SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY

NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM

CIVIC WELFARE TRAINING PROGRAM 1

NSTP iREAD

Chapter 6

Community Development
Community Organizing

Maria Angela R’Jose Balance, RSW

Melani Jane Tabaong Morales, RSW

San Beda University NSTP – Module 6 CO/CD 1

 NSTP iREAD 1
Chapter 6
Community Development
and
Community Organizing

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to

demonstrate the different phases of community
organizing and design a plan with the community.

2. The students will be able to define and understand

community development and community organizing;

3. The students will be able to understand and appreciate

the importance of community action in response to
community issues.

 Definition
A. Community

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  The word "community" derives from the Old French comuneté,
which comes from the Latin communitas "community", "public spirit"
(from Latin communis, "shared in common").

 Communities often share a sense of place that is situated in a given

geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighborhood) or
in virtual space through communication platforms.
 As Bender (1982) notes, “there is an expectation of a special kind of
human relationship in community,” and it is this relational
component that brings about a desire to belong to something larger
than oneself (p. 6).
 Arlien Johnson used the term community to refer to a group of
people gathered together in any geographical area, large or small,
who have common interests, actual or potential recognized in the
social welfare field.
B. Development
 Development is a process that creates growth, progress, positive
change or the addition of physical, economic, environmental, social
and demographic components.
 The purpose of development is a rise in the level and quality of life of
the population, and the creation or expansion of local regional
income and employment opportunities, without damaging the
resources of the environment.

 Development is visible and useful, not necessarily immediately, and

includes an aspect of quality change and the creation of conditions
for a continuation of that change.

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 Types of Communities

Community of concern may be either geographical or functional in nature. A

geographic community may be all the people in specific village, town,
neighborhood, district, area or city. While a functional community is composed of
people who hold common values, share some common function or express some
common interest such as welfare, health, recreation or education.

Photo:[Link]
Source: Depositphotos Read

Lesson I – Community Development

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 The idea of community development was implemented, partly, as a response
to the growth of nationalism in the colonies, and, partly, as a desire to improve
industrial and economic development. The idea began to appear often in US
documents in the middle of the 20th century. The idea incorporated three
important elements: a desire to increase the level of social and economic
development; the increase of local co-operation and self-help; the use of
expertise from other local communities.

 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 is a holistic approach grounded in principles of
empowerment, human rights, inclusion, social justice, self-determination and
collective action (Kenny, 2007).
 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.

 Outcomes of community development

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 A. Children and families directly involved in community development
initiatives may benefit from increases in skills, knowledge,
empowerment and self-efficacy, and experience enhanced social
inclusion and community connectedness (Kenny, 2007).
B. Through community development initiatives, community members can
become more empowered, such that they can increasingly recognize
and challenge conditions and structures which are leading to their
disempowerment or negatively impacting their wellbeing (Ife, 2016).
C. At a community level, community development and empowerment
initiatives can achieve long-term outcomes such as stronger and more
cohesive communities, evidenced by changes in social capital, civic
engagement, social cohesion and improved health (Campbell, Pyett, &
McCarthy, 2007; Ife, 2016; Kenny, 2007; Wallerstein, 2006).
 Effective community development should be:
 a long-term endeavor
 well-planned
 inclusive and equitable
 holistic and integrated into the bigger picture
 initiated and supported by community members
 of benefit to the community
 grounded in experience that leads to best practices
 Community development is a grassroots process by which communities:
 become more responsible
 organize and plan together
 develop healthy lifestyle options
 empower themselves
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  reduce poverty and suffering
 create employment and economic opportunities
 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
 its relationship to building capacity
I. Community Development Approach
There are various approaches to the idea of community development.
While some of them focus on the processes taking place in the
communities, others focus on the outcomes/objectives.
A. Community Engagement - This approach is focused on facilitating
understanding, exchange of information to build social capital and
enhance social outcomes through a decision-making process

B. Women Self-help Group - It is focused on the contribution of women in

the communities’ development.

C. Community Capacity Building- It is concerned with helping communities

in obtaining, strengthening, and maintaining the ability to set and
achieve their own development goals.

D. Large Group Capacitation - This approach is related to an adult

education and social psychology development. It is aimed at the

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 increase of activity of the large groups of unemployed or semi-employed
citizens, often with Lower Levels of Literacy (LLL).

E. Social capital formation - An approach focused on the cooperation

between individuals and large social groups.

F. Nonviolent direct action - This kind of action is aimed at revealing an

existing problem, highlighting an alternative, and demonstrating a
possible solution to an existing social problem.

G. Economic development - focused on the development of developing

countries to increase the level of economic, political, and social welfare
of the community members.

H. Sustainable development - aimed at achieving, in a balanced way,

economic community development and environmental protection
outcomes.

I. Community-driven development (CDD) - an economic community

development approach that moves an emphasis from the activity of the
central government to local communities.

J. Asset-based community development (ABCD) - a method that seeks to

use the strengths of the community as a means for its stable
development.

K. Faith-based community development - known to utilize faith-based

communities to cause community development increase.

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 L. Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) - an approach to the
research that brings together the efforts of the community members
and researchers in the research of the community life and problems. All
the partners are expected to contribute the expertise, integrate and
share their knowledge to make the process of decision making easier
and more effective.

M. Community Organizing - an approach assuming that social change

involves conflicts and social struggles that can be a way to generate
collective power for the powerless people.

N. Participatory Planning - includes community-based planning. This

approach implies that the community is involved in the strategic and
management processes of social planning on various levels of urban or
rural social life.

O. Language-based development, or Language revitalization - This

approach is focused on the use of a language as a means of serving the
community. This involves the creation of books, films, and other media
in the language development which is expected to help a community to
develop its culture.

These community development approaches have been recognized

internationally and acknowledged as significant for various areas of
social development by such organisations as the UN, WHO, OECD, World
Bank, Council of Europe, and EU.

 Community-based work and community development work

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Table 1 outlines the difference between community-based work, which involves
the community, and community development work, which is led by the
community.

Table 1: Comparing community-based with community development work

Community-based work Community development work

Source: Adapted from Labonte (1999)

An issue or problem is defined by Community groups are supported to

agencies and professionals who identify important concerns and
develop strategies to solve the issues, and to plan and implement
problem and then involve community strategies to mitigate their concerns
members in these strategies. Ongoing and solve their issues.
responsibility for the program may be
Characteristics:
handed over to community members
and community groups  Power relations between agency
and community members are
Characteristics:
constantly negotiated.
 Decision-making power rests with
 The problem or issue is first named
the agency.
by the community, then defined in
 The problem or issue is defined by a way that advances the shared
the agency. interests of the community and
the agency.
 There are defined timelines.
 Work is longer term in duration.
 Outcomes are pre-specified, often
changes in specific behaviors or  The desired outcome is an
knowledge levels. increase in the community
members’ capacities.

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 Table 1: Comparing community-based with community development work

Community-based work Community development work

 The desired long-term outcomes

usually include change at the
neighborhood or community level.

 When to use community development

Community development is not always a suitable approach to use. Community
development may be particularly appropriate:
 To address social and community issues: Community development is a good
approach when you are trying to create change at a community or
neighborhood level. For example, if your goal is to improve community safety,
increase community cohesion, reduce social isolation or create communities
that are better for children.
 For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: Community
development is a good approach to use with Aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander communities because it can enable self-determination and build the
capacity of local Indigenous organizations and grassroots community groups
(Higgins, 2010).
 For disadvantaged communities: Community development initiatives are likely
to work well in disadvantaged communities where they can alleviate some of
the impacts of disadvantage on children and families by building social capital
and social inclusion (Ife, 2016; McDonald, 2011; Price-Robertson, 2011;
Wallerstein, 2006).

 Community development may not be the best approach if:

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 You already know what you want to do. If the outcomes you want to achieve,
and the activities that you will use, are already decided then there is no space
for the community to determine outcomes and activities. Similarly, if you don’t
have the authority or resources to implement the community’s decisions,
community development is not a suitable strategy.
 You have limited time or short-term funding. Community development is a
long-term process. Engagement and planning can take a year or more, and it
can take several years to build the capacity of community members to lead a
project and ensure sustainable results.
 Your focus is improving specific individual skills. If you are seeking to build
individual skills in a specific area (e.g., parenting skills or literacy), a program
that targets these directly may be more appropriate.

 Who can do community development?

It is important to recognize that community development is a practice with a well-
developed theoretical framework. Community development practitioners should
be familiar, through training or experience, with the theory, practice and
principles of community development work. In saying this, it is important that
community development practitioners have effective and respectful relationships
with the communities they are working with, and sometimes the ability to be able
to build these relationships with the community is a more important quality in a
worker than having a community development qualification. In these instances, it
is important that the worker is supported by someone who has a good
understanding of community development theory and practice.

 What is the role of a community development practitioner?

The key role of community development practitioner is to resource and empower
the community (Kenny, 2007).
a. Support community members through the provision of information needed
to identify issues and plan actions. This could include sharing information
on local data, good practice around particular identified issues, and
relevant programs and resources that are available.

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 b. Community development practitioners also connect with and build local
networks and local leaders, undertake community engagement and plan,
deliver and evaluate projects and programs.
c. Community development practice has a focus on facilitation, education and
representational and resourcing skills.

As a Summary:

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
 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.

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Photo: [Link]
Source: Depositphotos

Lesson II – Community Organizing

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  Community organizing is a method whereby a professional social worker
helps individuals, groups, communities or organizations to engage in a
planned collective action in order to deal with social problems within a
democratic system of values
 Community Organizing is a continuous sustained process of:
a. Guiding people to understand the existing condition of their own
community.
b. Organizing people to work collectively and efficiently on their
immediate and long-term problems
c. Mobilizing people to develop their capacity and readiness to respond
and take action on their problems.
d. Your role as an organizer is to facilitate that process and bring the
people closer to their goal of self-determination.

I. Importance of Community Organizing

a. It provides the people with an opportunity to get involved and identify their
common problems.
b. It guides the community in decision making toward self-reliance.
c. It guides people in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of every
possible solution offered by them.

II. Principles of Community Organizing

Dunham (1958)
1. Democracy and social welfare
2. Community roots for community programs

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 3. Citizen understanding, support, and participation and professional
service
4. Cooperation
5. Social Welfare programs
6. Adequacy, distribution and organization of social welfare services
7. Prevention

Ross (1967)
1. Discontent with existing conditions in the community must initiate
and/or nourish development of the association
2. Discontent must be focused and chanelled into organization,
planning, and action in respect to specific problems.
3. Discontent which initiates or sustains community organization must
be widely shared in the community
4. The association must involve leaders( formal and informal) identifies
with, and accepted by major subgroups in the community
5. The association must have goals and methods and procedures of
high acceptability
6. The program of the association should include some activities with
an emotional content
7. The association should seek to utilize the manifest and latent
goodwill which exist in the community
8. The association must develop active and effective lines of
communication both within the association and between the
association and the communities

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III. Basic Models of Community Organizing
Jack Rothman has introduced three basic models of community
organization/organizing. They are:  Locality development  Social planning
 Social action
1. Locality Development
- Here the important focus is about the process of community
building. Leadership development and the education of the
participants are the essential elements in the process.
- According to Murray Ross the “process of self-help and communal
action is valuable in its own right”. The model of locality
development is based on this particular thought process. It
originated from the traditional community organization practice.
The main focus of this model is whole community or a part of it.
The basic belief is that communities have some common needs
and interests and once the people realize this need and work
together democratically, they can take appropriate steps to
improve the quality of life. Here the role of the community
organizer is to enhance the involvement of the people in the
community and help the community members to plan and find a
solution to the problem.

2. Social Planning
- It refers to the type of community work where a worker or agency
undertakes an exercise of evaluating welfare needs and existing
services in the area and suggests a possible blue print for a more
efficient delivery of services, it is termed as social planning. It is

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 concerned with social problems, for example, housing, education,
health, childcare and so on. Its aim is to affect a large population.
The community planner works in that capacity with the
government and is often identified with power structure of the
community
3. Social Action
- Social Action According to Friedlander, W.A. (1963) “Social Action
is an individual, group or community effort within the framework
of the social work philosophy and practice that aims to achieve
social progress, to modify social policies and to improve social
legislation and health and welfare services”.
- In this type of community organization the community organizer
uses all means to apply pressure on the power structure to give in
to demands. The role of organizers may differ depending on the
issues they get involved in. The role may be that of advocate,
activist, agitator, broker or negotiator. It is a process.

IV. Steps in community organizing

1. Area Selection
 Site selection must follow the general design of your program.
 An area with about 150-250 households would be ideal for you if
you are working with a partner; and
 The area must not have a serious peace and order problem.
Initially, you can gather socio-economic, demographic and
geographic data of selected municipalities from municipal
agencies that will assist you in the selection of project site. You

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 can also inquire from friends or contacts regarding the
characteristics of possible project areas.
 It is also best to consider your level of commitment, as well as
that of the other project staff, which could affect your personal
adjustments to situation in the field.

2. Entry into the Community

 Begin with a visit to the local community officials to inform them
of the objectives and nature of your stay in the community. Any
other important person who accompanies or visits you in the
community must also be introduced.
 Select a home to live in which it will facilitate your work. Choose
to stay with family of good reputation.
 Adapt a lifestyle and personality that is in keeping with the
community.
 When talking of the program, avoid raising the people’s
expectations.
 Keep a low profile.
 Avoid attracting unnecessary attention to yourself.
 Be honest and sincere and share your strengths as well as
weaknesses to the people
3. Social Investigation/Community Study
 Your first few weeks will be spent on getting to know the
community well to be able to draw out a program that will
maximize the participation of the community members.

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  A community study must be regarded both as a phase of a long
process and as a process itself.
- As a phase, it comes at the beginning as an essential requisite for
any action.
- As a process, it is a continuing activity set to fulfill definite
expectations at definite periods.
 Making a community study can take several forms.
- Reviewing secondary data sources such as records and
documents.
- Holding personal interviews.
- Conducting a survey.
- Observing people and their environment
 You can also look into organizational aspects by getting a list of
existing organizations in the community their nature objectives
membership and activities
 You can prepare a guide for community study which can be
divided into major areas of investigation:
- Physical environment
- Economic socio-political
- Cultural aspect of the community
 Your preliminary study can include the community’s: physical
characteristics (e.g.) location area size natural resources climate,
etc. 2. demographic characteristics population size age and sex
composition occupational groupings

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 4. Integration

 Integration is a continuing effort to abide community life. It is

accomplished by living with the people and sharing the same
experience with them.

 There are several ways by which you can integrate with the
people.

- You can participate in their economic activities.

- Share in their household work, or

- Join them in their social activities

☺ Reminders during integration;

- Avoid excessive drinking as well as courting or flirting with women
and men in the community.
- Do not gamble
- An important component of organizing is documentation. It will
be to your advantage to keep a diary of your daily activities,
experiences as well as impressions of and reflections on your
interactions with the people in the community.
5. Contact-building/Spotting Potential Leaders :
 Identify contacts in the community, who can provide and/or
validate information about the community and its people. You
can develop this group of contacts into a pool of local organizers,
or leaders for the program.

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  Once you have identified your contacts, you can now hold a series
of informal, individual or small group discussions with them.
6. Core Group Formation:
 Core group formation is the laying down of the foundation for a
strong community organization.

 The core group can come mainly (though not only) from the group
of contacts.

 The core group represents the most advanced group in the

community in terms of consciousness.

 You can initiate a series of meetings and discussions among the

members of the core group.

 The core group can then lay out the plans and tasks for
establishing a community organization composed of various
sectors of the community.

7. The formal setting-up of the organization will involve:

 Planning for a general assembly
 Drafting a constitution
 Drawing up organizational plans
 Electing officers and assigning persons to particular tasks
 The organization will then serve as the people’s instrument for
identifying their needs, and concerns and more importantly, for
planning solutions to their problems in a collaborative effort.

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 Phases of Community Organizing

1. Pre- Helping Phase

a. Formulation of indices for selection of areas to be helped

b. Identification of the target area/barangay/community

c. Assignment of workers to target areas

d. Establishment of initial linkages between community people and resource

systems

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e. Gathering initial information about the community

f. Getting people's sanction and commitment

2. Helping Phase

a. Exploration and identification of the Problem

 Gathering information on the situations and feelings of the community

 Analysis/diagnosis

 Identify the problem, need ,lack or difficulty

 Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the community

 Examine the casual relationship of situations/data (cause-problem-effect)

 Identify the problem solving pattern of the people

 Rank the needs and the problems

 Planning the solutions

 Agree on the goals of the community

 Identify the activities and strategies to be done - programs and services to be

developed and implemented on order to achieve objectives

 Agree with the people on roles and responsibilities

 Identify resources which are needed

 Set a time table

 Formulate indicators of success

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B. Action/ Implementation

 Organization of community working groups and assignment of tasks and

responsibilities to implement plan

 Implementation of action plan by community and social worker

 Utilization of available resources and strategies; generation and organization

of resources

C. Evaluation

 Examination of results of implementation against objectives and success

indicators

 Statement of findings

 Documentation

 Modification, Termination or Transfer of Action

(Note: Sir Jojo hindi ko sure kung ano ang mas appropriate, kaya nilgay ko na lang pareho.)
V. The Community Worker

A. Functions of a Community Worker

1. Initiator

2. Regulator

3. Information Giver

4. Information Seeker

5. Supporter

6. Evaluator

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 7. Leader but not a boss

B. Qualities of a Community Worker

1. Energetic

2. Xenial

3. Tactical

4. Enthusiastic

5. Non-Conformist

6. Systematic and Critical Thinker

7. Innovative

8. Optimistic

9. Negotiable

10. Integrity

11. Sympathetic

12. Truthfulness

13. Visionary

14. Active

15. Well- Rounded

16. Hearth Qualities

17. Humility and Open to Sharing

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 18. Leader

19. Entrepreneurial

20. People-Oriented

21. Easy to deal with

22. Responsive to change

23. Servant

24. Open to Criticism

25. Non-traditional/Irreverent

26. Flexible

27. Creative and Resourceful

28. Sense of Humor

29. Tenacious

30. Acculturated

☺ REMEMBER
 That the phases in the organizing process described in this guide are not a
step-by-step prescription of what is to be done. Your whole stay in the
community is a continuous process of integrating with the people,
conducting social investigation, building contacts, and launching
mobilizations. Sometimes, all of these happen simultaneously.

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  The formation of a community organization is, by no means, the end-goal
of this whole undertaking. The organization provides the people with a
venue for collective action, and by such action, their capabilities to deal
with their needs and problems are strengthened. But you will continue to
work with the people, building them as they start to build their capabilities.
For only when people are able to say that “we did it ourselves” will you
know that you have done your job right, and you have done it well.

Sources:

Marasigan, Rosario, et al, Working with Communities: The Community

Organization Method, MJ Publisher, Manila. 1992

The community Development Handbook: A Tool to Build Community Capacity, by

Flo Frank and Anne Smith for Human Resources Development Canada.
[Link]

[Link]

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[Link] paper
was written by Jessica Smart, Senior Research Officer at the Australian Institute of
Family Studies and originally published in 2017. Minor edits and updates were
undertaken by Jessica Smart in 2019.

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