NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM (NSTP) 2

Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS) 2

Literacy Training Service (LTS) 2
2nd Semester; AY 2022-2023

MODULE 3
THE COMMUNITY IMMERSION

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, the students will be able to;

1. enumerate the steps involved in community immersion

2. explain the importance of the various steps in community immersion
3. define community immersion as an approach and strategy of developing projects to serving
people and the community
4. identify the role of NSTP in community engagement
5. develop consciousness and commitment to social change through community immersion.
6. appreciate the values of community immersion as a means of developing civic
consciousness.

What is Community Immersion?

Community immersion is an effective way of bringing concepts to life while (Bocage, 2021) NSTP
students are engaged with community members in the real world. It allows individuals who are not familiar
with the people and communities where they will work immerse themselves in these settings. This gives
them the opportunity to reflect on their assumptions, attitudes, and the knowledge base of their profession
and to gain cultural competence (Global Family Research Project, 2019).

Community immersion programs are designed to get prospective or existing college or university
students acquainted with issues in their local communities or abroad. Students usually do some volunteer
work on service projects that deal with environmental, social or economic issues the community faces.
Field trips, meetings with local leaders and social activities with those in the community are also common
(staff-writer, 2015).

Purpose and Function of Community Immersion

Community immersion programs can fulfill different purposes. Some of them are designed to help
first-year college students adjust to the new community and make connections with each other and other
residents. For NSTP 2, community immersion is being offered as a community research opportunity and
as a mandatory course requirement.

The best approach to put what has been covered in class into practice is through participating in
various community immersion. Students will gain a better grasp of the various stages of community
communication and how to respond to each circumstance that arises. The students are expected to work
with the community during the immersion, particularly while putting their project idea into action.
Hence, the project proposals of the students of NSTP 2 should provide the community with a concrete
response to a recognized social or community issue.

It is a community organizing activity which involves NSTP students in the community and learning
about the various issues, dynamics, and lifestyles of the community through exposure to and participation
in various activities. Community Immersion allows NSTP students to better understand the different
community issues and problems through exposure on actual life situations specifically in the deprived,
depressed, and the underprivileged communities.

Students in NSTP 2 (CWTS/LTS) are expected to develop and launch community-based project
interventions to address various concerns and problems faced by those in the service area.

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Student’s Personal Gain in Community Immersion

1. Opportunity for students to comprehend and understand the ways of the people living in the
service area.
2. Rapport establishment with different people living in the community.
3. First-hand experience especially in dealing community works and projects.
4. Opportunity to learn life skills by engaging themselves in community engagement.
5. Develop their conscientization ability
6. Opportunity to enhance their skills in conducting research and surveys.

Significance of Community Immersion for the NSTP Students

Students who participate in high-quality community-based immersion enjoy a number of benefits,
both in their personal and professional life (Stenger, 2013). Community immersion helps students to
mature by developing social skills, doing outreach or public relations tasks. (Stenger, 2013).

Community immersion is significant to NSTP students for the following reasons;

Social

Because volunteering engages NSTP students directly with a community, it allows for a special
bond with those people or organizations being served. Community immersion for students increases
social awareness and responsibility as well. By committing to a project or activity with others, college
volunteering helps to build and strengthen relationships and make new friendships. The individual’s
social, professional, and support network is bound to grow, introducing to many new people who care
about the same things as you (Habitat for Humanity of Broward, 2021).

Psychological

By helping others, you will also decrease stress and depression. One of the major risk factors for
depression is social isolation. College volunteering helps you feel better about yourself and increase
overall satisfaction in your life by helping others and staying in regular contact with others. Immersing
oneself in the community and creating projects that will benefit the community could give personal
satisfaction (Habitat for Humanity of Broward, 2021).

Boost Confidence

Are you shy, or do you have a difficult time meeting new people? Thankfully, community
immersion gives students, outgoing or not, the opportunity to develop and practice social skills by meeting
with people who share the same interests and goals. With community immersion, you will become more
comfortable with your fellow volunteers over time and boost your confidence levels too. Community
service for students boosts self-confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of accomplishment. This newfound
pride will have positive effects on your present and future (Habitat for Humanity of Broward, 2021).

Critical Thinking Skills

While the benefits of community immersion and service for students include directly helping and
making a difference in an organization and the lives of people the students are serving, it will also make a
difference in the student’s career prospects. College volunteering as form of community immersion helps
students cognitively by enhancing their knowledge, growing from new experiences, and developing and
improving interpersonal communication skills as well. Students will gain new course-related skills through
community service, a better sense of social responsibility, and make a positive impact on the community.

Staying Active

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 There are many mental benefits of volunteering and community immersion, but there are physical
benefits as well. Community immersion keeps students physically healthy and lessens symptoms or risks
of chronic pain, depression, improves heart health, and more. Studies have shown that those who
volunteer have a lower mortality rate as well, and volunteering has many benefits to your physical and
mental health at any age.

The process of Community Immersion

Phase 1: Pre-Immersion

Factors to be considered in area selection:

1. Group or communities to be chosen to the deprived, depressed and
underprivileged (DDU)
2. Willingness of local groups and community leaders to work with you on
community projects.
3. Anticipated activities and demands fall within your available resources
and ability to meet them.
4. Presence of development agencies and other support institutions
providing assistance to the areas.
5. Stable peace and order situation.
6. Accessibility. Successful community immersion also relies on how
quickly and how often you can visit the community
Factors to be considered in area selection:
1. Group or communities to be chosen to the deprived, depressed and
underprivileged (DDU)
2. Willingness of local groups and community leaders to work with you on
community projects.
3. Anticipated activities and demands fall within your available resources
and ability to meet them.
4. Presence of development agencies and other support institutions
providing assistance to the areas.
5. Stable peace and order situation.
6. Accessibility. Successful community immersion also relies on how
quickly and how often you can visit the community
Factors to be considered in area selection:
1. Group or communities to be chosen to the deprived, depressed and
underprivileged (DDU)
2. Willingness of local groups and community leaders to work with you on
community projects.
3. Anticipated activities and demands fall within your available resources
and ability to meet them.
4. Presence of development agencies and other support institutions
providing assistance to the areas.
5. Stable peace and order situation.
6. Accessibility. Successful community immersion also relies on how
quickly and how often you can visit the community
INFORMATION GATHERING- while the community which will serve as the venue for immersion is being
identified will help students prepare themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. Students must have
waivers from their parents or guardians stating that they have been informed and have agreed that their
children or wards will undergo the CWTS community immersion program.

LEE ET AL. (2006) PRESCRIBED CERTAIN PRE-IMMERSION GUIDELINES:

a. Basic information about the people living in the community should be gathered such as
people’s ways of living, practices, beliefs and lifestyle.
Demographic information- information that is very important before you can create a responsive,
relatable and feasible community. (Remember that the center of your project is the people)
b. Students should not think of themselves as better than other people in the community.

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 Immersion is all about being one with people. You cannot gain the trust of the people if you
let them feel you are in the higher position than them.
c. When entering the community, students should dress simply and act normally.
You dress according to the situation. Your goal is to know the people in the DDU area. Make
sure that the way you dress and act won’t intimidate the people in the community in order for
you to gain their trust.
d. Students should not assume the role of "savior" or someone who will solve all of the
community problems.
The goal is to gain insights and opportunities to know the people in the community not to
become a savior.
e. Students should remember that development must be for the people and from the people
The main focus of the immersion is the people in the community. They are the clients. The
center of the project you are implementing. Your project should be centered to the needs of
the people.

The criteria to be used in selecting the venue are the following:

a. Inclusion of the community in the deprived, depressed, and underprivileged (DU) category
b. Willingness of the local interest groups and community leaders to cooperate with the project
implementers
c. Available resources, including manpower
d. Presence of development agencies and other institutions providing assistance to the area
e. Stability of the peace and order situation
f. Accessibility

Phase 2: Entering the Community

Manalili (1990) presents the different ways of gaining entry into a community:
a. Ostentatious entry
The goal is not really to help the people but rather a personal gain.
Most organizers from government offices are familiar with this style. The community worker,
through a padrino, is formally introduced to the people through a village assembly during which
the worker's image is boosted and project output is promised. With this style, the members of the
community will naturally expect more from the project implementer. They will depend on him/her
heavily. This, however, runs counter to the aim of helping strengthen the people's
confidence in their own abilities.
b. Banking on the people's weakness
Outsiders sometimes gain entry into a community by getting the community's attention. They
focus on a particular weakness or problem in a community and exploit the members' dependence
on them for its solution. Some organizers believe that they have to get the community to their side
at once. Thus, they come up with even the cheapest gimmicks just to attract the people's
attention. Trying to create a favorable impression on the community seems to be their aim.
Nevertheless, how can the community learn to be self-dependent if its members always look for
someone, whom they can depend on all the time and who seems to be capable of doing
everything for them? Community organizing is not a popularity contest.

c. Simple entry
This style can be explained through an example. Suppose the project organizers accidentally
meets a person while in a jeep, and that this person is from a community where the organizers
can conduct an immersion project. In such a case, they can simply ask that person if he/she
would be willing to host the for the duration of the project.

d. Academic entry
Communities are often called social lab oratories because they become a field laboratory where
the theories learned in the classroom are put to a test. Academic institutions field students into a
community to address its concerns. Students should be wary, however, because this entry.
Raises the community's expectations of quick fixes and band-aid solutions
e. Formal entry

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 Some organizers believe that the best way of gaining entry into a community is through a formal
protocol or procedure. This is done by paying a courtesy call to the community leaders first. The
barangay captain and other barrio officials usually anticipate such a visit.

f. People-centered entry-Puts people first

In this style, it is not the organizer but the local researchers from the community who first gain
entry into the area. They undertake a preliminary social analysis of the community and also
establish strong links with reliable community members who will serve as the contact persons.
These contact persons will facilitate the organizer's entry.

This approach ultimately believes in the capacity of the community to determine whether "outsider
assistance" is really needed. Users of this type of entry invest on community relations, believing
that both parties are partners to community development. Contact persons in the community will
take care of the organizer's entry. They expect his/her arrival and facilitate his/her integration into
communal life. In order that the villagers will not regard the organizer as an outsider, the contact
persons can introduce him/her as a relative.

Phase 3: Integration with the people

Integration is a continuous process wherein the students come into direct contact and become involved
with the affairs of the community. In this phase, the immersion gets more personal (Manalili, 1990). The
student should realize that the community has a number of concerns. Integration is done in any of the
following ways:

a. Border style
If his/her resources allow it, the student may choose to stay and live in the immersion area for a
certain period of time. He/She may reside in the community to attain a deeper understanding of
its people and way of life.
b. Elitist style
Some students tend to stay close to key informants and political players during their time in the
community. Their social circle becomes limited, and their interaction is confined to conversing
with a few people.
c. People-centered style
Lee, et al. (2006) present some basic tips on integration:
1. Students should integrate with the people by living with them, eating their food, doing their
chores, and patiently learning their way of life.
2. Students should gradually broaden their social group affiliation so they can continue to
expand their knowledge about the status of the community.
3. Students should start working in the community and begin to realize the hardships and
problems that the community members are facing. Realizing that their problems are also the
students' problems, students can learn how to empathize with the people to help solve their
problems.

Whom Do You Immerse With In The Community?

1. When one goes to a community, he associates with the people whom he intends to work with a
partners or allies in the community.
2. We do not just work for and serve the people but rather we encourage their participation.
3. Community immersion is empowering the people towards development of the locality.

Forms of Integration in Community Immersion

1. Home visits
2. Living with selected families preferably with key informants
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 3. Informal discussions with individuals and groups
4. Sharing in household and community activities
5. Attendance in social gatherings
6. Assistance in production work

Examples of Community Partners

1. Parents
2. The youth(in-school or out of school
3. Differently-abled constituents
4. Professionals
5. Members of people's organizations

The Extension Creed by Dr. Y.C. James Yen

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.

Do’s and Don’ts 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. Ready with the things you needed like food, water and
other things that could help you while you are in the community engaging yourself.

During

1. Be courteous to everyone. Be polite and considerate in manner.

2. Act properly and discreetly. Be careful with the actions and words you would do and act.
Make sure you cannot offend anyone in the community.
3. Wear proper school uniforms and identification cards.
4. Keep your valuables secured.
5. Always document your visit.
6. Always ask permission from concerned people when you have to take photos

After

1. Validate and evaluate the programs and activities conducted

2. Submit final documentation outputs to the NSTP office for records purposes
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Activity 3.1

Directions: Form a group of 5 and create a collage depicting the problems and concerns of a community.

Guidelines for Collage Making

1. The theme “community issues” should be the main focus of the collage.
2. Collage must be on paper of A3 size (297mm x 420mm).
3. The collage must not represent any particular individual, organization, political group and must
not depict any religious theme.

Criteria for Grading

Visual Impact 5 points

Creativity 5 points

Aesthetic Display of Collage 5 points

Clarity with respect to theme 5 points

Originality of Work 5 points

References:

Bocage, C. (2021). When Community Immersion Becomes Distance Learning: Lessons Learned From a
Disrupted Semester - Dalmacio D. Flores, Claire Bocage, Sarah Devlin, Meredith Miller, Alyssa
Savarino, Terri H. Lipman, 2021. Pedagogy in Health Promotion.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2373379920963596

CWTS 2 - Community Immersion. (2023). Scribd. https://www.scribd.com/document/331381310/CWTS-2-Community-Immersion

Fundamentals of Co mmunity Immersion Free Essay Example. (2017, February 14). StudyMoose.
https://studymoose.com/fundamentals-of-community-immersion-essay

Habitat for Humanity of Broward. (2021, September). Top 8 Benefits of Community Service for Students | Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat for Humanity |. https://habitatbroward.org/blog/top-8-benefits-of-community-service-for-students/

IIRR. (2022, February 28). Mission & history - IIRR. IIRR. https://iirr.org/mission-history/

Staff-writer. (2015, August 4). What Is a Community Immersion Program? Reference.com; amg. https://www.reference.com/world-
view/community-immersion-program-ea311d545ada5612

‌Stenger, M. (2013, May 23). Students Can Benefit from Participation in Community Service Studies Show | InformED. InformED.
https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/other/students-can-benefit-from-participation-in-community-service-studies-show-4147/

Swachhta and Paryatan Collage Making Competition 2018. (2018).

https://ihmpusa.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/RR_for_Collage_Making.pdf

Villasoto, H., Villasoto, N., & Roxas, M. (2019). Service-Learning and Immersion Towards Community Building: NSTP-CWTS 2

Worktext for College Students 2nd Edition (2nd ed.). C&E Publishing, Inc.

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