COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION AND

EMPOWERMENT

Agrinelda Nelmida Miclat

 TECHNIQUES
Structuring Demonstration
Situation Analysis Use of Group
Problem Analysis Dynamics and
Role Playing and Experiential
Learning in Training
Socio-drama
Use of Expert/
Education and
Consultant
Promotion
Formal Study
Structuring
• This technique employs the use of suitable structures to
engage in problem solving as councils, committees, task
force, ad hoc committee, Study group, etc.
Situation Analysis
• This techniques involves the breaking up of problem
situation or collection of data, exploring the content and
examining and setting forth of the various aspects, issues
and relationships involved to gain insight and
understanding the content better for logical
conclusion/solutions.
• WHAT, WHEN, WHO, WHERE, WHY, AND HOW.
Problem Analysis

• This technique is the process of looking into the causes of the

problem and their effect on those affected by it. In analyzing for
example the problem of employment, the problem analysis may
proceed this way.

CAUSES UNEMPLOYMENT EFFECT

Lack of educational qualifications Irregular income from odd jobs/Low paying jobs

Lack of skills Sickness due to malnutrition

Personality defect Children stops schooling

Lack of job opportunities due to peace & order problems dismissed due to strikes Drunkeness, crime & deliquency

Palakasan system Strained family relationship

Broken homes

Poverty
Role Playing and Socio-drama
• Role playing is acting out a situation which would depict
a problem or varied problems and their effect designed to
change the attitude and thinking of the target audience
towards the problem as from apathy to concern.
Education and Promotion
• This technique employs a range of educational and
promotional ways/approaches to enhance people’s
understanding and support of programs, projects and
plans for community improvement and development.

• Example:
film showing, training seminar, posters, folk media, field
visits.
Demonstration
• This technique uses the organization of demonstration
project to illustrate ways of dealing with certain social
problems which can be subsequently adopted for similar
uses by the community and other communities and
organization.
Use of Group Dynamics and Experiential Learning in
Training
• Experiential Learning employs the exposure of trainees
to a planned situation or game where they experience a
learning process.
• Group Dynamics on the other hand had been defined and
to mean the interacting forces within a small human
group. For purpose of our learning and indigenous
application, it refers to planned group processes designed
to communicate new knowledge and ideas to change
negative values, attitudes and behavior and to
promote/strengthen relationships among the target group
members.
Use of an Expert/Consultant
• No person has a monopoly of knowledge, hence one of the
CO worker’s techniques is the use of an expert from other
fields she is not knowledgeable about or another CO
worker who has more experience as consultant.
Formal Study
• The CO worker employs this technique to influence public
opinion and motivate people to act on certain community
or national issues. She carries out formal study by
gathering and analyzing data in connection with current
issues or problem, the results of which she interprets and
disseminates to the public that they would appropriately
act on said issues or problem.
What is Strategy?
• Strategy had been defined as a tactic or careful plan or a
method devised to achieve a desired goal. The Philippine
Social Work Encyclopedia alludes to strategy as a
procedure adopted by social workers to achieve a goal.
Strategies used in Community Organizing
Management of Power
Training of Leaders for their
Role Functions
Organizing people for specific
tasks, roles & function
Use of Conflict
Collaborative Strategy
Campaign Strategy
Contest Strategy
Social Brokerage
Use of Integrative Mechanism
to strengthen Organization
Social Protest to support
Social Movements
Lobbying
Use of Field Trips
Use of Volunteers
Management of Power
The CO worker uses this strategy by helping create new
center of power in communities where leadership is
indifferent and ineffective.
Where there is however a concentration or monopoly of
power, she helps diffuse this power to a wider base by
involving new leadership, the uninvolved and those who
are targets for assistance or change that they may be able
to represent their own interest in any decisions that would
affect them.
Training of Leaders for their Role Functions

The training of indigenous leaders for their role functions

is an effective strategy in enabling the community to be a
self-reliant and self-managed community. Those leader
who were elected and appointed to the Provincial,
Municipal and Barangay Development Councils would be
ineffective if they do not know their roles, function and
responsibilities and how to carry them out as community
leaders.
They should be trained on following
leadership requirements:
Management and Administration
Leadership
Developmental Planning, problem-solving & Decision making
Interpersonal and Group Relationship
Disaster Preparedness and its management
Primary health care
Knowledge on the national social and economic development thrusts
How to prepare policies & ordinances
How to prepare project proposals/feasibility studies
Barangay justice system
Local Government Code & other pertinent Laws.
Organizing People for Specific Tasks, Roles & Functions

Organizing people for these purposes is the forte of CO

workers. People are organized to do specific tasks is a
strategy that facilitates the attainment of goals and
objectives since job is done in a more organized manner
which uses at the same time the pooled thinking, expertise
and resources of those involved in the different organized
operational units.
The following committee are often organized to solve or
plan for the community’s varied problems and needs:

Committee on Health
Committee on Education
Committee on Livelihood
Committee on Youth Affairs
Committee on Infrastructure
Committee on Peace and Order
Committee on Social Services & Disasters
Committee on Special Projects
Use of Conflict
This strategy is used in communities where the people are
apathetic towards their pressing problems and needs when
other strategies fail. The introduction of conflict is designed
to awaken the people from lethargy and trigger the desired
action on their part to do something about their
community problems.

The use of conflict requires its handling by a competent

and experienced CO worker.
Collaborative Strategy
• It is based on the assumption of consensus or common
base values and interests among the parties in
disagreement. And that agreements can be obtained by
overcoming poor communication, misinformation and
inaction.
Campaign Strategy
This is applicable when the people are not in agreement on
how an issue should be resolved. This strategy employs
educating, persuading and pressuring the recalcitrant into
agreeing with a group’s proposed solution/approach to a
major issue or problem in the community.

Contest Strategy- where there is dimension in crucial issues,

the contest strategy would apply to crystalize the issues
involved and to get majority vote/support for one of the
contestant’s proposal which will be considered the
community’s adopted decision after the voting.
Social Brokerage
this is a strategy of social action, one of the community
organization models. It is employed when a problem
threatens to be explosive or disruptive and is diffused
through the CO worker’s intervention as a broker with the
involvement of relevant groups and individuals who can
help diffuse a crisis situation.
Use of Integrative Mechanisms to Strengthen Organization

This is the second strategy in social action model of

community organization. It employs the integration of
other groups efforts and support to strengthen the same
another group or agency is espousing. The support may be
in the form of expertise, logistics, equipments, personnel,
speakers bureau or just a public announcement of
support.
Social Protest to support Social Movement

This is the third strategy of the social action model which is

commonly used as a strategy in influencing change or
modification of policies, legislation, ordinances, programs
and services deemed irrelevant, inadequate or
disadvantageous to the greater sector of society.

It also used to pressure the removal of officials perceived as

incompetent, immoral and corrupt or simply indifferent to
the plight and welfare of some sectors of society as the poor,
the squatters, the handicapped and other of their kind.
Lobbying
As fourth strategy in social action model, wherein interest
group attend committee meeting of the legislative bodies
and the legislative sessions itself to show support of or
protests against the passage of certain bills or some of its
offending provisions.

Their lobbying consist of presenting a position paper to

the deliberating committee where their stand is detailed in
a concise and incisive manner.
Use of Field Trips
People learn faster through visual aids and actual
experience.
This strategy employs to fast-track learning designed for
indigenous leaders’ training for community development
and leadership roles.

CO worker will schedule a field trip to a model community

where the trainees learn how the model community is
administered and managed through people’s participation.
Use of Volunteers
Services in welfare agencies and their CO work are often
hampered by lack of professional workers and adequate
funding. As observed, developing countries like the
Philippines have long plans that are short in funds. Such
is the reality in Third World countries like ours that are
plagued with multifaceted problems. Therefore withs
scarce resources, people want to accomplished so much.
Hence, we should strategize in order to achieve our social
goals. We have to learn to use simple solutions and be
creative for complex problems.
CHAPTER V: WORKING WITH COMMITTEES AND OTHER GROUPS

• What is Group Process?

It had been defined as the network of psychological,
interaction that goes on in every group; it is everything
that happens in a group and is affected by the kind of
interaction among the members. In this sense, it is used to
also mean group dynamic
 FORCES OPERATING IN A GROUP
1. Social Interaction- is the dynamic interplay of forces in which
contact between persons results in modification of attitudes
and behavior of participants.
2. Communication-is the means through which information,
symbols and messages are given or transmitted and received. It
may be verbal or non-verbal. It is the element that facilitates
interaction.
3. Leadership-is the process of influencing other for the purpose
of performing a shared task.
Principles of Group Process

Principle of Participatory Leadership

Principle of Group Attraction
Principle of Felt Needs
Principle of Feedback
Principle for Effective Committee Work- Audrey R. Trecker

Democratic Values Facts First

Purpose Participation
Constructive and Creative Team work
Leadership Progress Process
Proper Personnel Time and Timing
(Members)
Reporting
Planning
Evaluation
Preparation
Member satisfaction
Setting and Atmosphere
Factors for Effective Working Relationship

Group Solidarity
Sense of common purpose
Group Stability
System of External Reward
Sense of Belonging
CHAPTER VI- The Processes for People Empowerment

What is People Empowerment

It is the process of releasing the potentials of people

through appropriate programs and services and strategies,
removing blocks that deter their growth and development
and accessing them for the enhancement of their highest
capabilities that they would be freed from the fetters of
poverty, ignorance, oppression, social injustices and fear to
stand up for their rights and pursuits for happiness as a
member of a free and just society.
Sources of Power
Freedom
Knowledge and Wisdom
Mental and moral efficacy
Capability for leadership roles
Ability to act or produce and effect
Prestige and wealth
Possession of authority and control over others
Physical might as controlling a group of armed persons
Suggested Processes for People Empowerment

Identify the blocks that hinders people’s growth and

development
Removal of the blocks to growth and development
Releasing the potentials of people
Accessing the people for the enhancement of their
potentials to its highest and productive level
HOLISTIC APPROACH

People empowerment should be approached through an

integrated and inter-disciplinary effort since a person’s
total well-being is attained through his physical, social,
economic, mental and spiritual needs.
ATMOSPHERE OF FREEDOM
People should be free to know their rights and privileges,
the laws and policies that had been enacted for their
benefit in order that they would be able to profit from
them. They should be free to express themselves when they
feel wronged and short-changes=d by some powerful
sectors of society without fear of reprisal as they enjoy
equal rights, freedom and protection as any powerful
citizen of the land.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Social Justice should be a living reality and experienced
and not merely enshrined in our legal statues. For social
justice engenders faith in the government and the
institutions that represent it. Without social justice, the
government loses its credibility and its covenant with the
people who would then be encouraged to look for
alternative forms of governance or resort to violent means
in obtaining justice for themselves.