Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel, Inc.

Area E, Fatima V, Sapang Palay, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Telefax: (044) 760 0301 | 760 0397 | 0921 231 1379 | 0919 749 7728
National Service Training Program 2

Course Code : NSTP 2

Description : NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET (LAS) NO.6

Name Score
Date Section

Topic COMMUNITY IMMERSION

Learning 1. analyze the different steps involved in community immersion;

Outcomes 2. associate the nature of community develop to its approaches; and
3. design a community immersion program with activities compliant with the
protocols of intervention.

DISCUSSION
The saying “Experience is the best teacher” is the simplest way to describe the necessity of community
immersion among college students today, particularly for NSTP-CWTS 2 students who study how community
function and develop in different aspects. Community Immersion inculcates civic consciousness and defense
preparedness in the youth. Students should be ready to engage in different community activities to be aware
of community concerns, dynamics, and lifestyles. It is only through immersion in actual community that one
gets to know the social, political, and economic situation of the people belonging to the community. When
students go to a community, they associate with the people whom they intend to work with as their partners
or allies. Forms of community immersion include home visits, living with selected families, informal discussions
with individuals or groups, sharing in household and community activities, attendance in social gatherings,
and assistance in production work.

Community immersion is a strategy that goes beyond acquainting students with community concerns;
it also makes possible the participation of students in their resolution. It also devised as a strategy in molding
students to become socially aware and responsible citizen. This type of activity transforms the lives not only of
students but also members of the community. As students help provide solutions to problems encountered by
the community, the community also shows and share its way of living, which then allows students to see the
world from a different perspective.

Students gain benefits from their participation in community immersion. The learners can understand
the daily living of the community on a grassroots level, and they will learn how to build community relationships
(Torres, 2010). In community immersion, the learner develops skills, such as conducting asset mapping and
other life skills, and social awareness and consciousness in pressing conditions faced by the community.

Community immersion offers students an avenue to identify and understand issues that will help solve
problems in communities affecting the entire nation.

Prepared by: MARK S. GUERRERO, CDSGA-NSTP HEAD Page 1

 Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel, Inc.
Area E, Fatima V, Sapang Palay, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Telefax: (044) 760 0301 | 760 0397 | 0921 231 1379 | 0919 749 7728
National Service Training Program 2

Community Immersion

One of the strategies of organizing a community is through immersion. It involves the extensive
exposure of students to various community activities so that they may become responsible members of the
society where they belong. Students are also trained to become socially, morally, and civically conscious
individuals on the areas of sports, literacy, health, livelihood, environmental services, values, and other social
welfare services.

Community immersion, as a voluntary and participatory approach to developing a wholesome and

ideal society, it reflected on the following student learning activities.

1. Determine the economic, psychosocial, and political status of the people as the students
immerse in actual community life.
2. Identifying the community’s needs, interests, and other concerns.
3. Gaining personal development through acquiring additional knowledge on real-life situations
and giving importance to good values and life skills.
4. Recognizing people’s dignity by letting students participate in community programs and help
determine appropriate courses of action for community problems.
5. Realizing that student participation yields contributions for the welfare of the community and
that community participation, in turn, gives meaning to the holistic development of students.

Service-Learning from Community Immersion

Labuguen et al. (2008) describe how the community immersion aspect of NSTP-CWTS 2 benefits not
only the communities served but also the students who are provided with the following advantages:

1. Have the opportunity to appreciate other people’s lives through living, identifying, and
associating with the people.
2. Gain social acceptability through the implementation of community services and activities in
building a good relationship.
3. Enhance their experiences in conducting resource and community inventory mapping,
particularly identifying geographic coverage, pointing out resources and their uses, and
determining the relationships of people with existing resources.
4. Establish rapport and relationships with different people who may be of help to them in the
future.
5. Develop the skills and ability to solve issues and problems regarding the indifference of the
people in the community.
6. Acquire firsthand experience in dealing with community intervention and services.
7. Learn life skills that will enrich and improve them as persons.

Community Development Work

One might think that a community is something external to life or something supplementary, like that
of having a car, owning a home, having a stable job, working with supportive coworkers, or having thoughtful
neighbors. However, a community involves every connection one has with the world, which sustains his or her
way of life. A community does not include only those people who live next door or who work in the same
office as someone but also those people who construct roads; those who work at markets, factories, and
malls; and those who plat wheat, grow crops, and raise livestock. the people you rely on for your living often
seem invisible or living thousands of miles away. However, despite this, these people constitute the work of a
community.

Prepared by: MARK S. GUERRERO, CDSGA-NSTP HEAD Page 2

 Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel, Inc.
Area E, Fatima V, Sapang Palay, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Telefax: (044) 760 0301 | 760 0397 | 0921 231 1379 | 0919 749 7728
National Service Training Program 2

Community development work is the process by which efforts of the people at the grassroots level are
united with those of the government to improve the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the
community. Community development works can be referred to as efforts to improve the economic or
structural conditions of a community. Such efforts may focus on business or job creation and physical or
infrastructure development. It must be emphasized that community development work in general is a social
learning process that serves to empower individuals and involve them in collective activities aimed at
socioeconomic development.

Moreover, community development works are actions that seek to build social capital, promote
interaction, and empower community residents to alleviate their living conditions. the building of social
capital is important in solving community problems, as the people who live, work, and interact in a particular
community enable their own community to function effectively.

Community development works operate on two models. The first model refers to efforts that develop
from within the community and are led by community members. The second model refers to efforts that are
instigated and run by professionals from outside the community.

Approaches to Community Development Work

Community work is often confused with community-based work. Their similarity is that they both fall under the
classification of approaches to community development. To differentiate, community work requires the
efforts of the people in greater or larger degrees, whereas community-based work involves the community
but in a smaller scale from what is essential in community work.

For instance, a group of young students selling homemade cookies to families in a neighborhood and using
the profit to fund extra books to be donated to their school library is likely to be typed as community-based-
work. A whole community of parents aiming to provide donations to local orphanages by holding a local
garage sale is considered community work.

Community development approaches are defined by the following:

1. Sustainability (e.g., long – or short term)

2. Area of concentration (e.g., local, national, global, or overseas)
3. Field or specialization (e.g., education advancement or religion affairs)
4. Objectives, vision and mission (e.g., social security or rural domination with the use of kindness)

The approaches listed above are not guaranteed absolute, for community development work itself is still
broad. In addition, the list provided below serves as a supplementary compilation of approaches to
community development work.

1. The technical assistance approach is involved in the efficient delivery of improving programs or
services that5 allow communities to access experts in areas that may be highly technical or that may
demand credentials for further funding or implementation.
2. The self-help approach encourages people within a community to work together to promote
communal independence. Individuals who are vulnerable, voiceless, and powerless can develop
enormous strength in self-help groups. This approach may be demonstrated through activities that
involve a vision and a goal-setting process.

Prepared by: MARK S. GUERRERO, CDSGA-NSTP HEAD Page 3

 Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel, Inc.
Area E, Fatima V, Sapang Palay, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Telefax: (044) 760 0301 | 760 0397 | 0921 231 1379 | 0919 749 7728
National Service Training Program 2

3. The con approach deals with confronting the forces that are blocking off efforts to solve problems by
building human capacity to address local issues and concerns, and altering the structure of the
community in terms of engagement. The practices under this approach value confrontations, in a
sense that conflicts provide the impetus for improvement, encourage criti8cal thinking, and develop
individual thought.
4. The structural or brick-and-mortar approach is more concerned with the foundation of the community
members in terms of constitution. It may involve the process of constructing infrastructures that meet
human needs or expectations. It can also involve understanding the multiple and interesting forms of
oppression that occur at the personal, cultural, and structural levels, with each level influencing
oppression on the others.
5. The social justice and human rights approach focuses on the behavioral, cultural, ethnic, and social
affairs as the leading target for communal development in or outside the community. The concept of
social justice involves finding the optimum balance between the people’s joint responsibilities as a
society and their responsibilities as individuals to contribute to a just society. Human rights provide an
internationally agreed set of principles and standards, which is used to assess inequality. The two
concepts are correlated in a sense that human rights clearly define and authorize what is globally
and legally accepted from the various contexts of social justice.
6. The ecological or environmental approach targets crises as the major focal point for developmental,
radical alternatives to address the natural make-up of the earth. The approach focuses on ecological
or environmental protection and advancement.
7. The multi-method approach combines methods that will most likely ensure the progress and success
of communal works that are inherently unheard of. A multi-method approach combines at least two
kinds of approaches to form a one-of-a-kind, hybrid-like approach, which is considered uncommon
by many organizations.

The approaches to community work are vast and still growing. How the communities interpret the
meanings of these approaches is up to them. That is more important to note is how they express those
interpretations and turn them into values that will lead to outcomes that will improve the community and
society.

Principles and Considerations for Planning Community Projects

According to Luna and Bawagan (2009), the following principles and consideration are relevant when
planning for community work:

1. Recognize the individual leadership skills of the community people and strengthen the lacking
resources
2. Provide opportunities in which people can participate
3. Plan according to the needs of the community based on their issues and problems
4. Train community leaders during the planning stage
5. Document all plans being undertaken
6. Mobilize resources from the community as well as external resources
7. Be realistic about the plans to be achieved
8. Be flexible upon the occurrence o9f unforeseen circumstances and events
9. Monitor and evaluate the planed activity, and learn from past mistakes
10. Coordinate with other groups and individuals involved in the planning process

Prepared by: MARK S. GUERRERO, CDSGA-NSTP HEAD Page 4

 Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel, Inc.
Area E, Fatima V, Sapang Palay, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Telefax: (044) 760 0301 | 760 0397 | 0921 231 1379 | 0919 749 7728
National Service Training Program 2

Community Development Project

A community development project is also known as a community-based project with a wide range of sectoral
coverage within the network of community stakeholders (Chaskin, 2001). Examples of community
development projects are those implemented by differentiate government agencies or departments; civil
societies such as service organizations, mass organizations, and cooperatives; or local or international
development agencies that may work together from time to time. These community projects originate
externally because of the resources and funding (Bariata-Magcuro, 2009)

Project development is a long-term goal to respond to the needs and challenges of communities. Most of
the projects adopt a community-based approach because of the inherent objectives of the people’s
empowerment. Their participation and improvement of well-being include social justice, health, education,
and current conditions.

The problem or issue of communities is to assess their needs and identify their current condition.

Community Capacity Building

Community building is the creation of a community composed of individuals within an rea or with a common
interest. The building of social networks within a community fosters collaborative work and hones problem-
solving skills.

Community capacity refers to the interactions of humans, social capital, and organizational resources within
a community that are leveraged to solve collective problems and maintain or improve the community.
Community capacity operates through the informal social process and organized efforts by individuals,
organizations, and social networks that exist among them and between them, and the larger systems of which
the community is a part (Chaskin, 2001)

It is important to provide the community with opportunities to enhance their resiliency for when future natural
and manmade calamities occur (Faudy-Bisri, 2010)

Community Capacity-Building Practices

According to Chaskin (2001), there are three classifications of community capacity-building activities. These
are as follows:

1. Development of skills, and providing of learning and training opportunities for individuals and groups
2. Development of the organizational structure and strengths of community groups and networks
3. Development of support to enhance the skills structure

Community capacity building challenges individuals to act on two fronts. It requires enhancing the capacities
of social and institutional actors locally while, at the same time, strengthening their relationship with actors
outside the community

The 2002 Community Work Forum of the Community Development National Occupational Standards
mentions the following indicators for good community capacity-building programs (Faudy-Bisri, 2010)

1. Reflect the values of community development

2. Driven by the community’s priorities
3. Take the existing strengths and talents within the community as the starting point for development
4. Benefit the individuals directly involved and their own wider community

Prepared by: MARK S. GUERRERO, CDSGA-NSTP HEAD Page 5

 Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel, Inc.
Area E, Fatima V, Sapang Palay, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Telefax: (044) 760 0301 | 760 0397 | 0921 231 1379 | 0919 749 7728
National Service Training Program 2

5. Empower people to act on behalf of their community

6. Learn from the best practices of other communities
7. Establish and strengthen new and existing networks

Review Questions:
1. What is community immersion?
2. What is community development work?
3. What is the difference between community work from community-based work?
4. State and define each of the given supplementary compilation of approaches to community
development work.

Application:
1. If you given a chance to design your own community immersion program, what activities would you
propose?
2. How would you relate your classroom experience to your chosen community immersion program as
an NSTP_CWTS 2 student?

Prepared by: MARK S. GUERRERO, CDSGA-NSTP HEAD Page 6