The community has had an unforgettable impact on the development of cultural values, and so should not be delegated to a small area. A community is a collection of individuals who share similar cultural values and traditions and act upon those values in such a way that the collective good of all is influenced. By contrast, a neighborhood is an area that can be defined on a city map. It is a collection of individuals that live in geographic proximity and often depend upon the same resources. Of course, this disparity in definitions leads to the question of how both communities and neighborhoods go through the process of formation.
For example, settlement houses to fulfill human’s physiological needs. Being the “professional” to work with communities, social workers may be viewed as the expert by the community. Sometimes, even social workers, they may overlook the power imbalance they caused by defining the “problems” of a community. Instead of focusing the community’s deficiency, a community can also be seen as a cohesive place for which emphasizes the importance of human relationships. From this, it suggested that community work should not merely focus on the problems but searched the capital of the community for development.
Introduction: What is a community? “A community is a group of people living in the same area or having some specific characteristics in common” (Kinney,2003). Examples of the common characteristics are having the same interest, religion, race, etc. “There are different types of communities that are classified by a purpose. The different types are interest, action, place, practice, and circumstance.
They tend to be complex because the concept of community, like many social science concepts, is a slippery, intricate, and multifaceted summary concept covering a range of social phenomena (Cohen 1985). The author also urges that the community is ‘ the arena in which people acquire their most fundamental and most substantial experience of social life outside the confines of the home also community can mean where one learns and continues to practice how to be social (p15).. HISTORY OF COMMUNITY PRACTICE THEORY Literature reviews that the history of community practice theory is based on its models which are the social planning model, social action model as well as locality model. A model is a generalisation of thing which is happening in a practice (Payne 1997:35) A model represent an origin always from an angle, is inacceptable size simplifying, due to gain enclosed and compact form (Gojova 2006:69) . Community theory explains what a community is and how a community functions. They tend to be complex because the concept of community, like many social science concepts, is a slippery, intricate, and multifaceted summary concept covering a range of social phenomena (Cohen
Such planning includes a study of present requirements and conditions as well as projections for the future, and often includes proposals for implementing the plan. Needs, priorities and trends of the development of social services must be determined by people living in a given community. - All activities at a local level carried out in the course of preparation and implementation of a plan must be interrelated. - Improvement of social services quality must be considered a desirable and important feature of local community policy. - Priorities and trends of the development of social services are based on a conviction that every single user of social services is unique, that he/she has his/her own value, innate dignity and the right for self-determination PRINCIPLE
To ensure project sustainability, several attributes, which are the pillars, have to be considered. A thorough analysis is needed during formulation of a project to integrate sustainability pillars. These pillars include: community and local staff involvement and empowerment, collaboration of all stakeholders, and shared ownership, It is of great important to have community members identify their own needs, do an analysis of the factors that lead to the needs, and draw up an action plan to address them. It is also important that, before the planner hands over the project to the community, they should design an exit and sustainability plan so as to promote continuity of the project after they are gone. In addition, project failure is preventable with good project planning.
The policies to be implemented should promote the inclusion of the marginalized people in this development process which leads to improvement of their standard s of living (Sherraden 2013). Savings in building poor people’s capacities to actively participate in the economy through human capital development which include education and skill development, public works program, financial capability and assert development are also paramount towards the achievement of community development (Sherraden 2013). To further reaffirm the same point, Midgley& Tang (2001) postulated that social investments and productive capacity promotion rather than depending on the social benefits completely is one critical goal of social development
Goodland highlights that human development in education and nutrition is now accepted as part of economic development based on the World Bank’s report, a global partnership fighting poverty through sustainable solutions (Goodland 2). Also, he points out that the aim of community development is to solve problems and raise the individual's social, economic, cultural and educational level by making full use of human resources (Goosland 1). In Robert’s article, it became clear that it was impossible to separate both types of development; economic and social because both are a condition to achieve the other. Goodland emphasizes his claim by explaining the history of sustainability. The concept of development emerged after World War II, especially in the early 1950s, when economic and social scientists began to divide countries in terms of their economic structure, their development and their standard of living and living in different countries, developing countries and developed countries (Goodland 6).
There is no specific type of need. Rather, needs are specific to the individual and can be emotional, physical, or psychological. This reinforces the member’s commitment to the community because it reflects why the person wanted to become a member in the first place. If a problem occurs, then the “community is able and ready to solve the problem, and in doing so there is a sense that they have made the right decision in joining the community” (Day 2006, 12). Fulfillment of Needs suggests that members of a community believe that “the resources available in their community will meet their needs.
Introduction The local religious organisations have been involved in community development for many years by carrying out upliftment programmes at community level. Many religious organisations though have been limited to evangelism, teaching and discipleship, however many of these organisations have now started to include development programmes not just relief. Development is seen as part of the religion’s mission. Coetzee et al (2001: 120) notes that development is “a form of social change that will lead to progress, the process of enlarging people’s choices, acquiring knowledge and having access to resources for a decent standard of living, and a condition of moving from worse to better”(Coetzee, Graaff, Hendricks, & Wood, 2001). Similarly, Korten (1990) cited in Adjibodou (nd) sees development as “a process by which the members of a society increase their personal and institutional capacities to mobilize and manage resources to produce sustainable and justly distributed improvement in their quality of life, consistent with their own aspiration” (Adjibodou, nd, p. 2), hence they protect and defend the weak, maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.