ASO 816 Community Development- Notes PDF

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Notes COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT References Ayres, J., et al. 1990. Take Charge: Economic Development in Small Communities. The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Chavis, D., Ph.D. and P. Florin, Ph.D. 1990. Community Development, Community Participation, and Substance Abuse Prevention. Two papers prepared for the Prevention Office, Bureau of Drug Abuse Services, Department of Health, County of Santa Clara, California. Kaye, G. and T. Wolff, Ph.D. 1997. From the Ground Up: A Workbook on Coalition Building and Community Development. AHEC/Community Partners, Amherst, MA. Maser, C. 1997. Sustainable Community Development: Principles and Concepts. St. Lucie Press, Delray Beach, Florida.

ASO 816: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

A DEFINITION: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Community development is a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems. Community wellbeing (economic, social, environmental and cultural) often evolves from this type of collective action being taken at a grassroots level. Community development (CD) is a broad term applied to the practices of civic activists, involved citizens and professionals to build stronger and more resilient local communities. There are complementary definitions of community development. Community Development Challenge report, which was produced by a working party comprising leading UK organizations in the field (including (Foundation Builders) Community Development Foundation, Community Development Exchange and the Federation for Community Development Learning) defines community development as: "A set of values and practices which plays a special role in overcoming poverty and disadvantage, knitting society together at the grass roots and deepening democracy. There is a CD profession, defined by national occupational standards and a body of theory and experience going back the best part of a century. There are active citizens who use CD techniques on a voluntary basis, and there are also other professions and agencies which use a CD approach or some aspects of it." Select Definitions of Community Development “The deliberate attempt by community people to work together to guide the future of their communities and the development of a corresponding set of techniques for assisting community people in such a process.” (Bennett, 1973) “An educational approach which would raise levels of local awareness and increase confidence

and ability of community groups to identify and tackle their own problems.” (Darby & Morris, 1975) “A series of community improvements which take place over time as a result of the common efforts of various groups of people. Each successive improvement is a discrete unit of community development. It meets a human want or need.” (Dunbar, 1972) “Finding effective ways of helping and teaching people to develop new methods and to learn new skills. This process is, however, done in such a way as to retain community control and community spirit.” (Frederickson, 1975) “A process of creating special community organizations throughout society which will be responsible for channeling demands to centers of power, to distributors of benefits.” (Hammock, 1973) “A process, as a method, as a program, and as a movement; or as a set of purposes.” (Hauswald, 1971) “The process of local decision-making and the development of programs designed to make their community a better place to live and work.” (Huie, 1976) “All of the efforts made to establish and maintain human interaction while improving the appropriateness of the physical setting to that interaction. Underlying values to this development are the recognition of the individual’s right to select the extent of community or privacy and the group’s right to identify its own needs for community development.” (Koneya, 1975) An open system of decision making, whereby those comprising the community use democratic and rationale means to arrive at group decisions to take action for enhancing the social and economic well-being of the community.” (Littrell, 1975) Community Development Exchange defines community development as: “both an occupation (such as a community development worker in a local authority) and a way of working with communities. Its key purpose is to build communities based on justice, equality and mutual respect. Community development involves changing the relationships between ordinary people and people in positions of power, so that everyone can take part in the issues that affect their lives. It starts from the principle that within any community there is a wealth of knowledge and experience which, if used in creative ways, can be channeled into collective action to achieve the communities' desired goals. Community development practitioners work alongside people in communities to help build relationships with key people and organizations and to identify common concerns. They create opportunities for the community to learn new skills and, by enabling people to act together, community development practitioners help to foster social inclusion and equality.

A number of different approaches to community development can be recognized, including: community economic development (CED); community capacity building; Social capital formation; political participatory development; nonviolent direct action; ecologically sustainable development; asset-based community development; faith-based community development; community practice social work; community-based participatory research (CBPR); Community Mobilization; community empowerment; community participation; participatory planning including community-based planning (CBP); community-driven development (CDD); and approaches to funding communities directly. Community development seeks to empower individuals and groups of people by providing them with the skills they need to effect change in their own communities. These skills are often created through the formation of large social groups working for a common agenda. Community developers must understand both how to work with individuals and how to affect communities' positions within the context of larger social institutions. Community development ranges from small initiatives within a small group to large initiatives that involve the broader community. Effective community development should be:  

a long-term endeavour well-planned

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inclusive and equitable

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holistic and integrated into the bigger picture

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initiated and supported by community members

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of benefit to the community

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grounded in experience that leads to best practices

Community development is a grassroots process by which communities:  

become more responsible organize and plan together

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develop healthy lifestyle options

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empower themselves

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reduce poverty and suffering

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create employment and economic opportunities

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achieve social, economic, cultural and environmental goals

Community development seeks to improve quality of life. Effective community development results in mutual benefit and shared responsibility among community members. Such development recognizes:  

the connection between social, cultural, environmental and economic matters the diversity of interests within a community

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its relationship to building capacity

Community development helps to build community capacity in order to address issues and take advantage of opportunities, find common ground and balance competing interests. It doesn’t just happen – capacity building requires both a conscious and a conscientious effort to do something (or many things) to improve the community. Community development often is associated with terms such as community capacity building, community vitality, empowerment, rural development or self-reliance. The basic elements of collective action, ownership and improved circumstances are common to all these ideas. There may be slight differences in emphasis. For example, while community capacity building focuses on enhancing the assets and abilities of the community, the term is essentially synonymous with community development.

Key Characteristics of the Community Development Process * Participation comes from a broad cross section of the community. * Deliberations are made on the basis of well-informed participation. * Decisions are the result of consensus or democratic majority rule decision-making. * The process purposefully fosters group building, leadership development and capacity building (process objective) as an essential element, while striving to successfully address a substantive issue as well (product objective). * Processes are largely focused on a purposeful and systematic approach to addressing a local concern(s). * Community issues or problems are investigated holistically, linking issues and appreciating the complexities of the community in assessing and resolving the issue. * Processes are flexible and not rigidly structured to only deal with an initial concern. * U.S. community development processes have a strong reliance on professional staff facilitation and coordination. * Successful U.S. efforts are characterized as being locally initiated and entrepreneurial, although broad models may be championed by community colleges, state extension programs, or state or regional agencies furthering programmatic agendas. * The genesis of efforts is often a locally perceived crisis or potential crisis, although some initiatives arise from subtle mandates from broader units of government, opportunities to gain additional resources, or simply the pride of a key champion. * Greater competition for diminishing resources (and the general “devolution” of government-sponsored programs from broader to more local governments) has thrust communities into situations of coordination and collaboration in order to address important issues.

* The community development process is increasingly being used as the mechanism for integration in these opportunities. Community Often when we think of community, we think in geographic terms. Our community is the city, town or village where we live. When community is defined through physical location, it has precise boundaries that are readily understood and accepted by others. Defining communities in terms of geography, however, is only one way of looking at them. Communities can also be defined by common cultural heritage, language, and beliefs or shared interests. These are sometimes called communities of interest. Even when community does refer to a geographic location, it doesn’t always include everyone within the area. For example, many Aboriginal communities are part of a larger non-Aboriginal geography. In larger urban centres, communities are often defined in terms of particular neighbourhoods. Most of us belong to more than one community, whether we’re aware of it or not. For example, an individual can be part of a neighbourhood community, a religious community and a community of shared interests all at the same time. Relationships, whether with people or the land, define a community for each individual.

Development The term “development” often carries an assumption of growth and expansion. During the industrial era, development was strongly connected to increased speed, volume and size. However, many people are currently questioning the concept of growth for numerous reasons – a realization that more isn’t always better, or an increasing respect for reducing outside dependencies and lowering levels of consumerism. So while the term “development” may not always mean growth, it always imply change. Community plus Development Community development combines the idea of “community” with “development”. We discussed earlier the concept of community – a group of people with a shared identity. Hence, community development relies on interaction between people and joint action, rather than individual activity – what some sociologists call “collective agency” (Flora and Flora, 1993). “Development” is a process that increases choices. It means new options, diversification, thinking about apparent issues differently and anticipating change

(Christenson et.al., 1989). Development involves change, improvement and vitality – a directed attempt to improve participation, flexibility, equity, attitudes, the function of institutions and the quality of life. It is the creation of wealth – wealth meaning the things people value, not just dollars (Shaffer, 1989). It leads to a net addition to community assets, avoiding the “zero sum” situation where a job created “here”, is a job lost “there”. Putting the two terms together – community development – means that a community itself engages in a process aimed at improving the social, economic and environmental situation of the community. The community is both the means and the end of community development. The community itself takes action and participates together. It is through this action that the community becomes more vital, not just economically but as a strong functioning community in itself. Community development improves the ability of communities to collectively make better decisions about the use of resources such as infrastructure, labour and knowledge The community development process takes charge of the conditions and factors that influence a community and changes the quality of life of its members. Community development is a tool for managing change but it is not:  

a quick fix or a short-term response to a specific issue within a community; a process that seeks to exclude community members from participating; or

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an initiative that occurs in isolation from other related community activities.

Community development is about community building as such, where the process is as important as the results. One of the primary challenges of community development is to balance the need for long-term solutions with the day-to-day realities that require immediate decision-making and short-term action. History of community development Sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, community development has been a goal of people aiming to achieve a better life through collective effort. This process has occurred

throughout history. It can be viewed from both rural and urban perspectives. In whatever field, community development is about improvements in the lives of people, wherever they may be. Cooperation and innovation are two aspects important for its success. It comes with different histories and background. Community development practice has arisen from a variety of sources and settings. Its roots can be traced to the social reform movement in Britain and North America in the latter half of the 18 thcentury. Community development principles were formulated and applied in third world development efforts following decolonization. In the 50's and 60's CD or community organization, as it came to be called, was used in deprived or underdeveloped urban and rural settings in North America (Smith, 1979: 52). CD was a response to the perceived disintegration of society due to rapid technological change, economic dislocations, disruption in traditional family and community structures and the extension of government and commercial services into personal and family life, with negative impacts on personal effectiveness and community ties (Carey, 1979:20). CD is eclectic, integrating specialized knowledge from education, public health, economic development and politics. In the global North In the 19th century, the work of the Welsh early socialist thinker Robert Owen (1771–1851), sought to create a more perfect community. At New Lanark and at later communities such as Oneida in the USA and the New Australia Movement in Australia, groups of people came together to create utopian or intentional utopian communities, with mixed success. In the United States in the 1960s, the term "community development" began to complement and generally replace the idea of urban renewal, which typically focused on physical development projects often at the expense of working-class communities. In the late 1960s, philanthropies such as the Ford Foundation and government officials such as Senator Robert F. Kennedy took an interest in local nonprofit organizations—a pioneer was the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in Brooklyn—that attempted to apply business and management skills to the social mission of uplifting low-income residents and their neighborhoods. Eventually such groups became known as "Community Development Corporations" or CDCs. Federal laws beginning with the 1974 Housing and Community Development Act provided a way for state and municipal governments to channel funds to CDCs and other nonprofit organizations. National organizations such as the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (founded in 1978 and now known as NeighborWorks America), the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (founded in 1980 and known as LISC), and the Enterprise Foundation (founded in 1981) have built extensive networks of affiliated local nonprofit organizations to which they help provide financing for countless physical and social development programs in urban and rural communities. The CDCs and similar organizations have been credited with starting the process that stabilized and revived seemingly hopeless inner city areas such as the South Bronx in New York City. In the UK Community development has had two main traditions. The first was as an approach for preparing for the independence of countries from the former British Empire in the 50's and 60's. Domestically it first came into public prominence with the Labour Government's anti deprivation programmes of the latter sixties and seventies. The main example of this being the

CDP (Community Development Programme), which piloted local area based community development. This influenced a number of largely urban local authorities, in particular in Scotland with Strathclyde Region's major community development programme (the largest at the time in Europe). The Gulbenkian Foundation was a key funder of commissions and reports which influenced the development of CD in the UK from the latter sixties to the 80's. This included recommending that there be a national institute or centre for community development, able to support practice and to advise government and local authorities on policy. This was formally set up in 1991 as the Community Development Foundation. In 2004 the Carnegie UK Trust established a Commission of Inquiry into the future of rural community development examining such issues as land reform and climate change. Carnegie funded over sixty rural community development action research projects across the UK and Ireland and national and international communities of practice to exchange experiences. This included the International Association for Community Development. In 1999 a UK wide organisation responsible for setting professional training standards for all education and development practitioners working within local communities was established and recognised by the Labour Government. This organisation was called PAULO - the National Training Organisation for Community Learning and Development. (It was named after Paulo Freire). It was formally recognised by David Blunket, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment. Its first chair was Charlie McConnell, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Community Education Council, who had played a lead role in bringing together a range of occupational interests under a single national training standards body, including community education, community development and development education. The inclusion of community development was significant as it was initially uncertain as to whether it would join the NTO for Social Care. The Community Learning and Development NTO represented all the main employers, trades unions, professional associations...