The Most Fundamental Element of Community Development - Essay Example

Community Development Name Institution Community Development In most cases while considering the concept of community development, it is important to understand the role played by local people in defining their standards of life and culture. Most concepts focuses on community development as activities taking place within the rural contexts and conducted by the locals who share common values, beliefs, and objectives with an aim of improving the living conditions within their localities. According to the United Nations, community development is a process in which the locals come together, discuss the problems they experience, and formulate the solutions to these problems (United Nation Development Programmes, 2003). In most cases, it aims at empowering the locals either as the groups or as individuals. It is important to involve the communities, the local resources, and external agents while considering improvement of the living conditions of the locals. These activities take much time in order to yield the required objectives by the communities. Therefore, the most fundamental element of community development is the period set to meet the desired aims. Consequently, it is crucial that the communities understand that developing the communities goes beyond their expectations, but rather focuses on the specific problems and challenges they experience on a regular basis. Community development aims at solving these challenges (Fenson et al., 2004). Moreover, since it is not easy to solve them at once, community development concept employs the technique of dealing with these problems one-by-one until the locals realize their desired goals. Community development is more of a journey but not the destination because it involves thoroughly looking into the problems affecting the communities and using the same community resources to handle them. Problems affects communities within a specified period of time, that is, communities problems are bound to experience paradigms from time to time; hence, while considering community development as a method of handling them, it is significant to consider flexibility in the strategies put in place (Reese and Fasenfest, 2004). Through developing the communities, the local are able to not only create more jobs for the growing populations, increase their incomes, and develop infrastructures, but also increase their standards of living. To realize all these benefits, the communities have the responsibility of changing their attitudes, contributing their skills and knowledge, having different perceptions on the problems they experience, and sustainably mobilizing and extracting community resources in a sustainable manner (Cavaye, 2010). Since community development focuses on improving the status quo of the locals, it is significant to integrate issues relating to how to make these changes sustainable. Improving the living conditions of the communities is possible considering the multiple resources in most communities. They include resources relating to physical features, financial capitals, human, social, and ecological resources. Integration of all these resources contributes to the economic improvements of the communities; however, public participation plays a crucial role in realization of the desired aims. Community involvement increases accountability and their way of thinking about the problems they experienced. Through networking, the locals are able to acquire and build the social capital which is the one of the major foundations of community development (Brake, 2008). Even though involving the communities often increases the stipulated period for a given project, but it is important as it fashions a sense of ownership by the locals. Patience is a virtue that all the locals must embrace while considering developing their community. The success of community development depends on the level of interaction between the local communities and the joint action instead of focusing on an individual activity. Sociologist refers to this integration as a collective agency. Community development begins with identification of the problems experienced by the communities and formulating methods of curbing the effects associated with them. Therefore, it is significant to view community development as journey that begins with embracing the fact that communities experience specific problems. Definitions of problems vary from one community to another, but collectively, a problem is a form of discrepancy between the status quo of the community and the desired state. In other words, community development is a process; therefore, while aiming to improve the livelihood of people, it is crucial to focus on the specific problems. Whenever community development is viewed as a destination, most probably the communities are able to realize growth instead of development (McConnell, 2009). As a result, the problems persist since there is the creation of more jobs and investments but the locals do not have access to these opportunities. In addition, destination aspect of community development involves very few people within the community that in the end does not lead to the solution of problems experienced by the locals. Well-established community development activities must focus on building stronger communities, which are more resilient to regular problems through identification, assessment, and formulating methods of addressing their needs. In developed countries like the United States, the Federal offers support to projects, which aims at creating better living conditions at the lowers levels through encouraging systematic action (Lennie and Tacchi, 2013). Activities within the community development structure are either generic or specialized. Generic community development focuses on creating development with a specific geographical location and involving the locals to identify their needs and issues with the aim of formulating methods of addressing these challenges. Specialized community development centers its activities on either a specified group of people within an area. In order to ensure efficient, accountable, and reliable outcome of community development, it is important to focus on the principles that form the basis of the whole activities (Coakes, 2003). These principles ensure organizations and government agencies engaged in community development activities properly follows outlined procedures in ascertaining and addressing the needs of the locals. The principles include community participation, ownership, empowerment, lifelong learning, inclusion, access and equity, social action, networking, and self-help. Community development is a holistic technique of addressing the needs of the locals through involving and empowering them in participatory manner. Moreover, the principles act as the foundation and the path to prosperous community development and ensure achievement of sustainable results. Most locals view community development activities as sources of charity resources. On the contrary, it is the foundation of change using the resources with the community. If community development organizations were sources of charity to the locals, then poverty would continue to grow even as globally the nations are moving towards fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals and poverty inclusive. Additionally, such perceptions create a state of over dependent. Hence, the poor communities could become poorer especially if such help reduces or the donors withdraw. To change the mindset of the local communities from viewing community development is quite difficult. Thus, it takes time. Community development is, therefore, a journey that begins by taking some preliminary steps and progressing steadily until the community realizes its main objectives and creates its own resilience. According to the principles of community development, to create a stronger and more resilient community, it is important to focus on developing the locals using their resources. It takes communities a long time in order to realize the positive changes effected by the community development especially at the grassroots levels. Moreover, for community development activities to realize a positive change, and then the concept must go beyond the stipulated cross section of the mandated agencies and embrace networking among various communities (Community Development Society, 2005). Networking allows communities to import lessons and methods of handling issues realized from other geographical areas. As a democratic concept, community development must integrate the views of all the locals during decision-making process without considering a particular gender to be more superior to the other. Consider a long time journey, community development involves concepts drawn from extensive research, experiences, commitments, proper understanding, and interpretation of the problems experienced by the locals. Beside the local involvement, effective community development must identify and diversify community partners in a bid to increase the levels of trust and transparency through inclusivity and embracing an open communication method. In many occasion, methods of acting on the problems that affects the locals is often very difficult. Community development acts as the foundation that anchors the methods of identifying and addressing the problems experienced by the locals. Therefore, the communities must portray signs of passion and enthusiasm in order to drive effectively the activities of developing the communities. Inclusivity involves offering equal opportunities to the locals while designing and offering opportunities relating to community development through encouraging people from diversified backgrounds to participate (Robinson and Green, 2011). More importantly, community development involves inviting external facilitators who might be the government agencies or the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to work with the locals instead of working and delivering services to the local communities. As a way of enlightening the livelihood of the locals, the external facilitator only supervises and offers technical support to the locals. Community development is a long journey, which assists the local communities to redefine the problems they experience, and embrace newly discovered options of tackling the problems. Sometimes realizing a change in a short duration might be difficult, however, it is significant to recognize minute success. Considered as a weapon of addressing issues relating to power and inequality, community development also creates stronger communities resilient to stress and tensions. Moreover, it encourages self-determination in which the locals have the opportunity of making their own choices that they deem to be more effective in addressing the challenges they experience. The principle of capacity building ensures that community development activities supports and strengthens the local communities through advocacy and empowering them (Beeton, 2006). This can be achieved through creating awareness and distribution of the resources to the locals. Recognizing the changing circumstances plays quite an important role in establishing a convenient and reliable community development. Change is inevitable; therefore, community development must identify and recognize the changes likely to influence the outcome of the outline activities. In every community, there are factors acting as barriers to development and economic growth of the local areas. Thus, community development aims at opening up the barriers and removing them for the betterment of the local communities. Additionally, it promotes the basis on how the locals develop and improve their own skills. Community development projects might be difficult to implement, time-consuming, and very costly. All these factors require vision from the local communities. Without vision, communities have a limited ability to make decisions relating to issues affecting their well-being. Successful community development activities increase the level of responsibility among the members of the society. As a result, there is a need for the locals to understand that they play a crucial role in determining the general outcome of the activities. While developing a community, it is important to focus on the issues influencing the neighboring communities as well with an aim of identifying the problems relevant to both the communities. Community development is a journey that must confront the attitude of the local communities and practices, which majorly discriminate other people based on racism, gender, and physical well-being. It encourages the involvement of both disadvantaged and privileged people within the society to embrace collective unity in addressing issues that are deterring community developments. In order to implement effectively community development, most organizations prefer employing community swaps as a method of acquiring more information on the project in question (Campfens, 1997). Community swaps is a process in which communities within similar towns visit one another in a bid to compare the ideas and impressions of development. As a result, the locals gain new perceptions about the problems and rethink critically on the challenges they experience and identify new methods of addressing these problems. Community development is time consuming and in order to realize effective and proper implementation, there is a need to involve all the locals within the community to ensure uniformity in the outcome. Moreover, community development focuses more on problems experienced by the locals rather than its initially outlined destination. References Beeton, S. (2006). Community development through tourism. Collingwood, VIC: Land Links. Brake, R. (2008). Community development - a European challenge. Opladen: Budrich. Campfens, H. (1997). Community development around the world: practice, theory, research, training. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Cavaye, J. (2010, January 2). Understanding community development. Retrieved from http://vibrantcanada.ca/files/understanding_community_development.pdf Coakes, E. (2003). Knowledge management: Current issues and challenges. Hershey, PA: IRM Press. Community Development Society. (2005). Community development: Journal of the Community Development Society. Columbus, OH: Author. Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Bates, E., Thal, D. J., Pethick, S. J., Stiles, J. (2004). Variability in Early Communicative Development. Monographs of The Society for Research in Child Development, 12(1), 124-130. Lennie, J., & Tacchi, J. (2013). Evaluating communication for development: A framework for social change. Milton Park, Abingdon: Routledge. McConnell, C. (2009, March 20). News and Events | International Association for Community Development. Retrieved from http://www.iacdglobal.org Reese, L. A., & Fasenfest, D. (2004). Critical evaluations of economic development policies. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. Robinson, J. W., & Green, G. P. (2011). Introduction to community development: Theory, practice, and service-learning. Los Angeles: SAGE. United Nations Development Programmes. (2003, February 12). Sustainable community development processes. 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Community development begins with identification of the problems experienced by the communities and formulating methods of curbing the effects associated with them. Therefore, it is significant to view community development as journey that begins with embracing the fact that communities experience specific problems. Definitions of problems vary from one community to another, but collectively, a problem is a form of discrepancy between the status quo of the community and the desired state. In other words, community development is a process; therefore, while aiming to improve the livelihood of people, it is crucial to focus on the specific problems.

Whenever community development is viewed as a destination, most probably the communities are able to realize growth instead of development (McConnell, 2009). As a result, the problems persist since there is the creation of more jobs and investments but the locals do not have access to these opportunities. In addition, destination aspect of community development involves very few people within the community that in the end does not lead to the solution of problems experienced by the locals. Well-established community development activities must focus on building stronger communities, which are more resilient to regular problems through identification, assessment, and formulating methods of addressing their needs.

In developed countries like the United States, the Federal offers support to projects, which aims at creating better living conditions at the lowers levels through encouraging systematic action (Lennie and Tacchi, 2013). Activities within the community development structure are either generic or specialized. Generic community development focuses on creating development with a specific geographical location and involving the locals to identify their needs and issues with the aim of formulating methods of addressing these challenges.

Specialized community development centers its activities on either a specified group of people within an area. In order to ensure efficient, accountable, and reliable outcome of community development, it is important to focus on the principles that form the basis of the whole activities (Coakes, 2003). These principles ensure organizations and government agencies engaged in community development activities properly follows outlined procedures in ascertaining and addressing the needs of the locals.

The principles include community participation, ownership, empowerment, lifelong learning, inclusion, access and equity, social action, networking, and self-help. Community development is a holistic technique of addressing the needs of the locals through involving and empowering them in participatory manner. Moreover, the principles act as the foundation and the path to prosperous community development and ensure achievement of sustainable results. Most locals view community development activities as sources of charity resources.

On the contrary, it is the foundation of change using the resources with the community. If community development organizations were sources of charity to the locals, then poverty would continue to grow even as globally the nations are moving towards fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals and poverty inclusive. Additionally, such perceptions create a state of over dependent. Hence, the poor communities could become poorer especially if such help reduces or the donors withdraw. To change the mindset of the local communities from viewing community development is quite difficult.

Thus, it takes time. Community development is, therefore, a journey that begins by taking some preliminary steps and progressing steadily until the community realizes its main objectives and creates its own resilience. According to the principles of community development, to create a stronger and more resilient community, it is important to focus on developing the locals using their resources. It takes communities a long time in order to realize the positive changes effected by the community development especially at the grassroots levels.

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