ROLE OF COMMUNITIES IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND

SOCIAL CHANGE
Communities are as varied and individual as its members. The role of the community provides
the members with a sense of belonging and purpose. Community roles can be active in providing
a service, supportive, where the members support the activities of another community, or a
mixture where the members share experiences, resources, skills and knowledge with each other.
Communities can be recreational, and provide a social role in enabling its members to participate
in various activities, or provide an educational role in providing its members with knowledge,
skills and resources. A community could also be a service provider, an organisation, a local
community group or any service that supports people with high support needs, or fulfill any other
role that is valued in society as well as other communities that it is a part of.
(http://home.people.net.au/~psawa/Deinstitutionalisation.html#Roleofcommunity)

Geographical communities:

Common resources and institutions create communities through the shared use of
these facilities. It is a common tie in the sense that people who share resources and
institutions will have repeated, and often regular, interactions with each other. Examples
include local government areas where there are shared community centres, local
amenities, and services.
Global Communities:

A global development organization committed to working in partnership with

communities worldwide to bring about sustainable, impactful changes that improve the
lives and livelihoods of the vulnerable. Development is not something we do for people;
it is something we do with them. We believe that the people who understand their needs
best are the people of the community itself.

A goal to make difference by engaging with communities, governments, the

private sector, and NGOs as partners for goodbringing together complementary
strengths and shared responsibilities to work toward common goals.

Community development is a way of strengthening civil society by prioritising the actions of

communities, and their perspectives in the development of social, economic and environmental
policy. It seeks the empowerment of local communities, taken to mean both geographical
communities, communities of interest or identity and communities organising around specific
themes or policy initiatives. It strengthens the capacity of people as active citizens through their
community groups, organisations and networks; and the capacity of institutions and agencies
(public, private and non-governmental) to work in dialogue with citizens to shape and determine
change in their communities. It plays a crucial role in supporting active democratic life by
promoting the autonomous voice of disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. It has a set of
core values/social principles covering human rights, social inclusion, equality and respect for
diversity; and a specific skills and knowledge base.
Purpose: People want to live in healthy communities. These are communities in which they:

feel able to be who they are

have positive prospects for their future
experience respect and equal and fair treatment
Focus: To achieve this people want to be in a community that:

creates wealth and gives everyone access to its benefits

cares for all its members, when they need it, throughout their life span
provides an environment that is safe and attractive
enables people to express and celebrate their creativity and diverse cultures
enables everyone to participate in decisions that affect their lives
Methods: To support them to contribute to the creation of such a community, community
development promotes:

opportunity for people to learn and develop their own skills

reaches out to and involves those who may be excluded or disadvantaged
helps communities to create organisations that can tackle their needs and represent their
interests
works to promote engagement and dialogue between communities and agencies that
affect their lives
 COMMUNITY NETWORK AND RESOURCE SYSTEM

Creative Community Coaches (CCC) are persons with social, creative and educative skills.
Armed with knowledge and expertise on tools and methods to support community self-
organization, collaborative design and DIY building, they coach inhabitants to self-improve their
neighborhoods in a creative way. Since they are embedded in the government, they easily consult
with teams of specialists and policy-makers on legal and technical issues. To allow the
development of bottom-up initiatives outside the government's main policy, they ideally operate
semi-independently. (http://www.toyfoo.com/CreativeCommunityCoaches_DedaloMagazine)
 EXAMPLE TOOLS IN COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT

COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT

Assessing your communitys strengths, weaknesses, needs, and assets is an essential first step in
planning an effective project.

A community assessment can help you get a better understanding of the dynamics of your
community and help both you and the beneficiaries make important decisions about service
priorities.

1. Community Meeting
An informal public gathering that brings together members of a community to discuss
issues, voice concerns, and express preferences for community priorities.
Tips:
Identify your goals
Select an accessible location and convenient time.
Promote the event throughout the community
Prepare a list of questions.
Set and follow a schedule
Set and state ground rules
Take notes.
Be an active listener
Ask participants to elaborate
Allow for small group discussions.

2. Survey
 A popular method for collecting information and opinions. In the context of a community
assessment, a survey can be an effective way to assess the communitys perceived strengths,
weaknesses, needs, and existing assets. Surveys can be general or targeted to specific segments of
a community. Surveys can be delivered by email, phone, or in person.

Tips:

Explain why youre asking the questions.

Keep it short and simple.
Make sure your questions are brief and specific.
Conduct a small pilot of the survey.

3. Interview
Interviews are one-on-one conversations between a facilitator (the interviewer) and a
community stakeholder (the respondent). Interviews allow you to gain a deeper understanding of
the respondents ideas and feelings. Unlike surveys, interviews give the facilitator the freedom to
veer off script and ask follow-up questions. And unlike group assessments, such as community
discussions and focus groups, the respondent has the facilitators sole attention and is more likely
to share personal opinions freely.
Identify your goals.
Identify your target respondents.
Prepare your interview questions.
Practice.
Establish rapport.
Conduct your interview like a real conversation.
Take accurate notes.
Be an active listener.
Ask respondents to elaborate.
Offer to follow up with respondents.

4. Focus Group
A carefully guided discussion used to determine a target groups preferences and
opinions on a particular issue or idea. It can help you determine how the stakeholders believe
community issues should be addressed.
Select a location thats convenient, private, and comfortable for a small-group discussion
and a time that participants can attend.
Arrange for another facilitator to record the focus group session or take public notes of
participants responses. Invite
Community Corps members to participate in focus group activities.
Invite six to 12 participants, an ideal size for a focus group.
Introduce the main topic of discussion, and guide the discussion using your prepared
questions.
 Allow each person time to answer.
Allow participants to respond to comments.

5. Asset Inventory
An asset inventory identifies various types of resources in a community, including its people,
physical environment, institutions, services, and events. To conduct the inventory, participants
identify people, places, and things they think are valuable and then document and analyze their
findings. The resulting inventory identifies assets and can start the process of exploring the
interconnectedness of those assets and how they can be used to create positive change.

Tips:

Determine what you want to inventory, and identify potential participants.

Invite a small, diverse group of community members to conduct the inventory in one or
more sessions.
Use strong group facilitators to ensure that all participants have an opportunity to
contribute and that each discussion group stays on task and on time.
Analyze the results.
Use available assets to create coalitions and networks to address community issues.
Update and maintain the inventory regularly

6. Community Mapping
Community mapping is used to reveal different perspectives about a community. It requires few
resources and little time and can be adapted for participants of virtually any age or educational
background.

Tips:

Keep groups small perhaps no more than 20 participants, divided into groups of four
to six.
Help each group draw a map based on their own definition of the community.
In the large group, discuss all the maps: What are the differences between the maps?
Why might the differences be important? What are the similarities between the maps?
What important aspects of the community are implied by the similarities? What places
were suggested to be added to the community? How would these places improve the
community? Do the maps indicate any specific activities or projects that might improve
the community?
Ask participants to volunteer to join a committee