Community Building: Building Community Practice

Abstract

Social work in the United States faces extraordinary challenges in the current era of diminishing federal responsibility. Political leaders view block grants as a means of transferring decision-making power about social programs and human services to the state and local levels. But with the opportunity for increased local decision making comes the challenge to do more with less as human services are targeted for drastic cuts in the federal budget. The pressure for increased local autonomy has been coupled with a backlash against poor people and social services for them. The framework of federally articulated entitlements to basic supports and services evolving since the 1930s will be reduced and may be so altered that policy concepts of equality of access and equity in treatment are at risk. At the same time, grassroots and local movements for community-based social change grounded in empowerment approaches are escalating. Social workers will be called on to respond to both the continued dismantling of the federal safety net and local concerns for economic and social development that sustains and supports families and communities. The challenge for the social work profession is to respond to these changing conditions in ways that are proactive, advocate for vulnerable populations, and emphasize and expand skills in community-focused practice that connect empowerment strategies with social and economic development. These new strategies must create and reshape human services systems so that they strengthen the connections among the public, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors; plan effectively for local service coordination and integration; and focus on quality of care for those who cannot care for themselves. The central means for making these proactive shifts is through practice strategies: providing liaison with communities, organizing geographic and functional communities, investing in social and economic development strategies, planning political and social action, and building coalitions. Community practice strategies have been a critical but often underused method of practice from the inception of the profession in the settlement house and Charity Organization Society movements. But these methods have received too little attention in practice and in social work education during the past two decades. Strong emphasis on interventions at grassroots and inter-organizational levels is necessary if the profession is to remain relevant to the needs of low-income and other vulnerable populations in the changing political, social, and economic context. Social workers must see that state and local decisions maximize the use of scarcer resources to meet critical needs for vulnerable populations and communities. Community practice can be a major means toward this goal. Community building refers to activities, practices, and policies that support and foster positive connections among individuals, groups, organizations, neighborhoods, and geographic and functional communities. The Committee for Economic Development (1995) defined building as an ongoing comprehensive effort that strengthens the norms, supports, and problem-solving resources of the community (p. 3). Given the current level of political divisiveness; the growing chasm between poor and lower-middle-class people and very wealthy people; the tenacity of racism; and the disappearance of jobs for low-skilled, low-literacy workers, there is a great need to find ways to reconnect people and communities into a more civil and just society. This article delineates proactive social work responses to strengthen families and communities through practice at grassroots and interorganizational levels. The article presents ideas for strengthening and expanding practice, connects practice and social development, describes the relationship between practice and policy directions, and specifies needed research. …