The Concepts

of a Community
National Service Training Program
Civic Welfare Training Service
Dr. Lloyd Vincent O. Sasil
NSTP CWTS Director
WHAT IS COMMUNITY?
According to the Webster’s Dictionary,
it is a body of people living in the same place
who work towards a common interest.

It is a term which derived from the Old French

word comunete and the Latin word communitas
(cum, “with/together” + gift).

It is a broad terminology for fellowship

or organized society.
 WHAT IS COMMUNITY?
The most common and simplest definition is that, it is an aggregation of
families and individuals who have settled in a compact and contiguous
geographical area and share significant elements of common life as
shown in their manners, customs, traditions, and modes of speech.
For Manalili (2009), it refers to an organization of people who are able
to undertake projects based on its members’ experience, resiliency,
motivation, and willingness to learn.
In archaeology, it is understood in two ways:
First, it is a place where people actually reside in,
an idea quite similar to the concept of an ancient settlement.
Second, it is a group of individuals who live near,
and interact with, each other.
 WHAT IS COMMUNITY?
▪ An active community is an organization of people who strategize,
conceptualize, implement, and evaluate a program, (Bunagan et al., 2009).
▪ In Genesis 1:27 of the Old Testament, the word community encompasses
all God’s creation in the universe, including man and woman whom
He created in His own image.
▫ He allowed them to have dominion over all living things
and other natural creations.
▫ Man and woman are not created to live in isolation from one another.
The first framework established in understanding the essence
of a community concentrates on the relationship of
the Lord with His creation.
 Sociological Concept of a Community
Sociologically speaking, the family is the smallest unit if society.
It is composed of the immediate and non-immediate members,
while a community is composed of different families living
in the same place who share the same interest.

The activities of a family that are also done by a

community include sharing common resources,
working for the common good, and building
harmonious relationships.
Sociological Concept of a Community

According to the Holy Scripture,

the stronger the family, the stronger the community.

An individual person can form a family,

a family can form a community and
a community can form a nation.
AESTHETIC AND MORAL VALUES
OF A COMMUNITY
It is consist of the guiding and sometimes the paradoxical
ideas that its members hold, e.g., how they know what is good
from bad, beautiful from ugly and right from wrong.

As a community develops, its values change. A change in

values (e.g., solidarity, commitment, mutuality, and trust)
may result from innovations in technology or social hierarchy.

It was Aristotle who first postulated the concept of

community as a group established by men with shared values.
AESTHETIC AND MORAL
VALUES OF A COMMUNITY
▪ It has been recognized, that people can belong
to a number of different communities at once:
communities of place; communities of culture;
communities of memory, in which people who may
technically be strangers share “a morally significant
memory”; and psychological communities
“of face-to-face personal interaction” that is
“governed by sentiments of trust, cooperation,
and altruism” (Boyles, 1996- 1997).
AESTHETIC AND MORAL VALUES
OF A COMMUNITY
▪ Human beings have social instincts; they come into
this world equipped with the predisposition to learn
new ideas and values.

▪ As such, the concept of a community has likewise

evolved- from its simple to complex nature and
from its basic to multi-dimensional nature.
THANK
YOU!!!
The Concepts
of a Community
National Service Training Program
Civic Welfare Training Service
Dr. Lloyd Vincent O. Sasil
NSTP CWTS Director