Identifying a project’s greatest ‘hits’: meaningful use of Facebook in an underserved community’s development and mobilisation effort

Abstract

ABSTRACT A community-wide effort to prioritise mobilisation, empowerment and capacity building offers a nearly unlimited opportunity to foster networked relationships using technology to connect adults and youth, neighbours and community partners, services and clients. As the emphasis of social work is on identifying strengths, finding specialised resources to enhance strengths or fill gaps and connecting community members representing a broad spectrum of social contexts, the role of social work is essential to successful use of digital networks to achieve maximum impact. This paper offers a description of the integration of current digital networking tools into a community-wide initiative to combat neighbourhood violence, encourage resident empowerment activities, and, thereby, improve the health and safety of all residents as a result of networked relationships. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate the challenges and successes that emerged from the use of Facebook to inform and motivate community residents to participate in project-focused activities. Based on our findings and building off of previous literature, we offer recommendations in the form of the Community mobilisation through social media framework for social workers engaged in community organising and enhancement initiatives designed to use technology to initiate, foster and accelerate resident involvement for positive action.