University of Saint Louis

NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM

Civic Welfare Training Service

NSTP 1 CWTS MODULE 5

Sense of Community: Connecting the Youth to the Grassroots Society

Introduction:

The students will understand their role in community organization and knowing their participation in
building a community. It is a concept in Community Psychology, social psychology work, as well as in
several other research disciplines that community organization focuses on experience of community rather
than its formation, setting or other features. Community services administration needs to understand how
structures influence this feeling and psychological sense of community.

Objectives:

At the end of the module, the students should be able to:

- Understand the meaning of community

- Define community participation
- Discuss the sense of community, community building and organization
- Improve and facilitate the interrelationships and to promote coordination among
organizations, groups and individuals concerned with social welfare program and
services
- Explore the mechanism of achieving community common goal
- Clarify the role of community leaders towards such endeavor

Motivation:

The individual person is always the motivated unit. Each person, in his/her role as community member may
have some degree, varying from weak to keen, of interest in community affairs; theories of motivation for
community organization are the same as any other theories of motivation. A pattern of strong community
motivation is one which many or most members are strongly disposed to achieve similar or common goals.

Activity: The students are asked to think or mention one team building activity and discuss then also explain
the values they get from the activity.

Process:
After the activity, the students will share and discuss what they have learned from the activity. Their sharing
will help them understand what community or community building is about.

Discussion:

Basic Concepts of Community

• In biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment.

• In sociology, a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common
location.

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Sense of Community: Connecting the Youth to the Grassroots Society
 University of Saint Louis
NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM
Civic Welfare Training Service

• The word community is derived from the Latin communitas (meaning the same), which is in turn
derived from communis, which means "common, public, shared by all or many." Communis comes
from a combination of the Latin prefix com- (which means "together") and the word munis (which
has to do with the exchange of services).

Sense of Community
Sense of community focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation,
setting, or other features. It asks questions about the individual's perception, understanding, attitudes,
feelings, etc. about community and his or her relationship to it and to others' participation - indeed to the
complete, multifaceted community experience.
It is “the perception of similarity to others, an acknowledged interdependence with others, a
willingness to maintain this interdependence by giving to or doing for others what one expects from them,
and the feeling that one is part of a larger dependable and stable structure
It is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to
the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together.

Four Elements of Sense of Community (according to the McMillan & Chavis theory)
1. Membership. Membership includes five attributes:
• Boundaries
• Emotional safety
• A sense of belonging and identification
• Personal
• investment
• A common symbol system
2. Influence. Influence works both ways: members need to feel that they have some influence in the
group, and some influence by the group on its members is needed for group cohesion.
3. Integration and fulfillment of needs. Members feel rewarded in some way for their participation.
4. Shared emotional connection. The "definitive element for true community" It includes shared
history and shared participation (or at least identification with the history).

Community Building and Community Building Approach

Community building is directed toward the creation or enhancement of community between
individuals within a regional area (such as a neighborhood) or with a common interest.
A community building process aims to build capacity in neighborhood institutions, strengthen ties
among residents, and assist residents to work individually and collectively toward neighborhood change.
1. Community Participation
2. Capacity Building.
3. Neighborhood Governance
4. Collaboration.
5. An Asset Orientation

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Sense of Community: Connecting the Youth to the Grassroots Society
 University of Saint Louis
NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM
Civic Welfare Training Service

Community building and organizing

In The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace, Scott Peck argues that the almost accidental sense
of community that exists at times of crisis can be consciously built. Peck believes that conscious community
building is a process of deliberate design based on the knowledge and application of certain rules. He states
that this process goes through four stages:
1. Pseudo-community:
2. Chaos
3. Emptiness
4. True community
Youth Development and Community Engagement
Basic Concept on Community Service
Community service are those activities that engage youth. It is often called youth service. It is a
methodology that is simultaneously employed to strengthen young peoples' senses of civic engagement and
nationalism, as well as assist them in meeting educational, developmental, and social goals.
Reasons to Get Involved:
1. It feels good. The satisfaction and pride that come from helping others are important reasons to
serve. When you commit your time and effort to an organization or a cause you feel strongly about,
the feeling of fulfillment can be endless.
2. It strengthens the community. Organizations and agencies that use youth to serve are providing
important services at low or no cost to those who need them. When a community is doing well as
a whole, its individuals are better off, too.
3. Develop young people’s connections to their own identity, culture, and community.
4. Recognize that young people are assets to and experts about their communities.
5. Engage young people as community leaders on issues that matter to them.

What is a Service Learning?

Service-Learning as a method of teaching enriches learning by engaging students in meaningful
service to their schools or communities through careful integration with established learning objectives or
curricula.
Service-learning is an educational strategy that links service and academic curriculum to promote

learning. It promotes students’ personal, social, and intellectual growth and provides them with a sense of
civic responsibility and opportunities for career exploration.
Service-learning’s key components are:
1. Student Leadership
2. Genuine community
3. Clear connections to curricular learning objectives

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Sense of Community: Connecting the Youth to the Grassroots Society
 University of Saint Louis
NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM
Civic Welfare Training Service

4. Reflection
5. Project Determination, Planning, Preparation, and Implementation:
6. Celebration

Project Ideas for Community Service

The following enumerates the different kinds of ideas that the youth may explore in serving the
community:

Types of Service Projects:

1. Single Service Project. A single, large, or mid-sized project requires broad-based support and
should reflect the general interest of people in the community. Community-built playgrounds,
recreation centers, or housing require diverse resources from both adults and young people and can
be powerful visual symbols of the community’s commitment to youth.
2. Community-Wide Volunteer Day A celebration with multiple project sites requires teaming with
organizations and agencies whose projects can be accomplished in one day. River, highway, and
park cleanups, painting, and other rehabilitation projects are good choices and can accommodate
many volunteers. A well-organized city clean-up can accomplish a significant amount of work in a
single day and really put a shine on a community.
3. Serve-a-thon. Serve-a-thons allow you to combine community service and fundraising for local
projects or organizations by taking pledges for hours of service. Create pledge sheets that volunteers
can use to solicit contributions before the service day, and collect the funds raised when volunteers
arrive for their service projects.
4. Workshops and Training Sessions Organize a youth-led workshop to train NGOs and the public on
skills to deal with or prevent problems your community faces (e.g. environment racism, ethnic
conflict, HIV/AIDS) or to build capacity in volunteer management and community service.

Planning a Community Service Project

Factors to Consider When Planning a Project:
• Identify a need for your community.
• Define the target group.
• Focus on a specific objective or goal that is appropriate for the community.
• Involve members of the community in planning.
• Tap into available community resources.
• Decide how you will evaluate your plan or project. What worked and what did not?
• Develop partnerships with other organizations in your community. Partner with other area
chapters.

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Sense of Community: Connecting the Youth to the Grassroots Society
 University of Saint Louis
NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM
Civic Welfare Training Service

There are four basic phases to community service:

1) Identifying an issue
2) Getting organized
3) Carrying out your plans and
4) Follow-up planning.

The following outline can help you to plan your community service project:
I. Education
a. Identify an issue
b. Research the issues' past and present history
c. Frame the issue
d. Provide internal education

II. Getting Organized

a. Choose advocacy strategies available for the specific issue
b. Determine who else in the community will support or oppose the issue
c. Identify the target population
d. Develop a plan with alternative strategies
e. Assign tasks and target deadlines

III. Carrying Out Your Plans

a. Implement the plan
b. Track your progress
c. Adjust your strategies
d. Identify finish lines
e. Evaluate the plan

IV. Follow-up Planning

a. Evaluate success and accomplishments
b. Evaluate weaknesses and strategies that did not work

Advocacy Planning Strategies

Strategies that can aid in planning a successful community advocacy project include:
1. Keep your project simple; stick to one specific issue that has meaning for your community or the
target population.
2. Document what you already know about the issue, research what you do not know.
3. Use existing information, research articles, reports, books, or publications.
4. Document real life examples or experiences.

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Sense of Community: Connecting the Youth to the Grassroots Society
 University of Saint Louis
NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM
Civic Welfare Training Service

5. Reach out to local settings for speaking opportunities in service groups, schools, and other
organizations.
6. Use experts on the issue for public speaking and presentations.
7. Utilize the local media for public service announcements, editorial and op-ed articles,
highlighting a fact each week.
8. Involve a public official.
9. Work with others such as parent groups, business groups, church groups, senior groups, student
groups, service clubs, local associations, neighborhood groups and professional associations.
10. Set up regular meetings for planning, tracking progress and evaluating the project.

Learning Task/s:

Answer the following briefly but substantially. (10 points each question)

1. As a youth, how do you engage in activities of your community and how do you encourage young
people like you to participate in civic engagement and nationalism?

2., Think of one community project that you can implement and categorize it according to the four (4)
types of Service Projects. Explain why it belongs to that certain type of Service Project?

Rubric:

5 points- content
3 points- organization
2 points- mechanics

References:

1.The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development

2.Community Building Resource Exchange. http://www.commbuild.org/index.html
3.Http://www.theinnovationcenter.org/documents/C4-CreatingChange.pdf
4.Global Youth Service Day. http://www.gysd.org/doc/
5.Http://www.aacn.org/WD/Practice/Content/PublicPolicy/communityserviceplanning.pcms?menu=Pract
ice

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Sense of Community: Connecting the Youth to the Grassroots Society