social condition during this
discrimination in jobs and
period saw the growth of the
housing; the elderly
Civil Rights Movement marked
demanded greater attention
by the 1954 Supreme Court
to their needs, especially for
decision ending legal school
health care; the handicapped
segregation and the rising
or persons with disability
dissatisfaction of black
drew attention they suffer in
Americans.
education, employment, and
• The Montgomery, Alabama,
public facilities.; the women,
bus boycott which started on
oppressed by the
December 5, 1955 and ended
requirements of their
on December 20, 1956,
traditional roles, demanded
brought Martin Luther King
liberation and equality.
Jr. and the Southern
Christian Leadership • In this period also saw the
Conference forward as leaders growth of Student Movements
in the civil rights struggle. stimulated by the civil rights
The Montgomery Bus Boycott movement and student
was a political and social activism among whites as
protest campaign against the well as blacks.
policy of racial segregation
• Training for community
on the
organization practitioners in
public
social work grew. There was
transit
an increase in the number of
system of
schools of social work
Montgomery, Alabama.
providing training programs
• The Congress of Racial for community organizers.
Equality sponsored nonviolent
• • In 1963, the Council on
resistance in the form of sit-
Social Work Education
ins, freedom rides, and
initiated the effort to develop
demonstrations.
curriculum for training
• Minority groups asserted community organizers.
themselves, claimed their
1969 and After
• Richard Nixon held office as  The first Council of
the president of the United Social Agencies was
States of America during this organized in
period. Pittsburgh in 1908.
 The social settlement,
• Social conditions emerged
another pioneer
during this period include: the
organization
emergence of an information
concerned with group
society, the growth of world
and recreational
economy, decentralization.
activities and with
• There was a shift in the welfare of the
occupational structure in the neighborhood or local
emergence of an information community within the
society as most Americans large city, came into
spend their time creating, existence during this
processing, or distributing period.
information. In almost sphere  In Russell Sage
of life technological Foundation
advancement have changed established a
the ways Americans live. Department of
Surveys and
• The economic growth of the
Exhibits, which
US has stalled and its
became a center for
domestic markets were
information, advice
dominated by foreign products
and assistance with
in many sectors.
surveys.
• Decentralization was the  The Rise of
trend. United States no longer Federations (1917-1935)
played the dominant role in  With the entry of the
the world economy. United States into
World War I in 1917,
Four Major Periods
there was a mushroom
• The Charity growth of 300 to 400
Organization Period “war chests”, financial
(1870- 1917) federations concerned
 The first city-wide wholly or partially with
charity organization appeals for funds.
society in the United  By 1930, the
States was community chest plan
established in had become the
Buffalo in 1877. established pattern for
financing most of the
 important voluntary on bringing about and
welfare agencies in maintaining an adjustment
large cities. between social welfare needs
 When community and resources.
chests were organized  Community Organization and
in many communities Social Change (1955-1970
during the 1920s, a  The Struggle for
council was often set Civil Rights and
up in connection with Racial Justice
the chest, of an existing  Urban Decay and
council was brought Efforts at Urban
into close relationship Development
with the chest.  The Economic
 Expansion and Professional Opportunity
Development (1935-1955) Program and the
 It was marked by a War on Poverty
recognition and by an  The Phenomenon of
increased concern with an Mass Organization
analysis of the process of Consumers and
and the development of Lower-income
professional skills. Groups
 The stock market crash of  The tactics of this
1929 heralded the organization
beginning of the great included visits to
depression of 1930s relief offices by large
 Community communities,
organization was recognized “demonstrations,
as an integral and hunger-marches,
important aspect of social work-relief strikes,”
work education in the and forcible
Hollis-Taylor study (1948- resistance to the
1951) and in the activities eviction of families
of the American Association for non-payment of
of Schools of Social Work rent.
and its successor, the  The other example
Council on Social Work is the organization
Education (1952). of the Back of the
 During the 1940s and even Yards
later, a widespread of not Neighborhood
the prevailing conception of Council in Chicago
community organization in the late 1930s,
focused on task goals and under the
 leadership of Saul together to lighten up a
D. Alinsky burden.
 The fullest  The bayanihan approach to
expression of organizing towards well-being
Alinsky’s philosophy is a collective action to help
and methods is the member of the community
found in his book who are in need. This reflects
Reveille for the community spirit and the
Radicals. core essence of Filipino
culture.
Historical Development of
Community Organizing in the Spanish Period (1521-1898)
Philippine Setting
 During the Spanish era,
 Social welfare work is deeply the sword and the cross
embedded in the evolution of were highlighted. The
Filipino society and culture. sword and the cross
became the symbol of
 From those activities
colonization that resulted
showing damayan
to oppression were also
and bayanihanintended to the reason for our
lighten up a burden ancestors to stage revolts
faced by a Filipino family to and protest.
organized religious and  During this period separate
philanthropic work during the communities were grouped
Spanish time to specialized kind together into pueblos.
Revolution to government  Spanish colonizers
responsibility during the American succeeded in introducing
period then to a social work Christianity to the islands.
profession today  The imposition of the
colonizers’ faith system
Pre-Colonial Community Life
affected the social fabric
 If there was a welfare worker and cultural practices of
or community organizer the local people.
during the pre-colonial time, it  Religious conversion
was the Babaylan. necessitated the whole
 In the pre-Spanish conquest, scheme of pueblo life, to
the focus of general well- be within the immediate
being was on economic fold of the church,
productivity for consumption, requiring a shift from a
mutual help and protection. “slash-and-dibble”
 Thus, the term bayanihan agriculture to an
emerged as word for helping appropriate sedentary
 system of land cultivation
and an alternative
technology of food
production.
The American Period (1899-1946)
 The American rule ushered in
the benefits of universal
education, the introduction of
public health measures, and
the incorporation of increase
governmental responsibility
and initiatives in welfare
activities, together with the
promotion of social justice.
 The period also saw Catholic-
sponsored institutions and
secular, fraternal,
professional, business and
civic organizations engaged in
the promotion of community
concern for general well-being.
 Protestant missionaries
introduced more
modern approaches
in familyand child
welfare, youth development,
and women’s work, apart from
the founding of hospitals,
charity clinics and academic
institutions.
 The period also saw Catholic-
sponsored institutions and
secular, fraternal,
professional, business and
civic organizations engaged in
the promotion of community
concern for general well-being.
 In 1915, a more systematic
and formal implementation of
social welfare services ushered
in by the passage of
Legislative Act No. 2510 which
created the Public Welfare
Board.
 The period also saw Catholic-
sponsored institutions and
secular, fraternal,
professional, business and
civic organizations engaged in
the promotion of community
concern for general well-being.
 In preparation to the founding
of the Republic of the
Philippines, important
developments took shape in
the form of mandate in the
1935 Philippine Constitution,
which broadly advanced its
belief in social justice to
insure the well-being and
economic security of all
people and specifically cited
that the State shall afford
protection to labor, especially
to working women and
minors, and shall regulate the
relations between land-
owners and tenants, and
between labor and capital in
industry and agriculture.
Public Welfare Board
• In 1918 with the enactment of
Legislative Act No. 1745, the
Board assumed more
definitive coordinating
functions such as:
1. to study, coordinate and
regulate as much as possible
efforts of all government
 agencies interested in public • This period focused on the
welfare of social service, and provision of aid and comfort
of private entities receiving to released prisoners of war
government support for and the establishment of
similar end. convalescent homes for them
by the Bureau of Public
2. to insure the wise expenditure
Welfare.
of all funds for public welfare
purposes • The Bureau was placed under
the Office of the President. To
3. to promote, inspect, and
effect more cohesive and
regulate the organization of
integrated welfare program
private institutions for
the Social Welfare
charitable purposes.
Commission (SWC) was
4. to investigate social established.
conditions in the
• There was an upsurge of both
country in a view
economic and political
to extending relief or other
problems arising out of the
forms of assistance when
agrarian unrest in Central
necessary.
Luzon.
5. To receive or appropriate such
• President’s Action Committee
sum or property as might be
on Social Amelioration
provided for by law.
(PACSA) was tasked to provide
6. To act as an advisory relief for victims of dissidence
committee to the Secretary of and natural calamities.
Interior.
PACSA
7. To appoint and organize
 In August 1948, President
committees to carry out its
Elpidio Quirino as a partial
functions and to coordinate
solution to the
private and public efforts for
underdevelopment of the
public welfare and social
rural areas which was one of
services
the major causes of social
World War II and Post- War Years unrest established the
(1941-1945) President’s Action Committee
on Social Amelioration
(PACSA), the Philippine
forerunner of community
development
(CWAPI )Council of Welfare
Agencies of the Philippines
  Council of Welfare as well as the
Agencies of the establishment of a
Philippines was organized in permanent foundation fund
1949. for the accomplishment of its
objectives.
 Its main objective is to
coordinate the welfare (PACD )Presidential Assistant on
services of its members Community Development
agencies for sound
 The Presidential Assistant on
community planning and
Community Development
concerted action.
(PACD) was established with
 Itis now known as US-AID and in the
Council of Welfare summer of that year
Agencies Foundation of the an examination was given to
Philippines. select participants for training
as community development
Community Chest
workers.
 This was formally organized
 Functions of PACD:
on December 20, 1949.
 Plan and implement
 The need for a unified
the President’s
approach to raise funds for
community
the support of private
development program
voluntary welfare
in barrios,
organizations was felt in the
municipalities, and
Philippines as early as 1947.
chartered cities, and
 The organization was coordinate and
converted into a foundation integrate the activities
on March 25, 1974 in order of all and each of the
to enable the Community departments and
Chest of Greater Manila to be offices of the
relevant to the expanding Government engaged
social welfare needs of the in community
communities within the development in order
sphere of solicitation. to increase their
effectiveness, achieve
 Main functions: planning,
maximum benefits,
budgeting and fundraising
and avoid duplication
 As a foundation, it pursues and overlapping of
scientific studies and activities:
research in health, social  Promote the
welfare and the humanities, organization of
 Community social workers help the
Development Councils families to enjoy the maximum
at the provincial and benefits from the program of
municipal levels, and housing, relocation and
Barrio Councils resettlement.
according to law;
 In the mid-sixties, church
 Develop a grants-in-
groups have initiated
aid program to
community development
stimulate participation
programs in rural areas. In
of barrio citizens in
1971, an inter-church, Its goal
community
is consistent with the social
development;
welfare goal – “the well being
 Recommend to the
of man.” Aware of this, social
President legislation
workers help the families to
contributing to the
enjoy the maximum benefits
economic and social
from the program of housing,
betterment of the rural
relocation and resettlement.
areas, and the
strengthening of local  In the mid-sixties, church
government. groups have initiated
community development
Urban Community Programs
programs in rural areas. In
 The Community Welfare 1971, an inter-church,
Services Program of the
Community Organizing during
UNICEF-Assisted Social
Martial Law
Services Project of the Special
Welfare Administration was • Marcos' declaration of
still on the drawing boards martial rule in 1972
when an opportune time for altered the terrain for social
its implementation suddenly movements.
came in 1964.
• All progressive groups were
 Thousands upon thousands of subjected to repression while
Manila slum dwellers were some individuals were either
relocated to Sapang Palay, eliminated or arrested by the
Bulacan with very little military.
planning and preparation.
• During the early stages of
Housing, Squatter Relocation And martial rule, all attempts at
Resettlement organizing ground to a halt,
except for the Zone One Tondo
 Its goal is consistent with the
Organization (ZOTO).
social welfare goal – “the well
being of man.” Aware of this,
 • Church-based programs which • In the 1970’s, in a place called
functioned as non-government Zone One Tondo, 30, 000
organizations (NGOs) were the families were left to be
first to engage in organizing homeless by the construction
despite martial law. of an IMF-World Bank
supported project- an
• These include the Urban and
International Port.
Rural Missionaries of
the Philippines, Task Force • Realizing that there is no way
Detainees of the to struggle and win but
Philippines, Episcopal together, the 30,000 families
Commission on Tribal organized themselves and
Filipinos, Share and Care formed the Zone One Tondo
Apostolate for Poor Settlers, Organization.
and PEACE, among others.
• Braving the times, together
• The Philippine Ecumenical with different churches, groups
Council for Community and institutions, ZOTO led the
Organization (PECCO) movement for the urban poor‘s
continued with the refinement right to housing. Thousand of
and implementation of the urban poor filled the streets to
community organizing (CO) claim their rights.
approach all over the country,
• With the organization growing
in combination with the
strength, it was able to
Marxist structural analysis
successfully negotiate with the
and the thinking of Saul
Marcos government the in-
Alinsky and Paolo Freire.
city relocation of the 30,000
• Politicized NGOs used the families.
structural analysis approach
• In 1976, ZOTO claimed victory.
in conscientizing and
The government decided to
mobilizing, while the Basic
reclaim the Navotas shoreline
Christian Community
as an in-city relocation site
framework was developed by
with provision for industrial
the progressive church as a
and commercial lands to
response to the needs of the
create jobs for the resettled
time.
people.
The Case of Zone One Tondo
organization