Community Development Theories
Community Practice
Encompasses a number of different methods, all of which are focused on creating change in the social environment
Community organizing
Focused on harnessing the collective power of communities to tackle issues of shared concern. Challenges government, corporations, and other power-holding institutions in an effort to tip power balance in favor of communities. Enhances participatory skills of local citizens by working with and not for them, thus developing leadership with particular emphasis on the ability to conceptualize and act on problems. Community members can develop the capacity to resolve problems.
Person in Environment
Individuals' problems are addressed in combination with social context; Work to change the environment so that it functions more effectively for individuals, families, and communities
Community Planning
Involves collecting data, analyzing a situation, and developing strategies to move from a problem to a solution; defined as the process by which a group or community decides its goals and strategies relating to societal issues. Rather than planning "for" communities, social workers as planners engage "with" community members
Stages of Community-Based Decision Making
Orientation, Conflict, Emergence, Reinforcement
Community Change
The desired outcome, whether it means adding needed services, shifting the balance of power from the haves to the have-nots, reducing isolation, or developing and implementing more effective policies.
Social Planning Model of Community Practice
a) A rational problem-solving process in which planners look at communities and available resources and create plans to develop, expand, coordinate, and implement services. b) Takes place at local and regional levels c) Social worker roles include planner, researcher, manager, proposal writer, and negotiator.
Reasons for Social Work Involvement in Community Practice
a) Improving the quality of life for community residents b) Advocating for a community of interest, for a specific issue, for the establishment of political and social rights, and for additional resources c) Increasing participation, building grassroots leadership, and strengthening communities socially and economically d) Establishing or improving needed services e) Developing better integrated and coordinated services locally, nationally, and internationally f) Building political power, improving access and opportunity for marginalized people, and increasing their participation g) Fighting for social justice to increase equality and opportunity across race, class, gender, and other lines
Community Social and Economic Development Model of Community Practice
a) Strives to empower and improve the lives of low-income, marginalized, and oppressed people by bringing residents together to become more involved in the social and economic lives of their community b) The goals include improving education, leadership, and political skills within the community and improving the economic health of a community. c) Community members are involved in each step of the process. d) Social worker roles include planner, teacher, manager, promoter, and negotiator
Functional Organizing Model of Community Practice
a) The focus is on recruiting people with similar interests or concerns rather than on recruiting people in the same geographic location b) The aim is on creating external change and building internal capacity c) Organizing efforts focus on advocating for a specific issue or population and are often aimed at policy change, service development, and community education d) Social worker roles include organizer, teacher, advocate, and facilitator
Political and Social Action Model of Community Practice
a) The model focuses on helping citizens gain political power and a voice in the decision-making process. b) The aim of the model is to increase social justice by pressuring political and corporate leaders to replace harmful policies or practices with ones that benefit disadvantaged and low-income groups. c) Public and elected officials and corporate leaders are often the targets of such campaigns. d) Social worker roles include advocate, organizer, educator, and researcher.
Neighborhood and Community Organizing Model of Community Practice
a) The process of bringing members of a geographic community together to create power in numbers b) Practitioners organize residents to act on their own behalf, developing local control and empowerment c) Has an external focus on accomplishing specific tasks and an internal focus on helping members build their capacity for future organizing efforts d) Social worker roles in this model include organizer, teacher, facilitator, and coach.
Program Development and Community Liaison Model of Community Practice
a) The purpose is the creation of a new service or expansion of an existing service or program to meet community needs. b) The process involves conducting a needs assessment, planning new services specifically designed to meet community needs, and implementing and evaluating those services. c) To be effective, the process should include input from all those who will be affected by the new program: current clients, potential clients, agency staff, community leaders, and community residents. d) Social worker roles include planner, proposal writer, mediator, facilitator, and liaison with the community.
Coalition Building Model of Community Practice
a) formed when separate groups come together to work collectively on an issue of concern. b) joining allows groups to increase their power base and available resources while at the same time maintaining their autonomy. c) usually focus on a single issue and are often time limited d) present a number of interesting challenges to community practitioners. Groups that join together may agree on one issue, yet disagree on many others. There may be tensions over who gets to make decisions, who speaks for the group, how resources are divided, and what direction the coalition should take. e) Social worker roles include mediator, negotiator, spokesperson, and teacher.
Worker roles in social action model
advocate, activist, negotiator
Socio-psychological area of community
belief that people of community are bound together by existing area of interest and connected based on goals they share, needs, values, and activities; there is personal-psychological community within each individual; as a form of social living that is defined by attitudes, norms, customs, and behaviors of those living in community
Tasks/goals of community organizing
change public/private priorities to give attention to inequality and social injustice; promote legislative change; influence public opinions; improve community agencies/institutions to better satisfy needs of community; develop new ways/services; improve access to service; set up new programs; develop capacity of grassroots citizen groups to resolve problems; seek justice for oppressed minorities
Social reform model of community organization practice
collaborates with other organizations to develop coalitions of various groups to pressure for change; mixture of social action and social planning; strategies include fact gathering, publicity, lobbying, and political pressure; typically pursued by elites on behalf of disadvantaged groups
Tactics of social action model
conflict, confrontation, contest, and direct action
Tactics of locality development model
consensus and capacity building
Tactics of social planning model
consensus and conflict
Goal of SW involved in community organization efforts
education in democratic decision-making and promoting skills for democratic participation
Worker roles in locality development model
enabler, coordinator, educator, broker
Organizer
enables members to address community problems independently, in part through their learning analytic, strategic, and interpersonal skills
Campaign tactics in community organizing
hard persuasion, political maneuvering, bargaining/negotiation, and mild coercion; requires perceived differences in goals, inequality in power, and intermediate relationships
How does community organization practice (COP) differ from other forms of practice?
highlights knowledge about social power, social structure, social change, and social environments; acknowledges the reciprocal process between individual and social environment; seeks to influence and change the social environment as it is seen as the source and likely solution for many problems; social problems arise from structural arrangements rather than personal inadequacies
Social planning model of community development practice
involves careful, rational study of community's social, political, economic, and population characteristics to provide basis for identifying agreed-upon problems and deciding range of solutions; government orgs can be sponsor, participants, and recipients of info from social planners; focus on problem solving through fact gathering, rational action, and needs assessment
Models of community organization
locality development; social planning; social action; social reform
Key concepts in community development
long-term commitment; addresses imbalances in power; justice, equality, inclusion, mutual respect; working together in collective action
Assumptions that underlie community organization practice
members of community WANT to improve situation; members are ABLE to develop ability to resolve communal/social problems; members must participate in change; systems approach that considers total community
Coercive power
power from control of punishment
Referent power
power from having charisma or identification with other who have power
Expert power
power from superior ability or knowledge
Collaborative tactics in community organizing
problem solving, joint action, education, mild persuasion; requires a perceived consensus of goals, power equality, relatively close relationships, and cooperation
Contest tactics in community organization practice
public conflict and pressure; requires pubic conflict, disagreement concerning goals, uncertain power, distant or hostile relationships
Social action model of community organization practice
requires easily identifiable target and relatively clear, explainable goals; typically target is a community institution that controls and allocates funds, community resources, and power and clients are those who lack social and economic power; assumption is that different groups have interests that are conflicting and irreconcilable; direct action is only way to convince those w/ power to relinquish resources/power
Worker roles in social planning model
researcher, reporter, data analyst, program planner, program implementer, facilitator
What determines which tactic will be used in community organizing?
the degree of difference or commonality in goals between the community group and the target system; the relative power of the target system and the community group; the relationship of the community group to the target system
What is community development?
the process of helping individuals improve the conditions of their lives by increased involvement in the social and economic conditions of their communities
Values of community organization practice
working WITH, not for clients to enhance participatory skills; developing leadership; strengthening communities; redistributing resources; planning changes in systematic and scientific ways; rational problem-solving process; advancing the interest of the disadvantaged in order for them to have a voice in the process
Locality development model of community organization practice
working in a neighborhood w/ the goal of improving the quality of community life through broad-spectrum participation at local level; process-oriented with purpose of helping diverse elements of community come together to resolve common problems and improve community