Community Development Principles Research Articles

Youth Mentoring as a Tool for Community and Civic Engagement: Reflections on Findings of an Irish Research Study

Youth mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) are traditionally considered to be a vehicle for youth development rather than community development. In fact, the notion that the one-to-one engagement that characterizes the mentoring process acting as a form of community development appears somewhat counterintuitive. However, the authors use evidence from research among adult mentors with an Irish Big Brothers Big Sisters Program to argue that such programs are a valuable resource in terms of both community and youth development. Firstly, by encouraging awareness and empathy with young people and their families, such programs are extending the range and possibilities for civic engagement. Secondly, there is a demand among mentors for horizontal support and for the creation of a community of mentors. Support for such initiatives by program staff could help to overcome criticisms of formal mentoring programs for their individualized nature and go some way toward the creation of “mentor rich communities.” Such actions could help to complement the bridging social capital aspect of mentoring with the creation of bonding social capital among pro-social and civic-minded adults. Finally, it is argued that youth mentoring programs would benefit from the introduction of community development principles. For example, use of locally participatory structures could help to develop programs, make them responsive to the needs of youth, and act as a support for the recruitment of volunteers.

Using Cultural Discourse Analysis to Research Gender and Environmental Understandings in China

My purpose in this article is to discuss the application of cultural discourse analysis to questions of environmentalism—particularly for examining how environmental meaning making is connected to cultural meaning making around other topics, such as gender. The article centers on my own use of cultural discourse analysis to examine interview data collected from Chinese village participants in the Environmental Empowerment Program (EEP), a program that educates Chinese women farmers in community development principles, ecological science, and sustainable agricultural development. I first share my method—how I used cultural discourse analysis techniques to analyze what EEP participants had to say in interviews, followed by an explanation of the main findings of this analysis. I use the explanation of these findings as springboard for the final discussion—the implications of using cultural discourse analysis as an environmental research tool. [discourse analysis, China, gender, environmentalism, cultural schema]

Community-Based Advocacy Training: Applying Asset-Based Community Development in Resident Education

Communities and Physicians Together (CPT) at University of California, Davis Health System provides a novel approach to teaching residents to be effective community advocates. Founded in 1999, CPT is a partnership between a pediatric residency program, five community collaboratives located in diverse neighborhoods, and a grassroots child advocacy organization. Using the principles of Asset-Based Community Development, the program emphasizes establishing partnerships with community members and organizations to improve child health and identifies community assets and building capacity. Community members function as the primary faculty for CPT.The authors describe the CPT curriculum, which teaches residents to build partnerships with their assigned community. Residents have three, two-week blocks each year for CPT activities and maintain a longitudinal relationship with their community. In the first year, collaborative coordinators from each community orient residents to their community. Residents identify community assets and perform activities designed to provide them with a community member's perspective. In the second and third years, residents partner with community members and organizations to implement a project to improve the health of children in that community. CPT also provides faculty development to community partners including a workshop on medical culture and resident life. A qualitative evaluation demonstrated residents' attitudes of their role as pediatricians in the community changed with CPT.CPT is unique because it provides a model of service learning that emphasizes identifying and utilizing strengths and building capacity. This approach differs from the traditional medical model, which emphasizes deficits and needs.

Adult Literacy Education and Community Development

SUMMARY This article responds to the concern that low-literate community residents often are marginalized in community development processes. They are unable to give voice to their concerns, interests and their vision for their community. Perspectives and approaches in the fields of adult literacy education and community development are explored to determine how adult literacy education might be used to further the goals of community development. While there are parallels between these two disciplines, there are also barriers to overcome if an integrated approach to dealing with community issues is realized. This article reflects an interest in advancing a comprehensive approach to community development in communities with limited economic resources, low-level literacy and limited access. It seeks to address the issue of whether adult literacy education programs have a meaningful role to play in community development. The strengths of participatory approaches such as community-based literacy, and community development principles such as collective action, shared values, participation, social justice, political awareness and action, comprehensiveness, empowerment, and learning and reflection, facilitate an interdisciplinary approach.

ICT‐Enabled Distance Education in Community Development in the Philippines

The Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands in Southeast Asia, faces new opportunities as it competes with the rest of the world in the information and communication technology (ICT) arena. New industries including call centers, foreign medical transcription services, and the hugely popular multiplayer online gaming systems require the rolling‐out of a much needed ICT architectural backbone and support systems, and a readily available pool of ICT‐trained workers. This article describes the development of the Maguinda Multipurpose Community Telecenter, a rural facility designed to provide this type of support; the experiences, successes, and lessons learned from a research and development project implemented at the site; and qualitative insights into the effects of the ICT intervention on the lives of the Maguinda residents. Emphasis is placed on the importance of community development principles in rural distance education implementation.

Community development: Lessons learned about coalition building and community connections for stakeholders with disabilities

Advocates have suggested that the principles of community development can, and should, be used to increase the community connections of stakeholders with disabilities. Recently, the authors successfully implemented an approach that applied community development principles and practices with citizens with disabilities. To this end, the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center collaborated during a 33‐month grant project designed to implement a community development model guided by five distinct core elements. The goal of this project, “The South Carolina and Louisiana Community Development Project,” was to implement a community development process in four communities across two states that would use community coalitions to enhance community connections for all stakeholders. This paper describes the coalition‐building model used in this project, including its methodology with frameworks for technical assistance, quality indicators, and person‐centered outcomes. In illustration of the model, this paper presents case studies that summarize the results of the four participating coalitions, including coalition‐specific milestones and opportunities for participation and contributions by stakeholders with disabilities. Valuable lessons learned about coalition‐building and community connections for stakeholders with disabilities are presented. Finally, project findings, which offer contributions to existing research, accumulated knowledge, and recommended practices, are discussed.

PROCESS EVALUATION FOR COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

This review provides a synthesis of published public health and social science literature to determine how process evaluation has been used to examine community participation and its intermediary role in health and social change outcomes. Community participation is defined, and its relationship to other community-development principles and evaluation and research methods is described. Then, case studies and research initiatives help answer questions such as who participates and why? What are the benefits and challenges of community participation? What qualitative and quantitative methods are used in process evaluations to measure community participation? What measures are used to help define the influence of community participation in community-based interventions? A better understanding of these issues is needed to ensure that community participation is valued and used effectively to plan and implement health-promotion initiatives and evaluate their processes and outcomes.

Reconstruction in Aceh: Building whose capacity?

One of the dominant themes in development programmes over the last fifteen years has been a commitment to capacity building. This paper investigates the forms of capacity building in Aceh, Indonesia, since the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the province on 26 December 2004. Despite the preference of the Acehnese people for reconstruction processes based on the principles of community development, local people have been largely marginalized by both the Indonesian government and the international aid and development agencies. The paper suggests some of the reasons for this marginalization.

Participatory Community Practice: A Community-based Rehabilitation Curriculum in Occupational Therapy and Lessons Learned through Partnerships with Undergraduate Students

Occupational therapy has a significant contribution to make within the community-based rehabilitation (CBR) framework. The profession’s core philosophy has a great deal in common with the underlying principles of community development which are inherent in CBR. It is essential that our education programs provide students with opportunities to develop knowledge and skill in this area to ensure the profession is able to continue to contribute to the health and well-being of our communities. Students are the future ambassadors and leaders of the profession, and we can learn from them through a learning partnership. This article describes how we are achieving this at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia.

Building Community for Toronto's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth

SUMMARY This paper describes the development of Supporting Our Youth, an innovative grassroots program that builds community for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender youth in Toronto. Hundreds of adults and youth have worked together to develop a broad range of arts, cultural, recreational, and employment training activities, as well as a very popular mentoring and housing program. Initiated in 1997, Supporting Our Youth has been developed according to underlying principles of community development and community building which value broad participation, diverse skills, partnerships, coalition building, and grassroots ownership and direction. As a model, it is transferable to other queer and trans communities, as well as to other marginalized populations.

Issues of participation, ownership and empowerment in a community development programme: tackling smoking in a low-income area in Scotland.

Founded on community development principles and practice, the 'Breathing Space' initiative aimed to produce a significant shift in community norms towards non-toleration and non-practice of smoking in a low-income area in Edinburgh, Scotland. The effectiveness of Breathing Space was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design, which incorporated a process evaluation in order to provide a description of the development and implementation of the intervention. Drawing on qualitative data from the process evaluation, this paper explores the varied and sometimes competing understandings of the endeavour held by those implementing the intervention. The paper examines the principles that underpin health promotion in the community setting, particularly the concepts of ownership, empowerment and participation, and their differential interpretation and employment by participants. The data illustrate how these varied understandings had implications for the joint planning and implementation of Breathing Space objectives. In addition, the different understandings raise questions about the appropriateness and viability of utilizing community development approaches in this context.

Social economics and social capital

This paper evaluates key developments in the social capital literature over the past decade. It then examines empirical work on the purported the link between social capital and economic performance. Although these results indicate that good governance and social cohesion make a measurable contribution to economic development, the offer little guidance for policy formulation. Early contributors to the social capital field were pessimistic about the ability of the state to stimulate social capital formation. More recently, there has been a groundswell of interest in the application of community development principles to foster social capital at the micro level. This paper incorporates a critical evaluation of the mainstream social capital literature from a social economics perspective. The various strands within the social economics tradition share a common concern with the “disembedding” of social context from mainstream economics.

The SWIMS CD-ROM Pilot: Using Community Development Principles and Technologies of the Information Society to Address Identified Informational Needs

Introduction There is increasing evidence of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) being used to transform many of the activities that occupy people in their day-to-day lives (Harris, 1999). At the very least, the so-called 'Information Society' (which the ICTs have enabled) complements traditional ways in which people learn, and share or exchange information. The Information Society, also offers the potential for improvements to the social economy at the local level, including the availability of local information, thus minimising the referred costs of certain social needs (Harris, 1999). Here, the 'Information Society' refers to the community members' information capability, and consists of a combination of information awareness, ability to access information, and skills in exploiting information through the use of the 'new technologies' (e.g., the use of the Personal Computer and the employment of computer software applications to speedily share and distribute information) (Harris, 1999). This paper reports on a project conducted by a team of Central Queensland University researchers which explored the efficacy of a particular approach to addressing the specific informational needs of a community of education professionals. These professionals worked in a regional Queensland state school which participated in the Social Well-being in Mackay Schools (SWIMS) program. Briefly, the SWIMS program was concerned with developing a model for service delivery to children and families presenting 'at risk' within formal educational settings. The development of the CD-ROM was part of a wider process, which included consultation and the application of community development principles, research into what constituted the informational needs of a particular community of professionals, and evaluating the impact of the resource CD-ROM. Simply stated, the research problem consisted of how to effectively address the identified informational needs of education professionals who encountered a variety of issues stemming from children and families presenting at risk. The professionals were mainly concerned to understand the relevant formal state support systems, and to have ready access to information about the support systems and networks in their regional area. In response to these identified needs, a resource kit was collated and then stored in digital format on a CD-ROM, which was then distributed to all teachers in one of the schools participating in the SWIMS program. The perceived usefulness of the CD-ROM to address their informational needs and to build their capacity to deal with at risk issues was then evaluated through a questionnaire. The data that this questionnaire yielded revealed that the teachers found the CD-ROM to be useful, and that it addressed their informational needs and made them aware of relevant services and resources in the local community. In the following sections we discuss the context of the project; we outline how the informational and resource needs of a group of education professionals were researched; we detail the process of (and means employed in) developing the resource CD-ROM; and, we summarise the results of the CD-ROM evaluation questionnaire. We conclude from our research that the approach developed would serve as an effective model for identifying and addressing communities' informational needs in a way that is relevant to them. However, further work is needed to refine and develop this model and identify further factors which might affect its impact when implemented in other contexts. Discussion The Context In Australia, the numbers of young persons on care and protection orders and the numbers in out-of-home care are on the increase. For example, over the period from June 1997 to June 2001, the numbers of children on care and protection orders increased from 15,718 to 19,783, and the numbers of children in out-of-home care increased from 14,078 to 18,241 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2002). …

‘Catching the development train’: perspectives on ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ development in post-apartheid South Africa

Government policy in post-1994 South Africa, whilst upholding the principles of community participation and development, has been firmly wedded to a neoliberal growth agenda. This paper critically examines whether one element of that new growth agenda, that of Spatial Development Initiatives, has catalysed both ‘bottom-up’ development and also meaningfully assisted micro-entrepreneurs through more ‘top-down’ interventions. The paper focuses on two specific projects, namely the Saldanha Steel Plant and the Paternoster Fish Market, which have been components of a Spatial Development Initiative in the Western Cape. The serious constraints faced by communities in engaging with opportunities for socio-economic upliftment is clearly a cause for concern, and it is suggested that a careful re-evaluation of South Africa’s development paradigm is urgently required.

Action Research: A Hospital Responds to Domestic Violence

Using action-research methods and the principles of community development, a small working group initiated an organization-wide process to sensitize the Sunnybrook and Women's College hospital community to the relationship between violence and women's health. In this article, we explore the process by which the initiative was successfully introduced into the newly merged hospital. We describe critical factors for the initiative's success and offer some suggestions on how to maximize opportunities for organizational change.

A GIS-based Decision Support System for Neighbourhood Greening

A prototype decision support tool is described which provides options for the management of existing green spaces and for the establishment of new green space in suburban neighbourhoods. Suggested neighbourhood greening techniques include the naturalization of existing parks and increased foliage along streets and rights of way. The naturalization approach involves less frequent cutting in grassy fields, the introduction of native species, and the cessation of pesticide and herbicide applications. Increased plantings along streets and boulevards would improve the aesthetics of neighbourhoods, and may provide some relief from climatic extremes and urban heat island effects. The creation of new green space in already-built suburban neighbourhoods provides a longer term challenge to neighbourhood planners. Potential strategies include the introduction of small pocket parks and community gardens in vacant lots and school yards. Modelled outcomes from such neighbourhood greening strategies could be used in public meetings both to incorporate attitudes of the impacted community and to demonstrate benefits to a wider community. In particular, strategies should take into account issues of safety and perceived safety that commonly arise with the greater use of naturalization in green space management. The developed prototype decision support tool has been coded as an ArcView GIS extension and provides the opportunity to model and evaluate future scenarios better aligned to principles of sustainable community development. Three applications of this tool are discussed to illustrate some of the benefits of undertaking a range of neighbourhood greening strategies.

Preparing Students to Make a Difference: Community Asset Mapping as a Vehicle for Involving Students in Community Action

This article describes the development of a new graduate course entitled Recreation and Community that was created for the purpose of 1) providing students with an understanding of the role of recreation and leisure services as a social tool in building community, 2) building student appreciation of the processes involved in community development from the perspective of mobilizing resources and organizing community change, and 3) acquainting students with the tools needed to facilitate that process. The article also introduces community asset mapping and systems theory as both community development tools and pedagogical vehicles for integrating community activities and course learning. In this course students applied principles of community development and community organizing to produce a community asset map and recreation action plan for the Southern Illinois Delta Empowerment Zone (SIDEZ). Students used systems theory as the organizing theoretical framework for the course. This article describes the steps that were involved in project identification, collaboration agreement, course development, and project implementation. It also provides in-depth discussion of what community asset mapping is, how it is done, and how systems theory principles can be applied to the analysis of community asset map data.

Solidarity and Subsidiarity: Complementary Principles of Community Development

Journal of Social PhilosophyVolume 33, Issue 1 p. 33-44 Solidarity and Subsidiarity: Complementary Principles of Community Development Francis J. Schweigert, Francis J. SchweigertSearch for more papers by this author Francis J. Schweigert, Francis J. SchweigertSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 December 2002 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9833.00122Citations: 8AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume33, Issue1Spring 2002Pages 33-44 RelatedInformation

Social capital and social economics

The “discovery” of social capital in the early 1990s led to an upsurge of research into the economic impact of social cohesion and governmental effectiveness. This paper outlines key developments in the social capital literature over the past 13 years. It then examines theory and evidence of the links between social cohesion, quality of governance, economic performance and human welfare. The literature indicates that social capital makes a measurable contribution to economic development and overall wellbeing, particularly in developing countries. Partly in response to this emerging body of evidence, there has been increased interest in the application of community development principles to economic development initiatives. This paper argues that the advent of social capital theory represents a partial convergence between social economics and mainstream economics, and signifies an increased acceptance that economic activity cannot be meaningfully “disembedded” from social and political context.

Community health development on a Bristol housing estate: A review of a local project ten years on

This article reflects on ten years of a community health project - the Hartcliffe Health and Environment Action Group - on a housing estate in south Bristol, an area of high health need. We look at trends in health indicators over the ten years; data problems mean that only tentative conclusions can be drawn, but these are useful for understanding the social and health context of the work. We identify key factors which contribute to the success of the Group, and problems and tensions we experience. We discuss what has been achieved and the effect on the local community, concluding that we can assess effect in terms of activities and short term outputs but not in terms of quantifiable health outcomes. Our conclusions are that community health development projects such as this one can make a contribution to the wider agenda of reducing health inequalities and social exclusion, provided that key principles of community development are adhered to, and that there is basic core funding and stability.