The Process of Community Immersion

Introduction
Community immersion generally takes on different overlapping phases, similar to
performing community organizing strategies called social preparation phase, integration,
social analysis, program implementation, evaluation and report writing, and termination
of the project.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this unit, the students must be able to:

1. Verbalize the process of immersion as a guide for rendering service to the

communities;
2. Design a community immersion plan of implementation following the process;
and
3. Internalize the importance of carrying out the steps of community immersion
in series

Structured Learning Exercise

1. The students will be divided into groups of 10 members
2. Each group will be assigned a particular phase to discuss and role play.
3. They then, will be asked to prepare for a creative presentation for a period of
15 minutes where they will properly portray the immersion phase assigned to
them. A 7-minute allotment will be given to each presenter.
4. After the presentation, indicate the process of community immersion in 5
minutes by making the number order.

Question and answer session may serve as the closing activity. Here, a
representative from each group will act as a member of panel which will provide
answers to questions from the audience (class) should there be points of inquiries
or clarifications in regards the process of community immersion.

DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS
The Process of Community Immersion

The community immersion process is a series of interrelated and

intertwined phases which commences with the Pre-Immersion followed by
Entering the Community, Community Integration, Community Needs
Assessment, Program or Project Implementation and Termination of the Project.

PHASE 1 – PRE-IMMERSION

This phase regards the identification of the community where the students will be
immersed at. Trainees will have to prepare themselves physically, mentally, and
spiritually for many tasks ahead. Trainees must have waivers from their parents or
guardians stating that they are informed of the mandate to undergo the NSTP
community immersion. The school also needs to organize its own manpower, resources
and other technical needs. According to many who have undergone immersion, the
activities could be both exciting and exhausting.
 Aside from preparation of the trainees and the school, the community is primarily
the one to be prepared and informed. With this, trainees must set up criteria in selection
of an area for immersion.

AREA SELECTION
Factors to be consider in area selection:
1. Groups or communities to be chosen belong to deprived, depressed
and underprivileged (DDU). The marginalized sectors are your target clients
because they are the ones needing your assistance more than any other
groups in the society. Examples of marginalized groups are the youth,
women, slum dwellers, the differently-able, among others.
2. Willingness of local groups and community leaders to work with you on
community projects. This goes to say that we should start with the people
and work with the people.
3. Anticipated activities and demands fall within your available resources
and ability to meet them. You cannot extend what you do not have in the
first place.
4. Presence of development agencies and other support institutions
providing assistance to the areas. Supporting agencies are probable
resources waiting to be tapped that can provide additional financial
assistance when it comes to projects that are also within their type of service.
Soliciting their support will also prevent duplication of
services and activities. You have to identify if their schedule of activities
coincide with yours so that you will not confuse the people with your separate
identity. There is a danger that people will not support you if the schedules of
your activities overlap with those of an agency that has long existed in the
community before you came.
Through appropriate communications and relations with these
agencies, they can most likely be the source of other updated baseline of the
data you will need to understand the community.
5. Stable peace and order situation. You have to put into consideration your
own safety when you conduct your immersion. Some of the salient questions
you need to ask are that, “Are the roads and work area secure to travel on?”
“Am I not putting myself and other members of the immersion team in danger
if we conduct our immersion in this venue?” “Will I and my school be
compromised if I continue to work in this area?”
Sometimes despite the community leaders’ commitment to work
with the trainees, when the community in general does not regard their area
as having stable peace and order situation, they themselves will not
cooperate because their community issues go beyond what you can respond
to.
Remember, you are also a student and that one of your main
objectives is to learn and experience community living without disregard to
your own safety.
6. Accessibility. Successful community immersion also relies on how
quickly and how often you can visit the community. If you live in Cavite
and you happen to have chosen Bulacan as an immersion area, would it be
easy for you to conduct, monitor and evaluate your projects in the latter area
mentioned?
 You have to take into account how much time you spend traveling,
how much money you spend for transportation or lodging. There is a chance
t6hat you will spend extra effort on tasks like carrying training materials on
the field, etc. that could otherwise be prevented if you have chosen a much
accessible venue for immersion.
If you have been able to select an area for immersion based on
the foregoing factors, you can now proceed to entering the community.

PHASE 2 - ENTERING THE COMMUNITY

To ensure success in entering the community, it is necessary to have community

mapping of the target area. This will help you identify the geographic coverage of the
project. It will also help point out the resources that may be used by the trainees in the
community and the relationship of people with these resources (Use Worksheet No. 6 for
the exercise).
Angelito G. Manalili in his book Community Organizing for People’s
Empowerment (1990), remarked that there are different ways of entering the community.
Similarly, immersion begins with the initial steps in community organizing. Anchored on
Manalili’s concepts, those planning to conduct community immersion can enter the
community thru:
 Ostentatious Entry. Complete with banner and a general assembly of the
people, the community ushers in the people who will undergo immersion or
outsiders. People naturally expect more from the outsiders because the latter’s
identity is boosted.
 Banking on the People’s Weakness. Outsiders sometimes enter the
community through catching people’s attention. At times when community people
are in distress, they usually adhere to outsiders, like during economic crisis,
emergency and disaster situations. The outsiders try to find out which aspect is it
that the community will need them for and through this, they emphasize on how
they could be helpful.
 Academic Style of Entry. Communities are often called social laboratories
because they are a place to test the theories learned in classrooms. Academic
institutions field some students into the community to assist the community
regarding its concerns. A trialogue between the school, the students and the
community is done to identify the terms to which the community service will be
fulfilled.
 But the best way is People-Centered Approach. This approach ultimately
believes on the capacity of the community people to participate and acknowledge
whether outsider assistance is really needed. Users of this type of entering the
community invest on community relations, believing that both parties are partners
to community development. Key to this type of entry is strong linkage with the
people in the community.

When entering the community, the members of the community immersion team
must establish good rapport and relationship with the community people. Gathering
information and doing a background investigation about the situation in the community
may prove to be of great help in pursuing the goal of establishing linkages in the locality.
Ground working can also be an effective mechanism in knowing the community well.
Talk to as many people as possible and document or record your conversations.
 Pay courtesy call to recognized leaders of the community. Make communications
ahead of time of entering the community. Write the community leader a letter of intention
and in turn you should have a letter of acceptance from them. Whatever type of entry to
be used, it is a must to secure a memorandum of agreement between you and the
community. This will set your working parameters. It is giving due respect to them and
formalizing a commitment of the helping contract.

PHASE 3 – COMMUNITY INTEGRATION

Integration is a continuous process wherein the trainees come into direct contact
and become involved with the community people. This phase is where the immersion
phase gets more personal. The trainees should realize that there is an existing concern
within the community. As the problems of the community become more apparent, you
become aware and validate that you are part of the circle.
Integration may be done through:
 Border Style. If provisions allow, the trainees may choose to stay and live-in the
immersion area for a certain period of time. They may live-in the community to
pursue deeper knowledge about the community. However, the ‘boarder’ or guest
status will still be the regard of the people toward them unless they integrate
themselves fully with community life.
 Elitist Style. Some trainees tend to stay close to key informants and political
players during their stay in the community. Due to this, their social circle
becomes limited and their interaction is confined to a few people. Immersion
activities must always take into account the involvement of the majority.
 But the best way is the People-Centered Method of Living with the People.

PHASE 4 – COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Needs assessment, social analysis or community diagnosis as others refer to, is

a concrete base for the formulation of programs. It reflects the sentiments, needs,
aspirations and recommendations of the community people. When it is done properly, it
will reflect also the trainees’ feeling of oneness with the community. They begin to see
that the people’s problems also reflect their own.
Needs assessment becomes significant when it is conducted through integration
with the people. Our analysis and assessment should be done with the people. Hence, it
does not merely contain our perceptions, but also of the people’s for it to be genuinely
pro-people. Analysis of social situation becomes meaningful if it is used as an instrument
for conscientization. Those immersing in the community must not just make the people
realize their issues but also make them to act on it. Their realization of the problems
should help make the community realize the relation between their local condition and
situation of other communities around them. It is important that the people realize that
they can do something to change their situation for the better.
Assessing the needs of the community is a prelude to effective program offered
to clients. This will ensure solutions to problems, issues and concerns of the people in
the locality.
This discussion covers the meaning, importance, steps, and exercises in
preparing community needs assessment instruments that will equip students to prepare
similar tools which they will utilize in measuring the needs of the community assigned to
them.
COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT DEFINED
Community needs assessment is the process wherein problems, issues and
concerns of the community are identified through the use of several tools for
assessment. It encourages the participation of the community, as they are the
stakeholders, to the findings in the assessment.

IMPORTANCE OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1. Gather information about citizens’ attitude and options in order of importance.
2. Determine how citizens rank issues, problems and opportunities in order of
importance or urgency.
3. Give citizens a voice in determining policies, goals and priorities.
4. Evaluate current programs and policies.
5. Provide speculations about what people are thinking.
6. Provide speculations about what people really want.

INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN ASSESSING COMMUNITY NEEDS

1. Historical Development- this refers to the data on how the community became
what it is today and provides insights into the kind of resources to collect the
weed.
2. Geographical and Transportation Information- this includes information on
the community’s patterns and population contributions.
3. Political and Legal Functions- this includes strategies for community-based
selection [or this may include the strategies that community uses for selecting
players in the political sphere.]
4. Demographic Data- this includes data on age characteristics, size, race, and
transience of population.
5. Economic Data- this refers to the economic base, social, cultural, educational,
recreational organizations. This includes the values and social pattern.

METHODS IN COLLECTING DATA FOR COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1. Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with Key informants. The keys informants
of the community are people who hold socially responsible position such as
educators, public officials, clergy and business representatives or those who are
active in community events. These are the people who can provide good
information that will guide and give you better understanding on historical issues
needed by the community.
2. Community Forum/Assembly. This involves holding of group events that may
include the entire community. It gives visibility to the leaders and raises the
status of the community but it requires lots of planning and publicity. This
meeting can be a venue where people can express their needs and be
immediately validated by the rest of the attendees. Participatory action research
effectively uses this method.
3. Public records. Public records like national census will provide data for social
and demographic indicators of the community. Data included are age, gender,
educational level, locality, etc. that tend to contribute to library use.
4. Survey. Survey and questionnaires involve asking individuals in the community
about their everyday needs. This can be implemented through the following:
a. Mailing questions to randomly selected members of the community;
b. Performing telephone survey;
c. Handing out surveys while people are in an assembly; and
d. Posting questionnaires on your public access computer catalog.
 * An example of this is the Minimum Basic Needs (MBN) Form of the
DSWD.

STEPS IN CONDUCTING NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1. Establish a working committee to solicit citizen and community
involvement and develop a plan of action.
2. List important aspects that are needed to be looked upon. This may also
mean identifying the surveyors’ own capability and strength.
3. Identify the population to be surveyed. This also includes making
communications with community leaders and authorities of the identified
population to facilitate other procedures.
4. Determine the information that is needed. It may be existing information which
must be collected or it may be information gathered using a survey. Information
like demographic profile may be readily gathered from the barangay, municipal or
city records office.
5. Select a random sample of person to survey. A good number of
representative populations to be surveyed will contribute to the validity of the
information.
6. Develop and pretest a questionnaire. Afterwards, if the questionnaire was
found to be a valid tool for measurement of data, proceed to distributing the
questionnaire for community use.
7. Collate the information.
8. Analyze the data. This may be done together with the core group members of
the community. Community participation in analyzing gathered data is also
important so that they can feel the ownership of the issues and concerns in their
community.
9. Go back to the community for validation of information. This may be done
through a community assembly or simple community group discussion.
10. Finalize the document. Make sure that there are corresponding
recommendations for the issues and concerns found.

COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE IN ASSESSING NEEDS

1. Help identify community groups and citizens to be involved in the working
committee.
2. Facilitate group discussion to identify important issues and set priorities.
3. Help select the sample to be surveyed and design a system to identify
respondents.
4. Provide tested questions from which the working committees choose questions
that address the issues and concerns.
5. Help design a process to distribute and collect survey questionnaires, code, enter
and analyze the resulting data.
6. Provide summary reports of data.
7. Suggest programs to report the results and strategies to solicit community
involvement.
8. Work with citizens to identify courses of action based on the information.

PHASE 5- PROGRAM/PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

 Project implementation deals with the actual execution of the plans. This phase
of project development includes the making of final arrangement with the target
clients/community partners, officials involves in the activities, right schedule of each
event, day to day activities and needs of the clients, manpower each day of the program,
monitoring and evaluation plan and other requirements like social and recreational
activities and the culminating activities of the project..
It must be remembered always that the needs of the clients will be the dominant
consideration throughout the conduct of the projects.
To ensure the success of the NSTP community service projects performed by the
trainees during their immersion time, the following must be considered:
1. program must be responsive to the needs of the clients;
2. contribute to the upliftment of the living conditions of the clients;
3. maximize the resources available in the community;
4. tap the potentials of the clients and give due recognition;
5. objectives must be SMART with tangible results that touch the lives of the clients;
6. project can be done systematically to ensure significant contributions from pre-
planning, planning stage, implementation and evaluation;
7. complete documentation must be observed as basis for reporting and for future
studies;
8. projects must be within the capacity and concern of the trainees that will allow
them to gain knowledge, skills and encourage reflective action; and
9. develop shared commitment among the trainees.

Projects must promote civic consciousness imbued with good citizenship values
of Pagkamaka-Diyos, Pagkamaka-Tao, Pagkamaka-Bayan and Pagkamaka-Kalikasan.
The following flow of activities will guide NSTP trainees in the implementation of
their project.

-Preparation of project proposal based on

a.. Pre-immersion community needs
- Approval of the proposal
-Once the project is approved, the trainees
will prepare all immersion requirements.
a. Letter of request regarding
their immersion to the community or the
partner agency signed by the
trainor/coordinator and approved by the
NSTP Director.
b. Community responds to the request by
signifying their acceptance through a letter.
c. Trainees, based on the identified needs,
submit a project design to the community
for approval.
d. Once approved, trainees will submit a
detailed program schedule of action.
-Based on the detailed program approved,
the NSTP trainees will implement the
specifics of the activities as designed. The
actual immersion time will last for 8-10
meetings with the clients or partner
community. It may also depend on the
 design of the project.
-in the course of the actual work,
coordination, monitoring and evaluation, I
done to give immediate actions to
problems encountered and make
necessary adjustments if needed.
- During this stage, trainees are required to
b. Actual community immersion make complete their journal of events
which serves s a reference in finalizing
their tasks. Pictorials are also required to
support the activities undertaken.
- Each group of trainees will make a
narrative report. The presentation of
document during the post evaluation of the
c. Presentation of the community service program is about the community service
outputs activities conducted during the immersion
time.
d. Monitoring - Continuously done to measure
effectiveness of activity.
e. Evaluation - Each group will be rated as a part of the
final rating given to them.
- Implementation of the project ends by the
time all requirements have been
satisfactorily done.

PHASE 6- TERMINATION OF PROJECTS

NSTP trainees are expected to complete their projects in the community in the
span of 50-90 hours as prescribed to the CHED-endorsed Program of Instruction for it to
be credited in the training course. Right at the very start the trainee-implementers must
apprise their target participants of the particulars of the projects undertaken especially in
terms of time frame. This will enable their clients or partner community to prepare for any
eventualities should the implementers will terminate the project. Trainees are advised to
inform them with due respect of the status of the project and other details as may be
deemed necessary. Nevertheless, the trainees may decide to continue with the project if
the endeavor proves worthy of continuation, follow-up or replication. If the proponents
and implementers have decided to pursue and push through with their venture, they can
seek the assistance and support of the school’s extension services/community outreach
unit just to sustain the project.
If in case trainees lack hours of community immersion or did not perform well, they
are bound to receive an unsatisfactory rating; more so, failure of compliance must be
noted. If trainees go beyond the required number of hours in the community in their
conduct of the project for failure to conform or comply with the requirements of the plan
of action formulated, then a similar ‘poor’ rating should be accorded.
As trainees, one must learn how to work within the allotted time frame given, for
their convenience and also for the community’s sake. If one stays in the community
beyond the agreed time, the action can be construed by the community for something
else like, extending more help {intensified volunteerism} to them or that they could still
ask for their help even beyond their capability. This might also encourage their
dependency on the implementers.
However, it is not really a problem if trainees want to extend their community
services in the community. In fact, NSTP encourages trainees to continue their
community work. This time, their services will already be regarded as their personal
commitment to doing voluntary work, separate and distinct from the NSTP-initiated
activities. In step with enjoining NSTP students to eventually becoming volunteer
workers, the school may establish volunteer corps either under the auspices of the
school’s NSTP unit or extension services office to ensure the continuity of the immersion
program for volunteers.

SYNTHESIS

Community needs assessment is a means to measure problems, issues and

concerns of a specific locality which could be done by interested group with sponsors to
establish credibility. It involves steps to follow in order to consider well specific areas
which will be included in developing the instruments. It particularly involves the
population demographic areas, economic and social level. It is also designed to gather
information and help determine how best one can respond to the needs of the
community, issues or concerns, and potential areas of intervention.
When the needs are identified the people then must come to an appreciation that
there are needs that exist among them and these needs are shared by all of them. They
should then visualize their goals and the ideal life they want to achieve and reflect their
dreams in life.
Finally, know and make your case…
Needs assessments are a critical part of community organizing
practice/development work. It is essential to ask the question:
~> How do you know there is a problem?
~> How do you know there is a need for a particular
intervention? Answering this question entails gathering
empirical {objective} and perceptual {subjective} data.
~> How serious is the problem/need?
~> How pervasive is it?
~> How many people do it affect?
~> Who believes there is a problem/need?
~> Who is defining the problem/need?
~> Why at this time?

“A nation is a totality of men

united through a community of fate
into a community of character.”
-Otto Baver