chapter 14 community development/ community building initiatives
TRANSCRIPT
CHAPTER 14
Community Development/Community Building Initiatives
Overview of Community Development
Community development is a form of community organization
Staff are recruited from outside a community to work with residents to help them improve their community Peace Corps and Vista are examples
Community emphasizes self help and voluntary cooperation among members or residents of disadvantaged communities Habitat for Humanity Food banks Tutoring programs for youth in low income areas
Economic Community Development
Economic development is a crucial aspect of community development Special efforts are undertaken to encourage people to spend in
their own neighborhoods PLUS encouraging people in other areas to shop their as well Little Haiti 3rd Friday Calle Ocho/ Little Havana Last Friday Wynwood 2nd Saturday
Economic development may involve bringing together business owners, public officials, police, schools, social service agencies, banks to develop plans for enhancing local businesses Restore dilapidated infrastructure/buildings, low interest loans,
more security presence, etc.
Common Characteristics of Community Development Work
Staff must have a tremendous desire to improve the lives of vulnerable people Motivated by altruis and commitment to others
They strive to help people build on their individual strengths and community assets. Their primary purpose is to empower people Emphasis on bottom-up/grassorts approach to community problems Stimulating citizen particiaption is the underlying purpose of community
developoment Staff work with residents so that resdients can carry on with projects
subsequent to assiatacne of staff
Common Characteristics of Community Development Work
(cont.)
Community development staff identify outside resources that can be tapped i.e. write a grant that provides funding for local individuals to be
project mangers
Underlying premise of community development work: People must be actively involved in the resolution of their needs
Ultimate criterion of success is that after a community successfully completes one project, it is able to function independently to address other needs
Community Building Initiatives
Community building refers to activities, practices and policies that support and foster positive connections among individuals, groups, organizations and geographic as well as functional communities
A community building initiative involves a process of empowering residents to work together in mutually supportive relationships Through interacting with each other, new social mechanisms are
developed to help in the identification and achievement of community goals
Those relationships form “social capital” Residents see how their individual wellbeing is connected to the
viability of their neighborhood and community
CBI refers to activities, practices and policies that engage residents in reinventing in the development of their communities
How Community Building Differs From Prior Community Initiatives
Community building initiatives differ from prior efforts to help communities, such as the 1960’s War on Poverty. Rather than focusing on how individual residents could overcome individual
problems such as poverty via job preparedness, access to health care
Prior initiatives focused on one problem at t time, independent of each other such as: a) homelessness, b) mental illness, c) delinquency, d) drug and alcohol abuse Service delivery programs were designed to address these specific problems
separate from each other and separate from their environmental context
Prior programs were agency driven This contributed to the development of a “social welfare industry” While intended to help low income persons , an unanticipated consequence
has been a growing dependency on social services
How Community Building Differs From Prior Community Initiatives (cont.)
CBI looks at a community holistically via focusing on the inherent connection of people within a geographic area Offers opportunity to provide solutions that are tied together in
ways that reinforce each other Residents who had limited control, now take greater control
PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY BUILDING INITIATIVES (CBIs)
Efforts to improve the community must be comprehensive One solution is not possible for complex problems such
as homeless or poverty There must be a wide variety of interventions Any new development must fit within a “community
mosaic A comprehensive approach requires linkages among
economic, physical and social life of a community ex.: unemployed person gets vocational training by working on
a housing renovation project Ex.: neighborhood cleanup project linked to development of a
community garden
PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY BUILDING INITIATIVES (CBIs)(cont.)
Strategies must be tailored to individual neighborhood areas of a manageable size This permits customizing strategies to the special character
and culture of a particular community Different communities arrive at different issues in the same
city Ex: needs in Little Havana differ from those in Little Haiti, Overtown,
etc.
Community assets must be built upon Tangible assets include local buildings, institutions such as
schools and churches, banks and businesses, social agencies and hospitals
Less tangible assets include: life experiences, skills, willingness to improve the community
PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY BUILDING INITIATIVES (CBIs)(cont.)
Strategies must engage residents and other local stakeholders in establishing community goals and plans to address them “maximum feasible participation” of all residents in a “bottom-up”
engagement and implementation process Not a “top-down” implementation approach Most successful approach involves residents in partnerships with
social institutors of their community and with policy makers/public officials outside their community
Challenges for CBI’s
Role and expectations of funding sponsors: Funders provide financial resources to hire staff and pay for CBI
operating expenses Funders typically establish ground rules for how various
participants can related to each other Tension between funders and CBI: funders want to see immediate
results and CBI needs o ensure a proper community process exists
Individual mobility: When they can afford to do so, resident may move out of
impoverished neighborhoods Community can lose the residents it has helped to develop Antidote for preventing flight is to develop and infrastructure of job
opportunities, decent housing, good schools and crime prevention
Challenges for CBI’s (cont.)
Competition with public officials CBIs tend to be accepted by local government officials but in the
past community organizers received resistance from local politicians
CBIs can be seen as a conduit of information between neighborhoods and them
However, CBIs could be training ground for new community leaders who may want to oppose elected officials
Relationship with resource power brokers Need to balance taking control of their own communities with being
in partnership with those who control outside resources Funding, expertise and influence from the outside are needed CBI interventions require collaborative dynamics between
“insiders” and “outsiders”
SUMMARY
Community building is a process of transforming a community via empowering people to revitalize their own lives
It changes the way that residents relate to each other and to people outside their community
Based on the fundamental belief that residents and their organizations must take primary responsibility to solve their own problems
CBI is a process that organizes a community to identify key resources and to develop/train local leaders to strengthen their community