Community Strengths in Australian Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Communities - Essay Example

Defining Community and Community Strengths in Relation to Australian Aboriginal Communities and Non-aboriginal Communities Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction Human beings become attached emotionally and socially to other people and places. What individuals learn from their families discourages or encourages them to broaden their connection with organisations, neighbours and beyond. Extension of human connection entails cross cultural and social boundaries that leads to formation of communities where people hold something in common. People are connected together by sexual orientation, occupation, religious beliefs, cultural beliefs and ethnic origin. Communities are essential as they support each other at all times. Although communities differ in terms of the people who are part of them, communities demonstrate an extent of constancy in belongingness and fellowship among members. People of a given community choose to associate and connect with each other because of the strengths involved in communities. With particular focus to Australian aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities, this essay defines community and community strengths. There is no agreed definition of community, but community in general terms entails the relationships between a group of people in a given geographical location that surpasses casual acknowledgement. The relationships of members of a given community are closer compared to casual relationships because the group share common values and goals. Taylor, Wilkinson and cheers (2008) define community as relationships that refer to social connections and human relationships that bring people together. Bruhn (2012) who asserts that members of a community share a common belief as a uniting value echoes this definition. Communities may be viewed as collection of individuals with a given social structure where all the activities of a given community occur within a certain geographical region. Characteristics of a community include mutuality, informal and close relationships, territory, organised interaction, cultural similarity, powerful group feeling, and common beliefs and values. Taylor, Wilkinson and cheers (2008) consider a community as an organic natural social group where people are joined together through the sense of belonging that is formed from daily contacts. As opposed to a society, population is a major characteristic of a community irrespective of whether individuals hold or do not hold conscious relationships. However, the scope of a community is not wide like that of a society. Building on community strength helps members to support one another in all areas of community development. The strengths of a community are embedded in the values and beliefs of a given community. Discovering community strengths calls for creativity because these strengths are not automatically apparent. Strengths of a community include talents and skills of individual people, resources provided by local organisations and associations and resources provided by institutions such as council and schools. Other community strengths include buildings, property, land, local industries and business besides heritage, culture and the arts of a community. Taylor et al. (2008) assert that community strengths help communities in formulating pragmatic, economically viable and contextually pertinent decisions. Decision-making in a community requires community strengths. Taylor and associates confirm that decision-making and community empowerment depends on community strength. They define community strength as individuals, organisations and groups in a locality engaging with each other and the social infrastructure that enhances the life and wellbeing of a community (Taylor et al.2008). Community strengths integrated with community resources and capabilities establish the building blocks of empowerment and participatory development that enables communities and their partners to ascertain the intervention direction. Organisations and government have tried to comprehend the ideological, cultural, institutional and structural blueprints of communities as a podium for conceiving empowerment models that functions to increase cohesion, social capital and community strength. With regard to the definition of community, the Australian aboriginal community entails the collective name given to indigenous people of Australia and their descendants who share common values and beliefs. They include all the member of the Australian aboriginal race. Australian non-aboriginal community entails the collective name given to non-indigenous people of Australia. Australian aboriginal people do not view themselves as individuals (Taylor et al.2008). Instead, they view things from the perspective of the community where an individual owns nothing. The Australian aboriginal group considers that everything including children belong to the group. Given the sense of community demonstrated by Australian aboriginal group, cultural, spiritual and family responsibilities come before all other responsibilities. For instance, an essential value in aboriginal communities is that care of the dying and sick is a community concern. In this view, culturally appropriate palliative care would involve establishment of a state of harmony amid the client, relatives, family, the spirit world and land. On the contrary, the Australian non-aboriginal people do view themselves as individuals because of their diverse nature (Edgar, 2001). Aboriginal communities view community strengths, which include property and land in the same way they view their traditional land. They believe that the community strengths such as organisations are owned and managed by the community and are bound up with the aboriginal community identity (Clarke, 2000). The community strengths are integral to the identity of the aboriginal group. On the contrary, the non-original group view community strengths as open to entire community and should be accessed by all. As a result, the aboriginal community is excluded from the conceptualisations of Australian mainstream society. It is trivial and set apart as a different entity in and of itself. The aboriginal communities in Australia live in remotes areas of the country With regard to social connections and human relationships, non-aboriginal communities more socially connected compared to aboriginal communities. Social connections entail the relationships that people share with people around them. Social connections are essential as they enhance the quality of life (Clarke, 2000). However, people in aboriginal communities believe that major responsibilities such as family responsibilities and children belong to the community. People in aboriginal communities help each other in efforts of expanding their social networks. They also believe that their community strengths should benefit all people in the community. Aboriginal communities are more likely to live on low incomes compared to non-aboriginal groups because of their social connections. However, aboriginal family and kinship structures are cohesive drivers that bind the aboriginal communities together. The obligations of aboriginal communities reflect cultural beliefs and values. The aboriginal communities conduct their responsibilities and roles through kinship and family structures. Aboriginal communities share resources and materials with family members (Eversole, 2015). In contrast to non-aboriginal communities, aboriginal people demonstrate great value on group belongingness and they conform to responsibilities and obligations of other group members. Their social network revolves around group members and not outside the group. A sense of belonging is crucial to aboriginal communities and it allows them to connect to their people and land. Given that aboriginal communities are less socially connected compared to non-aboriginal communities, they experience unequal prospects for health and well-being. Social connections that define a community are very essential portion of aboriginal life. These connections play a crucial role in determining the health upshots among the aboriginal communities (Eversole, 2015). The limited social connections within the aboriginal communities prompt poor health, educational and social upshots among the aboriginal communities compared to non-aboriginal communities who are more socially connected. The social connections and human relationships of the aboriginal communities affect the health outcome of these communities thereby making the quest to improve their health outcome a permanent challenge for the Australian government. The gap in status of health amid non-indigenous and indigenous Australian despite being a human right concern is because of limited social connections that hinders their access to primary healthcare. Conclusion Community entails the relationships that refer to social connections and human relationships that bring people together while community strengths entails the individuals, organisations and groups in a locality engaging with each other and the social infrastructure that enhances the life and wellbeing of a community. People view community as a sense of cohesiveness among a group of persons. Both non-aboriginal and aboriginal communities hold their own perspectives on community and community strengths. Both communities build on the foundations of working collaboratively to benefit their respective communities. However aboriginal communities demonstrate less social network and human relationships an aspect that affect them socially in terms of health and education. The social connections and human relationships of aboriginal communities are limited to their communities. Compared to aboriginal community, non-aboriginal community is a strong community because it benefits the individual, the community and the wider society. Non-aboriginal communities are powerful compared aboriginal communities because of the powerful social connections and human relationships. Non-aboriginal communities promote a supportive and stable society. References Bruhn, J.(2011). The sociology of community connections. UK: Springer Science & Business Media. Clarke, S. (2000). Social work as community development: A management model for social change (2nd ed.). Aldershot, Hampshire, England ; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate. Edgar, D. (2001). The patchwork nation. Rethinking government - re-building community. Sydney: Harper Collins Publishers. Eversole, R (2015) Knowledge Partnering For Community Development. London: Routledge. Taylor, J., Wilkinson, D., Cheers, B. (2008). Working with communities in Health and Human Services. Sydney: Oxford University Press Read More