LESSON 5: COMMUNITY IMMERSION

1. Give your own understanding about community immersion.

Community immersion reminds me of the words "There is no power for

change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." This is a
quote by Margaret Wheatley. These words means that, the only time that
people become more motivated to push for change and accountability in
these certain issues of the community is the time they learn to care for it and
learn to show concern and enthusiasm in addressing the problems that
challenges the community.

From the word itself immersion or to immerse, meaning to say, as an

individual you try to engage yourself and get involved in various concerns and
issues of the community. It is for you to experience and understand the reality
of the world that surrounds you. Community immersion gives you the
opportunity to better understand the basics of the community, its meaning, its
concepts and principles, and most importantly, the nature of the problems and
issues that arises therefrom. Through these, it can teach you to better grasp
the situation of the community and be able to appropriately respond to the
concerns through devising immersion activities and projects that can provide
long term solutions and not just overnight amelioration on social dilemmas.

Truly, not every problem that we face can be changed, but nothing can
be changed until we learn to face it. Community immersion is vital and
imperative as it enables you as an individual to better understand and realize
the different community concerns through the exposure on actual life
situations specifically in deprived, depressed, and underprivilege
communities. It is really upon our own hands the key to open the door that
would bring change to not just to our community but most importantly to our
country.

2. Give an Example of community immersion.

One example of community immersion is a feeding program for

children. Here, the main beneficiary of this kind of program are children who
are underprivilege and do not have adequate access to healthy and nutritious
meals. With this program, children are not just given and provided healthy
food and meals but most importantly, they are also given with literacy program
especially on health awareness. More to this also, there are organized fun
activities prepared for the children for them to have a recreation and leisure
time to enjoy for a day given during the program.

I have already experienced this during my high school years. There

was a time that we have organized a feeding program for the children of an
affiliated extension community of our school. Here, children from an
orphanage were invited to come to our school. From there we have prepared
intermission numbers for them as an introductory part of the program just to
excite the children and give them a time for entertainment. After that, the
feeding program started, children were given healthy and nutritious meals as
well as snacks for the whole day. After the feeding period, children were given
a time to experience fun activities, they played games as a recreational
activity for them. At the end of the program, the president of the orphanage
thanked us for inviting them to our feeding program through giving a speech.
On the same manner, we also showed our gratitude to them for accepting the
invitation as well as in giving us the opportunity to better understand the lives
of the children through witnessing their real-life situation and also on
inculcating within as a level of social awareness and consciousness on the
pressing conditions that they face on daily basis.

This experience gave me a new perspective in life. Seeing these kids

made me realize and appreciate what we have even more. We should be
thankful that we have a bed to sleep in at night, we have fresh clothes to wear
every day, and we have a choice of what to eat and when we want to
eat. There are more less fortunate people around us and even are on worse
position yet, they still learn to smile and be grateful every single day. And we
must also learn to resonate the same thing.

3. Enumerate the different steps involved in community immersion.

The community immersion process is series interrelated and intertwined

phases. These are the following steps involved in community immersion:
 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.

 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

 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.

 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.

 Phase 5 – Program/Project Implementation

Project implementation deals with the actual execution of the plans.

This phase includes the final arrangement with the target clients/community,
right schedule of each event, day-to-day activities and needs of clients.

 Phase 6 – Project Termination

Trainees are expected to complete their projects in the community in

the span of 50-90hrs. as prescribed to the CHED-endorsed program of
instruction. As trainees, one must learn how to work within the allocated time
frame given, for their convenience and also for the community
4. Explain the nature of and approaches in community development
works.

The nature of community development works is that it can either occur

through the works of the people within the community or it happens through
the aid of professionals outside the community. This nature of community
development works coincides with one common goal, and it is for people to
work together and create efforts that would improve the socioeconomic and
cultural conditions of the community. Community development works has
seven approaches, but in really these approaches are vast and continuously
changing.

The first approach is the technical approach, here it refers to programs

that requires technical assistance from people that are expert on the area of
the service or program being delivered. For example, we have a concern on
mental health awareness, with this, experts on the field can be invited in order
to tackle and implement the program effectively. The second one is the self-
help approach; this refers to empowering individuals through encouraging
people to work together and bring about the common good for all. For
example, we have community of children who were victims of harassments,
they can be empowered if people work together with the goal of strengthen
these individuals. The third one is the con approach; this refers to addressing
issues that hinders people efforts for social change to take place. Here, it
emphasizes that confronting conflicts within community can be turned as a
force that would bring about improvement and progress. The fourth one is the
structural approach; this mainly revolves on creating infrastructures that aims
to address the human needs. For example, farmers have a critical concern
with their post-harvest issues, and they need facilities that would support
these needs. Here, infrastructure will be made in order to minimize and
address the concern. The fifth one is the social justice and human rights
approach; this approach mainly revolve in assessing the inequality between
the society and individuals. This approach optimizes and leverages the
principles and standards within human rights in order to bring balance
between communities. The sixth one is the ecological approach; this
approach mainly revolves in addressing development concerns within the
nature and the make-up of our world. Here, protection of our environment and
the nature itself is the main focal point. The last one is the multi-method
approach; here diverse approaches are being combined in to create another
different kind of approach that would ensure the progress and success of
communal development.

5. Design a community immersion program with activities compliant

with the protocols of intervention.

If I were given the opportunity to create a community immersion

program, I would focus on assisting those in need. As a student and a Filipino
citizen, I'd like my community immersion program to focus on how I can help
my fellow Filipinos, particularly parents and children in need. We are all aware
that poverty affects a large number of families in our nation. Some parents
cannot afford to feed their children adequately or send them to school due to
poverty, which leads to additional issues such as malnutrition and a lack of
knowledge. Because of these issues, I'd want to start a feeding program for
malnourished children, a literacy program for out-of-school youngsters, and a
training program for unemployed parents so that they may find a job where
they can put what they've learned in the training program to good use.

The key focus among these initiatives is a training program for parents
so that, if they already have employment, they can feed and send their
children to school. I want to help the parents first because, in the end, they will
be a huge help in preventing malnutrition and ensuring that their children are
educated. Furthermore, the nutrition program and literacy program are
intended to assist youngsters in living a healthy lifestyle and gaining
understanding and information that they may apply to make a significant
impact.

To summarize, my community immersion initiatives are meant to

benefit not only underprivileged families and children, but also our whole
country. I used to assume that if parents had steady work, their children would
not face poverty or other social and economic issues. As a result, our first
emphasis is the parent training program, with other programs following. If
parents can feed and educate their children, we will be on our way to ending
poverty in our country. Collaboration and solidarity are really crucial in my
community impression programs. My community impression programs
demonstrate the importance of teamwork and cooperation in achieving a
common objective.