MODULE 1: OVERVIEW OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

LESSON 1: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Objectives

At the end of the lesson, the students should do the following:

1. Define and explain the concepts of community development;

2. State and explain the principles of community development;
3. Explain the different approaches of community development and
4. Differentiate the characteristics of a healthy and unhealthy community.

1.1. Definition of Concepts

Community

The term “Community” can be defined as People living together in a defined geographical area
sharing culture, norms, values and social economic activities. A community can also be defined
based on ethnic, occupation or religious grounds.

The term community was actually derived from the Latin word, communis, a noun describing
quality implying ―fellowship, community of relations and feelings.

Webster‘s dictionaries, on the other hand, define a community as a body of people living in the
same place under the same laws (geographical); a body of people having common interests
(psychological).

One of the most common and simplest definitions was coined by R.M. McIver. According to
McIver, a community is:

“an aggregation of families and

individuals settled in a fairly compact
and contiguous geographical area,
with significant elements of common
life, as shown by manners, customs,
traditions and modes of speech.”
According to this view, the term community was defined based on the elements that it possesses.
Other elements that a community may possess are the following:

- History – from public documents, folk history, historical roots.

- Space Relations – Internal Relation: within the community.
- External Relation – Relation with other communities, nation and state.
- Resources – Human, man-made and natural.
- Technology – modern or indigenous; the technical know-how of the people.
- Knowledge and Beliefs.
- Values and Sentiments.
- Goals
- Norms
- Position and Roles – elected and not elected
- Power
- Leadership
- Influence
- Social Rank – standing of a person in the group
- Reward and Punishment

Development

The act or process of growing or causing something to grow or become large or more advanced.
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.

The international agenda began to focus on development beginning in the second half of the
twentieth century. An understanding developed that economic growth did not necessarily lead to
a rise in the level and quality of life for populations all over the world; there was a need to place
an emphasis on specific policies that would channel resources and enable social and economic
mobility for various layers of the population.

Through the years, professionals and various researchers developed a number of definitions and
emphases for the term “development.” Amartya Sen, for example, developed the “capability
approach,” which defined development as a tool enabling people to reach the highest level of their
ability, through granting freedom of action, i.e., freedom of economic, social and family actions,
etc. This approach became a basis for the measurement of development by the HDI (Human
Development Index), which was developed by the UN Development Program (UNDP) in
1990. Martha Nussbaum developed the abilities approach in the field of gender and emphasized
the empowerment of women as a development tool.

In contrast, professionals like Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Collier focused on mechanisms that prevent
or oppress development in various countries, and cause them to linger in abject poverty for dozens
of years. These are the various poverty traps, including civil wars, natural resources and poverty
itself. The identification of these traps enables relating to political – economic – social conditions
in a country in an attempt to advance development.

One of the emphases in the work of Jeffrey Sacks is the promotion of sustainable development,
which believes in growth and development in order to raise the standard of living for citizens of
the world today, through relating to the needs of environmental resources and the coming
generations of the citizens of the world.

Sustainable Development

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.

It is the idea that human societies must live and meet

their needs without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. Specifically,
sustainable development is a way of organizing
society so that it can exist in the long term.

Community Development - Is the process where

community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common
problems.
It recognizes that some people, some groups and some communities are excluded and
oppressed by the way society and structures are organized. Community development seeks to
challenge this and ensure fairness for all citizens.
In practice, community development:
- supports communities, of place
and identity, to use their own
assets to improve the quality of
community life.
- helps communities and public
agencies to work together to
improve services and the way in
which decisions are made.
Community development is fundamentally based on the values of human rights, social justice,
equality and respect for diversity.
Community Development as a Process of Change

Community development is a process that leads to change in many aspects of community living
which include social, economic, cultural as well as environmental. It is about continual
improvement, first with the help of change agents and later, by the people themselves to bring
about change in their lives, which ultimately improve their quality of life.

Thus, the focus of community development process is the people’s involvement (hereafter the
word ‘community’ will be used) whereby the community members come together to take action
collectively to meet their shared goal(s) or to generate solutions overcoming a shared problems. In
the words of Rubin and Rubin (2001), “Community development occurs when people strengthen
the bonds within their neighborhoods, build social networks, and form their own organizations to
provide a long-term capacity for problem solving”.

Community members who have the capacity to do something to enhance their quality of life are
portrayed as having the ability to think, to decide, to plan and to take action in determining their
lives.

Therefore, in any community development programmes both economics and individual growth
must be given equal attention so as to ensure that the process of community development achieves
its due balance of continuity and sustainability.

The scope of community development process can vary from a simple community initiatives
within a small group to a complex or larger initiatives that involve a bigger number of community
members. Regardless of the number of participants in an initiative, the fundamental characteristic
of a community development is community organizing.

Mobilization – It is the process of marshaling, organizing and coordinating people and resource
for a purpose. In essence, it is the process of bringing people together to identify, plan and
implement programmes and activities that improve their livelihoods.

Empowerment- It is a process of increasing people’s opportunities to access information and

resource.

Social Change - Refers to any positive or negative alteration over time in behavior, cultural values
and norms.

Culture - Is a way of life of a group of people representing their behaviors, believe, values and
symbols that they accept generally without thinking about them and that are passed along by
communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
Participation - Refers to joined consultation in decision making, goal setting, profit sharing team
work and other measures in an attempt to foster collective ownership in achieving their objectives.

Sustainability - The ability of a project to maintain its operations, services and benefits during its
projected lifetime.

Integrated Development - This is development which is holistic and coordinated and meets a
number of interrelated needs of communities or target groups.

Social Development - It is about improving every individual in the society so that they reach their
full potential.

Extension - The practice of extension is based on an important philosophy of “learning by

doing”—that is, providing adults a chance to practice whatever they have learn as soon as possible
so that they can remember it.

Volunteerism - is an activity where an individual or group provides service for no personal gain,
intended to promote goodness or to improve human quality of life.

Philanthropy - Is the desire to promote the welfare of others through generous donations to good
courses.

TYPES OF COMMUNITIES

Geographical Communities Has boundaries, territories

Rural / Urban Communities The traditional way of classifying
communities
Sectoral Communities e.g. Women, Youth, Farmers, Fisherfolks
Functional Communities Groups of people who share some common
interest or functions
Tribal / Indigenous Communities e.g. Aetas, Mangyans
Special Types of Communities e.g. disabled, parishes, families

1.2. Principles in Community Development

The theoretical conceptions and practice of Community Development (CD) are based on a number
of principles which are outlined below:

a. Empowerment: Increasing the ability of individuals and groups to influence issues that affect
them and their communities

b. Participation: Involving people in decision making and implementation of community

initiatives
c. Inclusion: Equality of opportunity and non-discrimination-recognizing that some people may
need additional support to overcome barriers they face.

d. Self-determination: The self-drive to participate in making own choices

e. Partnership: Recognizing that many agencies can contribute to community development.

1.3. Approaches in Community Development

There are various approaches in community development which community development

practitioners and development agents can adopt to implement community development
programmes and activities.

The following are some of the approaches:

Rapid Approach: This is a decision-making tool that can help in assigning clear and specific roles
when a decision has to be made. The rationale of this being moving fast to save a situation.
The central role of the model is the Decide role, with all other roles supporting this role.
The order in which these roles are performed
in practice is likely to be Recommend (with
Input), Agree, Decide, and Perform. Let’s
examine each of the roles in turn:

1. Recommend

The person or persons in this role recommend

a course of action or present a series of options. They should back up their recommendations using
facts, figures, and research.
You can think of this role as being the starting point for the RAPID process. A recommendation
is proposed and the rest of the decision-making process flows from there.

2. Agree

These are the people who must agree with a recommendation before it can move forward. This
group has the power to veto the decision if appropriate. It is important to keep this group to as few
people as possible or decision making can slow down.

If they do veto the decision then they must negotiate with the Recommend role to adjust any
recommendations until they are satisfied. If a satisfactory alternative can’t be found then the issue
should be escalated to the decide role.
The Input role provides the foundation for good decision making. This role is consulted to provide
hard facts, data, and evidence as input to a recommendation.

They will answer such questions as:

- How long will the recommendation take to implement?
- Are there any risks involved in the execution?
- Are the key teams happy with the proposal as it stands?
Note: The recommend role doesn’t have to take on board the information from the Input role.
This rule acknowledges the fact that consensus can be an impediment to decision making
speed.

3. Decide

When all of the options are on the table a decision must be made. This role is the decision maker
and it should be a single person.
This role is usually filled by a senior leader within the organization.
Once a decision has been made it is important action commences on it quickly. The decision maker
delegates implementing the decision to the Perform role. They maintain responsibility for the work
whilst it is under execution.

4. Perform

This role corresponds to the people who will perform the decision.It is important that each decision
is acted on quickly. A decent decision executed quickly is often better than a great decision
executed slowly.

The RAPID Decision-Making Framework is a tool which can be used to make better decisions.
It’s an involved process so should be only be used for difficult or complex decisions.

RAPID is an acronym for the following five roles:

 Recommend: create the initial proposals and recommendations.

 Agree: Must agree the proposals from the Recommend group.
 Perform: Execute the work after the decision is made.
 Input: Provides information and facts to the Recommend group.
 Decide: The person who has the authority to make the decision.

To be successful, the RAPID Decision-Making framework needs support throughout the

organization.
LESSON 2: COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should do the following:
1. Explain the importance of Community Organizing in development process.
2. State the important role of Community Organizer.
3. Explain the goals of Community Organizing.

The term “Community Organizing” was first used by American Social Workers in
the late 1800‘s to refer to the specific work they were involved in with
settlement houses for new immigrants and the poor. “Community Organizing” was
the term used to describe their efforts to coordinate services for these groups.
Other definitions have evolved all throughout the years and one is:

“Community Organizing is a systematic, planned and liberating change process

of transforming a complacent, deprived and malfunctioning community into an
organized, conscious, empowered and self-reliant, just and humane entity and
institution.”

-Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP)

Community Organizing (CO) is a continuous process of:

- Educating the people to understand their critical consciousness of their existing conditions;

- Organizing people to work collectively and efficiently on their problems;

- Mobilizing people to develop their capacity and readiness to respond and take action on
their immediate needs towards solving their long term problems. [UP College of Social
Work and Community Development]

Collectively, the above-mentioned definitions suggest that Community Organizing (CO) is both
a process and a method. CO is a process in the sense that it is perceived as a progressive and
forward movement from one condition to another. It is also considered as a method because it
consists of a dynamically conscious and deliberate undertaking to bring social change.

C.O.
 A BRIEF HISTORY: COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION IN THE PHILIPPINE SETTING.

Through the Philippine Ecumenical Council for Community Organization (PECCO), Community
Organizing was introduced in the Philippines during the First Quarter Storm of the seventies. The
group organized communities in the Tondo area where the program, Zone One Tondo (ZOTO)
was born.

The program was replicated in other parts of the Philippines, including the rural areas and was
usually introduced through church structures. Organizing efforts continued even when the Martial
Law was declared.

During this time, Community Workers began pushing for people‘s participation and community
organizing became the tool for achieving this. International Development Groups and government
both began to support and fund Community Organizing Programs. Community Organizing began
to proliferate.

Community organizing is about developing a democratic instrument within which community

members can decide or make some influence that affect their lives. In normal circumstances the
product of community organizing is a group establishment. The group can be an informal or formal
with or without a formal structure of leadership.

Over time, the group develops concurrently with the development of group members’ confidence,
abilities, skills, knowledge, experiences and so forth. In short, community development is a
grassroots process through participation within which community members become more
competent, responsible, informed, aware and sensitive about their living environment. The
economic, political and social environments are the ‘space’ and ‘opportunities’ for the community
members to develop, strengthen and enhance their capabilities and potentials.

The community development process is not an evolutionary process. The process must be planned
in order to achieve effective results. Putting an effort into that process is crucial. The effort can
come from community members as well as from change agents.

In this sense, community development process requires not only to develop the community’s
capacity but also the capacity of change agents as well to address issues and problems, to find
avenues and opportunities, to meet the needs and improve certain situations or services. In short,
the whole notion of community development is about human-centred development and change for
both community members and change agents.
GOALS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
MUNITY ORGANIZING
Community Organizing transforms a complacent community to become self-propelling and self -
nourishing.

Community organizing is important because through this, people work together in an organized
manner and become more effective when social change takes place. But what, basically is
community organizing for? Read on to learn the different goals/ purpose why this method is still
being widely used in the different parts of our country, and the whole world.

- People empowerment
- Improved quality of life
- Leadership development and mobilization
- Social transformation

Principles of Community Organizing

“Go to the People, Live Among the People”

One cannot help the community towards its development
if the organizers stay and work within the comforts of an
office/ school and do not integrate with the people.

“Learn, Plan and Work with the People”

The people know better than any other outsider what their
needs and problems are. The community members, with the
assistance of the community organizer, must be the one to
determine the program appropriate to answer their needs/
problems.
“Start With and Build on What the People
Know”
Community organizers must begin with the
indigenous resources, technologies and structures
that the community has. Improve on their strengths.

Teach By Showing, Learn by Doing”

For the community to learn effectively, the
worker must demonstrate different
procedures or techniques and not merely
give instructions.

“Not Piecemeal but an Integrated Approach”

Community organizing is an inter-relationship of
various elements and factors.

“Not Relief, But Release”

Community organizing is a process that liberates a
community from its identified problems.
STEPS IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Entry into the community.

This step enables the community organizers to introduce
themselves to the local community officials and inform
the local authorities about the project, its objectives, and
the nature of their stay in the community. As a strategy,
the community organizers adapt a lifestyle in keeping
with the community and choose an appropriate place or
family to stay with.

Integration with the people.

The purpose of this activity is for the
community organizers to imbibe
community life and get to know the
culture, economy, leadership, history, and
lifestyle of the people. It is a means of
establishing rapport with the people and
building mutual trust and cooperation. It
allows the community organizers to be
one with the people and learn or
understand the people’s problems. The
community organizers participate in the
economic activities, household work,
group discussion, and social functions of
the community

Integration rather than immersion”

Immersion: “Complete involvement”
Integration: “Acceptance into a community”
When you perform the tasks of an organizer, you do
not go to the community and just make yourself
“felt” by merely “showing-up”. No matter how
frequent you go to the area but fail to exert any
effort to integrate with the community members,
your visits will just go to waste. Integrating with the
locals is also one of the best strategies one organizer can practice in order to catch-up with the
current situation of the community. Joining a small ”umpukan” of housewives, or some of the
local youths at their ”tambayan”, can, one way or another help you gather pertinent information
(identification of problems and current issues) on the community.

Social investigation. Through this step, the

community organizers systematically acquire
information and analyze the political and socio-
cultural structure of the community to identify
issues around which to organize the people.
The different strategies include gathering and
reviewing secondary data sources such as records
and documents, holding personal interviews,
conducting a survey, and observing. The
community organizers during this stage assist the
community in identifying, analyzing and
prioritizing current community needs and issues. A
compromise between the felt and objective needs
must be met.

Identifying & Developing Potential

Community Leaders
The Community Organizer should closely
observe those who seem to have deep
understanding and concern for the community.
Equip them with useful knowledge and
experience by initiating discussions, and slowly
educate and convince the community that
leaders must come from ranks and not outside.
Core Group Formation

The purpose of this step is to form a small

group of potential leaders to assist the
community organizers in organizing and
mobilizing the community. This involves
identification of contacts and potential
leaders in the community, and conduct of
training in leadership and organizing with
the core group members as participants.

Setting-up the Organization

Through this step, the community organizers
facilitate wider participation and collective
action on issues and problems concerning the
community. The people are now ready to set
up their organization, election of leaders with
the participation of all its members. The
community organizer should educate the
members to trust their organization.

Strengthening the Organization

Capacitate the organization by convincing
the people on the power of collective
strength. Give them the chance to move and
work together on their own. Avoid the notion
that the people cannot work without your
help and let the people learn how to handle
issues and problems on their own and
conduct their own planning and assessment.

METHODS OF COMMUNITY
ORGANIZING
METHODS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Community organizing exemplifies processes and strategies in order to achieve its goals. The
following are several methods of community organizing:
1. Social Preparation - This is related to community readiness. It has four (4) stages:
- General Assembly
- Formation of Committees
- Survey of Needs and Prioritization of Projects
- Preparation of Training

All these activities are implemented using the participatory approach.

2. Education and Training – Community organizing is essentially a learning process and central
to it is the development of awareness through experiential learning. Kwo (1986) cites Compton’s
definition of community education as a process whereby members of a community come together
to identify their problems and needs and seek solutions amongst themselves, mobilize the
necessary resources, and execute a plan of action or learning or both. In the educative process,
adults can learn through participation and cooperation with others in community action and
community development projects. Practitioners term this “learning by doing” or learning through
experience.

3. Value orientation – Since the desired ends of community organizing are people empowerment,
self-reliance and participation, there is a need to transform the negative value of the people from
selfish individualism to one that is socially oriented. It essentially entails value re-orientation or
transformation. Value orientation determines desired ends of behavior and prescribes norms or
socially acceptable means of attaining the desired ends.
4. Mobilization – This refers to the “process whereby a group of people have transcended their
differences to meet on equal terms in order to facilitate a participatory decision-making process” .
Mobilization arises from a number of factors: (1) presence of expertise amongst the community
members, (2) the willingness of the community as a whole to give up individual interests to form
a broader cooperative, and (3) presence of available resources to facilitate the mobilization process
(Ben-Ali & Carvalho 1996). The presence of pre-existing community groups can potentially serve
as the basis for a mobilization strategy.

THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

ROLE OF A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

An organizer, while at the community, plays various roles, depending on what the situation calls
for. Below are the four (4) basic roles they portray, at one time or another:
1. A Facilitator - Facilitates the community process through listening and questioning and by
giving continuous encouragement and support to the local strivings.
2. An Animator – Stimulates the people to think critically when identifying problems and finding
new solutions.
3. An Enabler – Consistently directed at freeing the community (through key persons like leaders)
to realize their strengths and potentials in cooperative work.
4. A Catalyst – Hastens the process of transformation/change

IDEAL PERSONAL QUALITIES OF A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

-discipline

The Community Organizer is a vital person in facilitating the whole community organizing
process. A community organizer should have:
 An understanding of development theories and concepts and processing of community
organizing
 Good social and community relation skills to promote social integration in the community
 An ability to work with other teams of professionals
 Knowledge and skills to enable communities to access specialized technical assistance in
instances when this is needed
 Sensitivity to the local culture
 Gender-sensitivity

References

Apuan, V.N. (1988).Organizing People for Power. Some Perspectives to Community Organization, Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications. Bagadion,Jr., B.
(1993).‘Notes and observations on community-based resource management’ in Fellizar, Jr. F.P. (ed.) Community-Based Resource Management: Perspectives,
Experiences and Policy Issues, College, Laguna, Philippines: Environment and Resource Management Project (ERMP). Ben-Ali, A.M. & Carvalho, M.E.
(1996).‘Community Mobilization and Empowerment in a Brazilian Favela: The Settlement of Cachoeira, Campina Grande, Brasil’,www.umanitoba.ca/
institutes/disaster_research/brazil/report3.html (Accessed29 June 20212). Theoretical Concepts and Pratice of Community Organ izing-Josefina Tamayo-Dizon,
College of Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines Los Banos-Institute for Governance and Rural Development. PhD Community Development,
Social Psychology Handout Miriam College Foundation Inc. BS Social Work Community Organization Handouts Miriam College Founda tion Inc. Mapua CWTS2019
Module 1 and 2