Module 2: Community Immersion
Module 2: Community Immersion
Community Immersion is one important requirement of the National Service Training Program
(NSTP) prescribed to students, male or female alike, in private and public higher education institutions
and technical-vocational schools.
This serves as the practicum-based element of the NSTP where lessons learned and acquired in
NSTP 1 are applied. This practicum requirement is essential to all components of the NSTP.
Community immersion is a strategy in community organizing that is sought to imbibe among the
NSTP trainees a better understanding and realization of the different community concerns through the
exposure on actual life situations specifically in the deprived, depressed and the underprivileged (DDU)
communities.
The NSTP trainees are expected to initiate community-based interventions in the form of
projects and activities meant to address the multi-faceted issues and concerns of the people in the area
of service.
Community
Geographical community is defined in the purview of group of persons living in the same geographical
location like a certain village, town, district, area or territory.
Functional community is defined as the aggregate of people though not necessarily based on living in
the same geographical location, is bounded by a common end such as fighting for the same cause,
having the same interests and goals.
Elements of a Community
1. Home visits
2. Living with selected families preferably with key informants
3. Informal discussions with individuals and groups
4. Sharing in household and community activities
5. Attendance in social gatherings
6. Assistance in production work
1. Parents
2. The youth (in-school or out of school
3. Differently-abled constituents
4. Professionals
5. Members of people’s organizations
Go to the people.
Live with the people. Learn from them.
Plan with them. Work with them.
Start with what they know.
Build on what they have.
Teach by showing, learn by doing.
Not by showcase but by pattern.
Not odds and ends but a system.
Not piecemeal but integrated approach.
Not to conform but to transform.
Not relief but release.
Dos and DONTs in Community Immersion:
Before
1. Familiarize yourself with the basic information and theories regarding community life.
2. Secure a waiver from the NSTP office.
3. Always inform your faculty-in-charge of your destination, time table and plan of action.
4. Be armed with background information about the area of immersion.
5. Pay courtesy call to community leaders, whether formal or informal.
6. Secure documents pertinent to your stay in the community.
7. Be ready with personal provisions.
During
8. Be courteous to everyone.
9. Act properly and discreetly.
10. Wear proper school uniforms and identification cards.
11. Keep your valuables secured.
12. Always document your visit.
13. Always ask permission from concerned people when you have to take photos.
After
14. Validate and evaluate the programs and activities conducted.
15. Submit final documentation outputs to the NSTP Office for records purposes.
M2-Worksheet
a. Directions: Answer the following questions as a guide in your lesson in depicting a community
you want to live in.
How do you relate each community participant with the attainment of the common vision of
the people there at?