Community Development Principles Research Articles

‘Training by Papua New Guinea women, for Papua New Guinea women’: lessons from the development of a co-constructed course for women smallholder farmers

This article examines the lessons from a collaborative project that worked with women agricultural leaders in Papua New Guinea. The project sought to build the capacity of these leaders as trainers in a way that would enable the development of a sustainable community of practice and worked within a critical and place-based pedagogy underpinned by asset-based community development principles. Whilst the process of our collaborative work has a number of salutary lessons, the co-construction of the training course with PNG women farmer leaders did illustrate a particular knowledge design continuum: that is, surfacing knowledge, distilling knowledge, clarifying knowledge and then consolidating knowledge. From this consolidated knowledge, together we were able to design locally valid and locally relevant modules. As the trainers went out to trial their training, they were then engaging in sharing knowledge and reviewing that knowledge which then lead to our collective ability to improve knowledge that will enhance future training in this area.

An integrated theory for the practical application of “governance-based policing”

Purpose– This paper aims to reconcile the different theoretical approaches of the next stage of community policing – third-party policing, post-modern policing, community-based policing, public self-policing, community governance and public safety governance – into a cohesive theoretical framework through the integration of the new governance of public administration, systems theory and community development theory.Design/methodology/approach– This paper reviews the existing literature of community-oriented policing (COP) and the concepts of new governance of public administration, then reconciles the two to create a management framework of governance-based policing.Findings– COP falls short in many areas because it represents a natural system orientation and a technical-assistance approach to community development. The next stage of community policing requires an open system founded in the self-help approach to community development and new governance principles.Practical implications– This work addresses the shift from hierarchies to networks as well as detailing the responsibilities of police management to transcend the shortcomings in the current iteration of community policing. It brings a modern public management view (new governance) into policing more cogently and completely than it has been done before.Originality/value– This work is unique to the community policing literature through the application of new governance, systems theory and community development theory to understand the shortfalls of COP and formulate a more cohesive theory of the next evolution of police service delivery.

What Can We Do to Bring the Sparkle Back into this Child's Eyes? Child Rights/Community Development Principles: Key Elements for a Strengths-based Child Protection Practice

Working from practice experiences, Social Work educators from Aotearoa/New Zealand, Norway and Western Australia have developed a framework for child welfare work . The framework brings together the Rights of the Child, Community Development and Child Protection. This article describes the principles and theoretical underpinnings of this framework, and illustrates its use through practice examples. The development of this approach draws from lengthy engagement in child welfare in our respective countries. Indigenous practices and community development principles, which embody strengths approaches, are complemented by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) articles and assist to move child protection from a uni-dimensional reliance on expert assessment of the “best interest” criterion to a multi-dimensional response of centring children's participation and attending to cultural, family and identity considerations. We link Ife's description of first-generation, second-generation and third-generation rights to Qvortrup's categorisation of children's rights: protection, provision and participation. We extend this link by examining key Articles of the UNCRC in relation to their generational protective, provisionary and participatory functions and propose a framework for practice that is informed by child rights and community development principles. The framework identifies key practice elements necessary to work with a strengths-based perspective at the third-generation and participation rights levels in child protection and welfare. We maintain that the use of this framework can provide Social Workers with additional knowledges and skills in their child welfare work.

A community development critique of compulsory income management in Australia

The introduction of compulsory income management – sometimes called welfare quarantining – for sub-groups of income security recipients within Australia has provoked considerable contention. This paper examines the specific introduction of the Place-Based trial in the rural Victorian region of Greater Shepparton from July 2012. Utilizing key community development principles, we critically analyse processes of implementation and evaluation, and argue that placebased income management has involved a centralized top-down process. In contrast, we recommend a bottom-up approach which would allow the local community to play a key role in defining the problem, and identifying policy solutions.

Assessment of a Service Provider Self-Study Method to Promote Interorganizational and Community Collaboration

With an emphasis by both public and private funding sources on community-level service integration, many social service organizations have been required to shift from traditional "silo" models of service delivery to increased community-based collaboration and service coordination. There is a paucity of research to identify successful methods to achieve these goals. This article describes a self-study method used to engage service providers in a community development effort designed to meet the needs identified by local residents within their community and empower a rural, unincorporated community with scarce resources. It also reports qualitative outcomes that assessed the utility of a self-study method to achieve collaboration and community empowerment. Communication, ownership, input, and investment among providers appear to be key components to achieving long-term sustainability and success. Implications for the utility of the self-study method for achieving community service integration that aligns with basic principles of community development are discussed.

Participatory action research with asylum seekers and refugees experiencing stigma and discrimination: the experience from Scotland

Using evidence from a participatory action research process with over 100 asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland, this study explores participants’ views on mental health problems, stigma and discrimination. The study found that migration can have adverse effects on mental health and well-being, due to racism and the asylum process, and this is worsened by stigma and discrimination. This stigma is influenced by both social and cultural causal factors, including fear, past trauma, isolation, racism and the stress of the asylum process coupled with negative cultural beliefs about mental health problems. The paper considers the international relevance of this approach and the value of a model grounded in principles of community development and grassroots action.

Improving well-being through community health improvement: a service evaluation

This paper describes the establishment of a health improvement service delivered in a socio-economically deprived region of the UK. Recent service reorganisation has provided the opportunity to consider new outcome measures. Results from a service evaluation conducted during integration into local council services are presented. Individuals living in socially excluded communities may require support to feel involved in their local community and to develop supportive networks. In turn, this support could be protective to their health and well-being. This paper will explore how community development activities delivered by Salford Health Improvement Service (SHIS) can support measurable improvements in well-being. Data are drawn from a validated structured questionnaire that measured well-being before and after involvement in a range of community-based interventions based upon established community development principles. The questionnaire was completed by 404 individuals. The paper is UK focused and as such is situated within the context of predominantly UK-based community development literature. The findings indicate that the community development interventions delivered by SHIS do produce positive outcomes in terms of increasing participants' level of well-being. Self-reported well-being improved in 75% of participants. Community development approaches may be an effective approach in supporting people to become engaged in activities that facilitate healthy lifestyles.

Disaster Recovery Management in Australia and the Contribution of Social Work

This article describes Australia's broad disaster recovery planning and management approach, adopting a social and community recovery perspective. The role of social work in Australian disaster recovery management is discussed, and its increasing assertion and maturation of practice. Theoretical underpinnings include trauma, grief, and crisis intervention. Strengths-based, solution-focused approaches to intervention, and a sound understanding of community development principles, are essential to facilitating community recovery. Two examples (flood and bushfire) illustrate the full spectrum of planning, immediate psychosocial response, and longer term community and individual recovery. Issues such as effective multiagency practice, individual case management, and consideration of vulnerable groups are highlighted.

THE IT'S NOT OK CAMPAIGN: CREATING CHANGE TO END FAMILY VIOLENCE IN NEW ZEALAND

BackgroundA primary prevention and social change approach is needed to address high rates of family violence in New Zealand and create safe communities and families.Aims/Objectives/PurposeThe national ‘It's not OK’ campaign...

Achieving broader benefits from Indigenous land use agreements: community development in Central Australia

Research on a range of agreements between Indigenous people and extractive industries suggests that equitable benefits from such activity on Indigenous land are rare. In Central Australia, the Central Land Council has piloted a new approach to generating benefits from land use agreements by establishing a community development unit and encouraging Indigenous traditional owners to apply some of the income from land use agreements with mining companies and similar parties to community development activities. This paper discusses the variety of community development projects this unit is undertaking with traditional owners and Aboriginal community members, and the challenges it is facing as it tries to utilize community development principles in its projects. It indicates some of the issues that may need to be considered in government policy which seeks to assist Indigenous landholders gain optimum benefit from land-related payments. In particular, the paper demonstrates that the priorities of Indigenous people to support and promote social and cultural activities, including maintaining micro-communities (outstations) on homelands, may conflict with government views as to how to 'optimize benefits' from land use agreements.

Positive Mental Attitudes: how community development principles have shaped a ten-year mental health inequalities programme in Scotland

Positive Mental Attitudes (PMA) is a mental health inequalities initiative that has operated for over ten years in East Glasgow, the United Kingdom's highest concentrated area of socio-economic deprivation. The programme began as a grassroots initiative by a service user forum in the local community and has since developed a broad coalition of community support with mainstream funding and over fifty partners from a range of sectors. The work has built capacity within local community groups and agencies to deliver a wide range of community development (CD) initiatives with tens of thousands of people, which have also informed both national strategies and international programmes. We assess the programme in the context of wider theory and policy debates and explore the processes and tensions that exist within this sphere of work. We examine evaluation debates and what counts as success in the complex and contested area of mental health and CD. We call for a new public health movement, prioritizing health equity over health gain and driven by CD principles, and argue that the evidence from PMA can provide evidence-based pointers of what this should involve.

The rights of the child enabling community development to contribute to a valid social work practice with children at risk

This paper presents a way of thinking about and doing child protection work using community development (CD) principles to guide practice. It suggests that a useful addition to CD can be found within the rights of the child provisions in Human Rights conventions. Using examples from the authors' three countries to illustrate the work that practitioners do in their work with children at risk, we argue that social work practice can be enhanced by the inclusion of these principles and practices which are essentially core generic social work practice. However, much of social work with the protection of children is bound by ‘risk’ perceptions which result in investigatory approaches being used as a first action, often to the exclusion of preventive approaches. This article demonstrates that in very different situations from different environments, CD in concert with the principles of the rights of the child can assist good outcomes with children at risk. A model is presented for unifying the worldview of human/children's rights with social work's core concern, the protection of children, using generic social work skills.

Improving the mental health of rural New South Wales communities facing drought and other adversities

NSW has just experienced its worst drought in a century. As years passed with insufficient rain, drought-related mental health problems became evident on farms. Our objective is to describe how, in response, the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program was introduced in 2007 to raise awareness of drought-related mental health needs and help address these needs in rural and remote NSW. The program has since expanded to include other forms of rural adversity, including recent floods. Rural NSW. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS, INTERVENTIONS: Designed around community development principles, health, local service networks and partner agencies collaborated to promote mental health, education and early intervention. Strategies included raising mental health literacy, organising community social events and disseminating drought-related information. Priority areas were Aboriginal communities, older farmers, young people, women, primary health care and substance use. Over 3000 people received mental health literacy training in the four years of operation from 2007 to 2010. Stakeholders collaborated to conduct hundreds of mental health-related events attended by thousands of people. A free rural mental health support telephone line provided crisis help and referral to rural mental health-related services. Drought affected mental health in rural NSW. A community development model was accepted and considered effective in helping communities build capacity and resilience in the face of chronic drought-related hardship. Given the scale, complexity and significance of drought impacts and rural adjustment, and the threats posed by climate change, a long-term approach to funding such programs would be appropriate.

Reflections on Community-based Rehabilitation

Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) has grown and evolved over the last three decades, from being a service delivery approach for persons with disabilities living in rural areas in developing countries, to a world-wide accepted strategy and movement, based on inclusive community development principles. This article traces the origins and current understanding of CBR, goes on to discuss some of debates around the concept of CBR, and introduces the WHO CBR Guidelines. The Guidelines provide a structure for CBR planners and practitioners, based on a synthesis of CBR experiences from different regions of the world, and are an attempt to build on existing field level practice. The Guidelines demonstrate how CBR can be a useful strategy to achieve the goal of inclusive development for persons with disabilities. The Guidelines also provide a much needed framework for monitoring and evaluating CBR projects, with the increasing calls from around the world for strengthening the evidence base for CBR.

Voices in Australia's Aboriginal and Canada's First Nations Literatures

Kim Scott suggests in his text "I Come from Here" by means of "yarning" that the authority of Indigenous people and language is primary to an authentic "sense of place." Scott uses an accumulative, episodic, and personal narrative style to argue that the return "to," and consolidation of cultural material "in," a "community of descendants of the informants" must be founded upon principles of community development. Collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by sharing of ancestral material with ever widening, concentric circles is how this process results in respect and partnership that empowers community life.

Community-wide obesity prevention: re-connecting public health, urban planning, and public policy in three Missouri communities

Trailnet's Healthy, Active & Vibrant Communities Initiative (HAVC) is a model that has demonstrated significant early successes at creating environments, policies, and social networks that support and promote healthy eating and active lifestyles. The HAVC Initiative uses community engagement and community development principles to build communities' capacity to implement evidence-based and promising strategies in three diverse community settings in the St. Louis region. Trailnet works with each community to develop and institutionalize a multi-disciplinary taskforce of local leaders that coordinates and champions efforts. Taskforce members are involved at all stages, including conducting community readiness and community needs assessments that guide efforts. HAVC activities are tailored to complement the unique assets, needs, and interests of each community. Early successes and a third-party evaluation, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) have identified the HAVC Initiative as an “emerging intervention.” This paper presents the underlying theory, process, and key lessons-learned from the HAVC Initiative.

Using Strategic Planning and Organizational Development Principles for Health Promotion in an Alaska Native Community

Health promotion aims to support people in their efforts to increase control over factors that impact health and well-being. This emphasis on empowerment and contextual influences allows for a more holistic conceptualization of health and approaches to promoting health that are anchored in principles of community development and systems change. Piciryaratgun Calritllerkaq (Healthy Living Through A Healthy Lifestyle) is a collaboration between a Yup'ik village in rural Alaska and researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The goal was to improve nutrition, increase exercise, and decrease stress. The project utilized elements of organization development and strategic planning to develop a local infrastructure and process and to promote local expertise. The project team developed goals, objectives, action, and evaluation plans that integrated local traditions, Yup'ik culture, and research.

Post-colonialist practice: An Australian social worker in rural Zambia

Globalization has seen an increase in social workers engaging in post-colonialist practice around the world. A working example is provided of an Australian social worker travelling to rural Zambia with the aim of the development and implementation of grief and loss workshops for local community leaders. Principles of community development, adult education and community education theories inform such practice, allowing the external social worker to contribute positively to the life of another community. In this environment the internal and external resources of the social worker are tested and utilized in the aim of joint partnership.

Musowiki.net: notes on the creation of an online community music facility

This article describes the theoretical and practical justification for creating an online music community at <ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="www.musowiki.net">www.musowiki.net</ext-link>. Through a discussion of the technological, industrial and social aspects of an online environment, it provides a grounding body of theory and describes the process of designing the project. Consideration of some of the project's early outcomes reveals four principles for community building and offers examples of how they can be applied. In conclusion, the article suggests that community music bodies and practitioners can enhance their activities both by participating in the Musowiki community and by adopting the four principles of community development.

Challenges to achieving sustainable community health development within a donor aid business model

This paper explores the paradox of donor aid being delivered through a business model through a case study in Papua New Guinea. A retrospective review of project implementation and an outcome evaluation provided an opportunity to examine the long-term results and sustainability of a large project. Analysis was informed by data collected from 175 interviews (national, provincial, district and village), 93 community discussions and observations across 10 provinces. Problems with the business model of delivering aid were evident from implementation data and in an evaluation conducted two years after project completion (2006). Compounding the business model effect were challenges of over-ambitious project goals with limited flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, a donor payment system requiring short-term productivity and excessive reporting requirements. An overly ambitious project design, donor dominance within the business model and limited local counterpart capacity created problems in the community initiatives component of the project. Contractual pressures can negatively influence long-term outcomes that require development of local leadership and capacity. Future planning for donor project designs needs to be flexible, smaller in scope and have a longer timeframe of seven to 10 years. Donor-funded projects need to be sufficiently flexible to apply proven principles of community development, build local ownership and allow adequate time to build counterpart knowledge and skills.