Basic Concepts in Community Organization

BASIC CONCEPTS IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

Organizing our perception of the different concepts on community

organizing

Organization

• The connection of parts in and for a whole, so that each part is, at once, end and means.(ASI CD Monograph Series No. 1: Community Organization: Aims, Objectives and Practice)

Community

• A dynamic entity composed of people living in a given territory who share common culture, needs, aspirations, resources, lifestyles, etc. Bounded by a feeling of belongingness and interact with one another in consonance with its structure and institutions to achieve common goals.(ASI CD Monograph Series No. 1: Community Organization: Aims, Objectives and Practice)

Community Organization

• Therefore, merely an improvement or perfecting of the relationships which make a community.

• The very idea of community carries with it the notion of organization. The community is itself a form of organization.

(ASI CD Monograph Series No. 1: Community Organization: Aims, Objectives and Practice)


• Community organizing (CO) is a function of the dynamic interplay of four fundamental elements; namely, A. Community People (CP)

The community is the stage for CO. The community consists of people, now popularly known as stakeholders, who have different interests in development.


• Three apparent stakeholders of development initiatives:a. Directly affected. Those who may be expected to benefit or lose from certain development initiatives.b. Indirectly affected. Those with interest in outcomes; like NGOs, private businesses and industries that may be affected or may have technical expertise.


c. Government-elected officials. Those line agency staff; local, regional and national government officials.

B. Community Development Worker (CDW). The CDW is the partner of the people in development. S/he acts as a catalyst for participatory development involving multi-stakeholders.


Community organizing, to become more relevant, should be initiated and sustained by the people themselves. Hence, the CDW should be coming, ideally, from among the ranks of the people in the community. But in most cases when the CDW is an outsider, s/he serves only as a facilitator who assists the people in organizing themselves.


C. CO Process. It means developing a partnership with the community. It is a process that facilitates participatory development in which “stakeholders” can influence and share control over development initiatives, and over the decisions and resources that affect themselves.

Community OrganizationD. Community Consciousness. The fourth important element of the CO practice was traditionally viewed as the Problem, which brings together the community people (CP) and the CDW in a helping process. In reality, the working relationship between the CP and the CDW is not always sparkled by a problem confronting the former. Rather, it could be based on the recognition of the people’s role as the prime movers of development. It is the awakening of a shared ‘critical consciousness’ that gives birth to a mutually empowering process of partnership in pursuit of development.(The Heart of Community Organizing by Orlando I. Buenviaje, NASWEI, 2006)


• CO as a Process/Methods:- A progressive cycle of action-reflection-action: CO begins and builds upon local, small and concrete issues, those which the people want to do something about...As such, CO is a continuously dynamic cycle that builds upon the previous phase, from local to national, from concrete to more abstract issues.


- Consciousness-raising through experiential learning:

Central to the CO process is the development of awareness and the corollary motivation to act upon reality. Conscientization is not achieved through traditional rote memorization or the banking system of education but through practice.


CO, therefore, places emphasis on learning that emerges from concrete action and which enriches succeeding actions.

- Participatory and mass-based. CO is primarily directed towards, and biased in favor of, the poor, the powerless and the oppressed. But partnership is not sufficient. Change must be achieved through a participatory process wherein the whole community or as many people as possible are involved in the organizing experience.


- Democratic LeadershipThe community organizer is not the

leader, neither are individuals and personalities. CO is group-centered, not leader-oriented, and leaders are identified, emerge and are tested through action rather than appointed or selected by some external force or entity. As a result, leadership must at all times be accountable to the people.


• Aims/Goals:- People’s Power- Building relatively permanent structures- Building alliances- Tactical alliances- Strategic alliances


• Orientation/Vision:- Since community organizing takes a partisan stand on the side of the people, the issue of one’s ideology, political line or orientation is crucial. Every organizer possesses all three (which are gradations on a continuum of comprehensiveness in terms of time, method, analysis and vision). The only difference is in the degree to which an organizer is conscious of these.

Community Organization- It must be pointed out that behind every ideology, political line and orientation is an act of faith, a belief in an option or stand.

• The role of Community Organizers- The community organizer is a catalyst, whose measure of success is that point in time when he or she has made the role of the community organizer unnecessary. - The community organizer also serves as a model, not only in words but in deeds. - THE GENERAL RULE THAT GOVERNS COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS MUST BE: IF THERE IS A CONFLICT BETWEEN AUTHORITY (WHATEVER THAT AUTHORITY MAY BE) AND THE PEOPLE, GO WITH THE PEOPLE.(Organizing People for Power: Some Perspectives to Community Organization, Claretians Publications, Quezon City, 1988)

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

• Wayne McMillen (Community Organization for Social Welfare:1945) stated that the primary objective of the community organization process was to help people find ways to give expression to their inherent desires to improve the environment in which they and their fellow citizens must carry on their lives. He stated that one measure of success of the community organization process is that of increased integration of community life achieved through relationship between and among groups in the community.


• For him, the professional components of the community organization process consist of the worker’s efforts to:1. stimulate people to use their powers for the

cooperative improvement of group life; and2. assist in the development of the process by supplying

the technical services required. He cited the specialized techniques of fact finding, research, publicity and public relations, through which the social worker helps groups to achieve unity of purpose and action.


• Kramer and Specht (after 30 years later), defined community organization as referring to various methods of intervention whereby a professional change agent helps a community action system composed of individuals, groups or organizations, to engage in planned collective action in order to deal with social problems within a democratic system of values.


• It is concerned with programs aimed at social change, with primary reference to environmental conditions and social institutions. It involves two major and interrelated concerns: 1.) the process of working with an action system, which include planning and organizing, identifying problem areas, diagnosing causes, and formulating solutions; and 2.) developing strategies and mobilizing the resources necessary to effect action.


• This definition includes , on the one hand, working with an action system and mobilizing the resources needed to produce change and, on the other hand, diagnostic and planning tasks.

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Basic Concepts in Community Organization