Abstract
Local resources have been the purview of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) but have received little research and evaluation. This study examines the factors of developing local resources in the CBR programme in rural areas in Sri Lanka. Of all the resources, the study mainly focuses on community workshops. An action research approach based on qualitative methods was applied in the Anuradhapura district as a follow-up to the previous research. Actions include meetings with stakeholders, as well as outreach courses. The study used narrative data from semi-structured interviews with the participants of community workshops (n=24), separate focus group discussion with participants (n=34), and CBR core group officers (n=5), and the author’s field notes in social work practice. Data was analyzed within the framework of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). The results show positive and negative attributes of community workshops in both internal and external aspects. In particular, we find strong support for the strengths of developing local resources in the CBR programme from the perspective of disabled people and local government officers. The result indicates the possibility that local people take full advantage of opportunities to overcome the weaknesses of local resources. Finally, the implications of this research and recommendations for future studies are discussed.
Highlights
Various stakeholders, in particular disabled people, have made efforts to promote empowerment and inclusion in community development in developing as well as developed countries
The community-based rehabilitation (CBR) core group officer in the R-division said during a focus group discussion, “I believe that the goal of holding community workshops is to increase the income of disabled people and their families.”
Using the framework of the SWOT analysis, the results indicate the positive and negative attributes of community workshops, which are one of the model local resources in the CBR programme in the Anuradhapura district
Summary
In particular disabled people, have made efforts to promote empowerment and inclusion in community development in developing as well as developed countries. The objective of the programme is “(r)ehabilitation of persons with disabilities to enable them to enjoy their rights and perform responsibilities and create opportunities through social development programmes to integrate them into the society” (Ministry of Social Services, 2013, p.24). CBR core group officers, who are local government officers attached to the Divisional Secretariats, are in charge of the CBR programme at the grass-roots level (Ministry of Social Services, 2013). The Ministry, noted the constraints on the programme: poor planning, not following the sequence of stages when expanding the programme, inadequate or a lack of multi-sectional collaboration, and inadequacies in training and capacity building (Ministry of Social Services, 2012)
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