Sense of a Community Development - Term Paper Example

Introduction Making sense of a community development concept requires that it is situated alongside other important concepts of community work practice, including community action, community organisation, social planning and service extension (Pawar, 2014: p32). Compared to these concepts of community work, community development emphasises mutual support, self-help and neighbourhood integration. Community intervention development is a critical aspect of social and health wellbeing, especially for people residing in deprived neighbourhoods. Phillips and Pittman (2014: p22) argue that no matter the elegance of a social solution or efficiency of a park design, its results will not be as effective if the neighbourhood and community at large are not involved in design and management of the interventions. Evidently, to achieve maximum benefit, social and health improvements should accompany improvements in the community’s social fabric. In this case, intervention development must be context-specific, considering the specificity of the community’s diversity and structures (Clark, 2012: p33). This paper will seek to design an intervention in response to the needs represented by Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal who reside in the Lincoln and Kingswood estates in Corby, with her needs placed in the context of the Lincoln Way and Kingswood community in Corby. This intervention will portend a significant influence on Chelsea and the Kingswood community. To achieve this aim, the paper will begin by conducting a review of current literature related to community development, sustainable communities and asset-based community development. An investigation of Chelsea’s, Connor’s, and Crystal’s community follows, leading on to the scoping of possible interventions. Literature Review Community development is the process through which community members collaborate in taking collective action and solving common problems. Ledwith (2011: p56) contends that the two major principles of community development are environmental and social justice, noting that community development creates a sustainable, just world with an ideology of equality. Community development practitioners play an essential role in analysing power relationships to connect with the causes of social injustice, as well as structuring local action in a political context (Brennan et al, 2013: p42). In order to provide positive environments that ensure all members of the community with different levels of income are given the tools and opportunities needed to participate in building assets in their community and taking part in the mainstream economy, Freire (2012: p31) notes that there is a need to build sustainable communities. Sustainable communities are dependent on the promotion of social equity, creation and maintenance of environmental and economic health, and fostering broad participation of citizens in planning and implementation (Rogerson, 2011: p51). Finally, according to Payne (2013: p30), asset-based community development involves a focus on the strengths and assets of a community when working to create a sustainable community. In addition, asset-based community development is relationship driven. Green and Haines (2012: p19) note that this concept is underpinned by recognition of the importance of social capital as an asset, inquiry that appreciates the past successes of the community, and participatory approaches to community development based on ownership and empowerment of the process of community development. Community Investigation Lincoln estate is located in England’s East Midlands region within the Kingswood electoral division. The community has a higher than average crime rate relative to the rest of England, with criminal arson and damage (28.1%), violence with injury (16.4%), and harassment and assault (14.4%) being the most common crimes in 2013 (statistics.gov.uk, 2011; a: p1). With regard to the housing situation, 56.2% of the population in the community lives in terraced houses, followed by semi-detached and purpose-built flats at 27.4% and 9.6% respectively (statistics.gov.uk, 2011a: p1). In relation to economic deprivation and unemployment, 30% of the community of working age people claim key benefits, while 13% and 9% claim incapacity benefits and jobseekers allowance respectively. Moreover, 43.93% of the community aged 16-74are employed full time, 12.34% are employed part time, 4.47% are self-employed, while 43.48% of those aged between 16 and 24 years are unemployed (statistics.gov.uk, 2011a: p1). Finally, the rate of underage pregnancy in the community stands at 46.9 per 1,000 girls. In Kingswood community, criminal arson and damage, violence with injury, and harassment and assault account for 58.9% of all crimes. Evaluating statistics on housing, 38.5% live in semi-detached housing, 32.3% in terraced houses, 27.5% in detached houses, and 1.6% in purpose-built flats (statistics.gov.uk, 2011b: p1). In addition, 41.6% of the community owned their houses outright, compared to mortgage (35.8%), shared ownership (0.2%), rented from council (14.4%), and private letting (6.6%). In relation to health, 42.7% of the community is in very good health, compared to good health (35.6%), fair health (15.9%), bad health (4.8%), very bad health (0.9%), and incapacity benefits (6%). In Lincoln estate with 15% of the community at working age claiming benefits, while 6% and 5% claim incapacity benefits and jobseekers allowance respectively (statistics.gov.uk, 2011b: p1). In relation to underage pregnancies, 46.9 out of 1,000 of girls in the community have conceived, which is similar to the rates seen in Lincoln Way. On my visit to Corby, the researcher took several photographs of the Corby area as part of the primary data. As noted above, most of the houses in the Corby area are terraced and semi-detached houses. The Corby area has open spaces with rubbish lying around, old houses without space, barriers at all building ends, lack of access to wheelchair users, untidy recreational centres, and broken cars all over the estates. Chelsea Chaplin, a 17-year old girl living in the Lincoln estate, began disengaging from school in the sixth form and engaged in drinking and violent behaviour. Together with Connor and Crystal, Chelsea is symptomatic of the problems bedevilling the Lincoln and Kingswood communities. Looking back, Chelsea has difficulties with organisation and attention. Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal seem to have issues with anti-social behaviour, evidenced by their seemingly uncaring attitude towards academic failure, alcohol experimentation, brushes with law enforcement, theft, and violent behaviour. Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal’s emotional needs for consistency, safety, protection, trusting relationships and security are unmet, which has led to her attempting to meet these needs on her own. The identification and solution of the problems facing Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal in Lincoln and Kingswood estates is a difficult undertaking, specifically because their situation has numerous dimensions and layers. I drew a rich picture to enable easier deciphering of the interventions required. The final rich picture placed the three clients at the centre, while it also identified her coping strategies and emotions. The picture also consisted of a band around the three clients, which identified the issues in Kingswood and Lincoln estates that trapped the three clients, including high crime rates and poor housing. The next level of the rich picture was the wider Corby community, represented as a band around the two estates. In this case, the picture identified the issues within the wider Corby community, including the expansion of Corby town that has led to moving of people into Lincoln and Kingswood estates. A scoping the Possible Interventions From the information collected about the Lincoln and Kingswood community, it is possible conceptualise the social issues facing this community. According to some of the group members, the community has very poor housing quality that is a mixture of different tenures, while unemployment seems to be a problem and most of those employed work in low-value sectors. The community also has pockets of deprivation and poverty due, in part, to a lack of choice in housing, while the development of Corby into a new town has led to a significant part of its population being “dropped” into Lincoln and Kingswood estates (McDonagh & Daniels, 2012: p111). Moreover, there are significant health issues besetting this community as seen by the high number of people on disability benefits and high levels of teenage pregnancies. In addition, from the case study on Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal, the high levels of school dropouts and low aspirations among its youth evidence anti-social behaviour among youths in the area. Indeed, one classmate mentioned that the working age, population proportion with degree-level qualifications stands at 8.5%, which is the lowest in England and Wales. Most importantly and tellingly, Lincoln and Kingswood estates have the highest rates of teen pregnancies in Corby, which, in turn, has the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the East Midlands (McDonagh & Daniels, 2012: p111). The most pressing issue facing Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal in their communities is anti-social behaviour among young people. Successful community development interventions, according to Monahan et al (2013: p2013: p8), reinforce protective factors and tackle risk factors facing the vulnerable sections of society, while shaping the situations that these vulnerable groups encounter in order to prevent them from falling victim. In Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal’s case, the most promising interventions are after-school recreation and mentoring. Typically, mentoring involves using non-professionals drawn from the Lincoln and Kingswood community who will spend time with at-risk youth like Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal in a supportive and non-judgmental capacity, while also being role models. The philosophy underlying this intervention is that Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal require involvement in positive relationships with caring elders to thrive and develop (Biglan et al., 2012: p457). While parents normally provide security, Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal’s violent relationship with her parents means that another caring adult should supplement this role as a mentor. Mentoring should reduce Chelsea’s offending and anti-social behaviour directly through helping with her schoolwork and experiences, and indirectly through the mentor acting as a role model. The time that Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal spend with the mentor may reduce the opportunity and time spent with delinquent networks. Benson et al. (2012: p8) argue that mentoring is especially effective when meetings are longer and more frequent, as well as where there was additional emphasis on emotional support and motivation. By developing a mutually satisfying relationship between the at-risk youth and mentors, mentoring can result in improved academic performance, school attendance, developing new hobbies, and enhancement of relationships between the young persons and their family, friends, and the wider community (Rhew et al., 2013: p531). Another community-focused intervention that offers promise in this situation is after-school recreation, such as involvement in dancing clubs and youth clubs, which directly tackles anti-social behaviour and avoids isolation for at-risk young persons. This intervention represents both developmental prevention and situational prevention by reducing the time that the clients spend unsupervised (Farahmand et al., 2012: p201). Joining a youth or a dancing club will also help clients who struggle with school work, especially by reducing their feeling of alienation and low self-esteem (Botvin & Griffin, 2014: p82), by giving them an opportunity to express another competency they may possess. However, to avoid the obvious pitfall that after-school recreation may provide an opportunity for the clients to meet up with other delinquent peers and perpetuate anti-social behaviour like smoking (Lochman et al., 2013: p372). Therefore, these activities must be structured and supervised. In this case, Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal from low-income families in the Lincoln and Kingswood estate communities take part in after-class activities like dance, sport, and music, while also moving to integrate these activities into the broader community. Skill-development activities will also portend a significant influence on the development of pro-social behaviours and attitudes. Indeed, Kim et al (2015: p453) note that the BEST After-school Enrichment program in the US resulted in 93% of all participants avoiding contact with law enforcement for a period of nine years, in comparison to 83% for the control group matched to the former group. Conclusion The community development approach involves a process of community building by teaching, enabling and motivating local organisations and people towards self-help, or, in other words, it involves facilitated self-help. The review of literature concerning this approach provided evidence that community development results in the building of sustainable communities, particularly where it involves asset-based community development, which focuses on the strengths and assets of a community, rather than its needs and problems. The clients for this intervention development were Chelsea Chaplin, aged 17, Connor, 22, and Crystal, 22 who were having behavioural problems due to a worsening anti-social behavioural problems in their community. The discussion found that their community, the Kingswood and Lincoln estates, played a major role in their anti-social behaviour development, specifically due to its poor housing, deprivation, poverty, and general high levels of crime. Already, these behavioural problems have had significant impacts on the community’s young people with Kingswood and Lincoln estates having the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the East Midlands. To counter this trend and save Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal in this community from the pitfalls of anti-social behaviour, an asset-based community development approach identified the best intervention. In this case, rather than dwelling on the needs and problems facing Chelsea, Connor, and Crystal, the intervention focused on the community’s strengths; a lively young population with a lot of free time. This resulted in after-school recreational activities like joining youth clubs and dancing clubs, which would act to integrate Chelsea and other clients into the community. References Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., Scales, P. C. & Blyth, D. A. (2012). Beyond the ‘village’ rhetoric: Creating healthy communities for children and adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 16, 1, 3-23 Biglan, A., Flay, B. R., Embry, D. D. & Sandler, I. N. (2012). The critical role of nurturing environments for promoting human well-being. American Psychologist, 67, 4, 257 Botvin, G. J., & Griffin, K. W. (2014). Toward the development of preventive interventions to reduce HRSB, HIV/AIDS, and multiple problem behaviours. Prevention Science, 15, 1, 81-83 Brennan, M. A., Bridger, J. C. & Alter, T. R. (2013). Theory, practice, and community development. London: Routledge Clark, W. W. (2010). Sustainable communities. New York: Springer. Farahmand, F. K., Duffy, S. N., Tailor, M. A., DuBois, D. L., Lyon, A. L., Grant, K. E., & Nathanson, A. M. (2012). Community‐Based Mental Health and Behavioral Programs for Low‐Income Urban Youth: A Meta‐Analytic Review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 19, 2, 195-215 Freire, P. (2012). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury Green, G. P. & Haines, A. (2012). Asset building & community development. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Kim, B. E., Gilman, A. B. & Hawkins, J. D. (2015). 28 School-and Community-Based Preventive Interventions during Adolescence: Preventing Delinquency through Science-Guided Collective Action. In The Development of Criminal and Antisocial Behaviour, 3, 1, 447-460 Ledwith, M. (2011). Community development: A critical approach. Bristol: Policy Lochman, J. E., Wells, K. C., Qu, L. & Chen, L. (2013). Three year follow-up of coping power intervention effects: evidence of neighbourhood moderation? Prevention Science, 14, 4, 364-376. McDonagh, B. & Daniels, S. (2012). Enclosure stories: narratives from Northamptonshire. Cultural Geographies, 19, 1, 107-121 Monahan, K. C., Hawkins, J. D. & Abbott, R. D. (2013). The application of meta-analysis within a matched-pair randomized control trial: An illustration testing the effects of Communities That Care on delinquent behaviour. Prevention Science, 14, 1, 1-12 Pawar, M. S. (2014). Social and Community Development Practice. New Delhi: SAGE Publications. Payne, P. R. (2013). Youth violence prevention through asset-based community development. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub. Phillips, R., & Pittman, R. H. (2014). An Introduction to Community Development. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. Rhew, I. C., Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D. & Briney, J. S. (2013). Sustained effects of the Communities That Care system on prevention service system transformation. American Journal of Public Health, 103, 3, 529-535 Rogerson, R. J. (2011). Sustainable communities: Skills and learning for place making. Hatfield, Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press. statistics.gov.uk. (2011a). NN18 9HU within neighbourhood Corby 006E. Retrieved March 23, 2015, from Office of National Statistics: http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/NeighbourhoodSummary.do?width=853&a=7&i=1001&m=0&s=1427126444578&enc=1&profileSearchText=NN189HU&searchProfiles= statistics.gov.uk. (2011b). NN18 9NS within neighbourhood Corby 004F. Retrieved march 23, 2015, from Office of National Statistics: http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/NeighbourhoodSummary.do?width=853&a=7&i=1001&m=0&s=1427126444578&enc=1&profileSearchText=NN18+9NS&searchProfiles= Read More