Community Service and Immersion

Module 03

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Lesson 1
Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY
SERVICE
As learned in NSTP 1, the National Service Training Program encourages students to develop a
thorough analysis of the value and importance of community service through various programs.

Some topics discussed in NSTP 1 about community service program includes information
disseminations about Disaster Risk Reduction Management, First Aids, Clean - Air Act, and Waste
Management. As part of the community or barangay program, students may help out in the medical or
dental mission, feeding programs or host social activities for a community group such as seniors, or plan
activities with children. The programs can last from a few days to several weeks, depending on the
purpose. But before doing this, students should learn about what community service is all about and the
community where they will conduct the community service.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY SERVICE?

Community service is when you work for free to help benefit a certain your community. Usually,
students who choose to do community service do so as volunteers, meaning that they choose to help
out because they want to do so. Community service can have a lot of positive effects on students, such
as helping them to develop skills, making contacts, and allowing them to improve the quality of life of
others.

Community service programs are intended to get students be familiar with issues in local
communities or barangays. Students usually do some volunteer work on service projects that deal with
environmental, social or economic issues in the community.

Community service programs can fulfill different ideas. Some of them are planned to help NSTP
students cultivate their consciousness regarding their duties and responsibilities to the society and to
their fellowmen.

Objectives of NSTP Community Service Projects

The objectives of community service projects can help students develop awareness and better
understanding of the community needs and implement solutions within their means. It also provides the
community skills and trainings on livelihood activities that would uplift their socioeconomic needs. Doing
Community Projects also challenges the facilitators to help students attain self-interest to realize they
can make a difference by bringing out in them their potentials and talents as they experience
community service.

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Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

What is Community Survey?

The community survey is conducted to identify the needs or wants of the community. In order
to find out the needs, an assessment must be done.

A survey is a systematic process for determining and addressing needs, or "gaps" between
present conditions and preferred conditions or "wants". The difference between the present condition
and wanted condition must be measured to appropriately identify the need.

Conducting Community Profiling and Survey

Before conducting the community service students should be guided by the CHED Memo Order
number 63, Series of 2017: POLICIES AND GUIDELINES ON LOCAL OFF CAMPUS ACTIVITIES; It is the
obligation of the HEIs to adopt mechanism for the safety of all participants to the off-campus activities
and observe due diligences and strict adherence to the requirements stipulated in the CMO.

According to Article 4 Section 6: Coverage, Nature of Off-Campus Activity if considered Non-

Curricular; NSTP is part of a Volunteer work including peer helper programs, relief operations,
community outreach, and medical-mission.

Non- curricular activity refer to off-campus activities that are considered as non-program based
activities, among others, and are left to the discretion of the concerned HEI for the strategies of
implementation as long as the safety and security of the students are duly ensured.

In conducting the community survey, an ocular inspection should be done first to know if the place is
safe for all. (students and facilitator) An inspection of where the activity will be conducted can help
avoid possible problems. A Pass slip or an Authority to travel form should be accomplished first before
dong the ocular inspection

Sample of Pass Slip

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Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

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Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY
Before conducting a Community Survey there
should be a Letter of Intent (permission letter) to be given to the Barangay Captain or the respective
officers. State the name of the school and ask the Barangay Officials to allow do as study research in the
Barangay. State the purpose, the expected length/days that the survey will be conducted and to keep
the records confidential, if a member of the group is living in that barangay. It will be a plus factor for
the group (student) for them to conduct the said activity

Make sure that the letter details are real and valid. Since this is an activity or project in school, a
professor/facilitator together with the Head of the School should sign this Permission letter. You can
also attach in the letter the sample questionnaire checklist to be use for the survey and be prepare to
personally converse with the barangay official. Here is a sample/format of permission letter:

Sample Letter to Conduct a Community Survey

NSTP students will conduct the survey with the supervision of their Facilitator to its adopted
community. The ratio is One class per One Community or Barangay. The target respondents may be any

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adult (18 above) representing one household and residing within the class’ assigned community. Each
class will be required to interview at least 1 hundred (100) households. Household = Family
Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

A community survey form that includes the profile of the respondents like, the names of the
residents, se, religion, civil status, educational background and the like. The second part of the survey
activity covers the economic and social status and the last part is the basic needs. TAKE NOTE# FOR THE
BASIC NEEDS OF THE RESPONDENTS: This should be in lined with the School’s Flagship programs of what
the school can offer to community people.

What will the class do with the accomplished Community Service Forms?

With the assistance or guidance of the Facilitator, the forms are being collected and tallied using a tally
sheet right after the activity. The data gathered from the accomplished forms will then be converted
into a Community Profile. This will be the basis serve or as a reference in making a Project to be
conducted on the adopted community/Barangay.

Sample Tally Sheet:

Prepared by:

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Lesson 2

COMMUNITY
IMMERSION
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. enumerate the different steps involved in community immersion;

2. explain the nature of and approaches in community development works; and
3. design a community immersion program with activities compliant with the protocols of
intervention.

OVERVIEW

This chapter deals with the importance of community immersion in the holistic development of
students. It also presents the aspects of community development that are integrated in students'
immersion in communities.

LECTURE

"Experience is the best teacher." It is the simplest way to describe the necessity of community
immersion among college students today, particularly for NSTP CWTS 2 students who study how
community, in different aspects, functions and develops. Community immersion inculcates civic
consciousness and defense preparedness in the youth. They should be ready to engage in different
community activities in order to be aware of community concerns, dynamics, and lifestyles. It is only
through immersion in an actual community that one gets to know the social, political, and economic
situation of people belonging to the community. When students go to a community, they associate with
the people whom they intend to work with as their partners or allies in the community. Forms of
community immersion include home visits, living with selected families, informal discussions with
individuals or groups, sharing in household and community activities, attendance in social gatherings,
and assistance in production work.

Community immersion is a strategy that goes beyond acquainting students with community
concerns but makes possible their participation in their resolution. It is also devised as a strategy in
molding students to become socially aware and responsible citizens. This type of activity transforms the
lives not only of the students but also of the members of the community. As students aid i providing

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solutions to problems encountered also shows and shares its way of living that allows students to see
the world from a different perspective.
 Students gain benefits from their participation in community immersion They are given an
opportunity to comprehend people's lives as they see real-life situations; gain social acceptance derived
from community relations; develop skill in conducting asset mapping and other life skills; and imbibe
social awareness and consciousness of the pressing conditions faced by certain communities Community
immersion offers students an avenue to identify and understand issues that will help solve problems in
the communities affecting the entire nation as a whole.

Community Immersion
One of the strategies of community organizing is community immersion. It involves extensive
exposure of the students to various community activities so that they may become responsible
members of the society where they belong. Students are also trained to becoming socially, morally, and
civic conscious individuals on the areas of sports, literacy, health, livelihood, environmental services,
values, and other social welfare services.

Community immersion, as a voluntary and participatory approach in developing a wholesome

and ideal society, is reflected on the following student learning activities:

1. Determining the economic, psychosocial, and political status of the people as students
immerse in actual community life
2. Identifying the community needs, interests, and other concerns
3. Gaining personal development through acquiring additional knowledge on real-life
situation and giving importance to good values and life skills
4. Recognizing people's dignity by letting students participate in community programs and
help in determining appropriate course of action for community problems
5. Realizing that student participation yields contribution to the welfare of the community,
and that community participation, in turn, gives meaning to the holistic development of
students

Service-learning from Community Immersion

Labuguen et al. (2009) describes how the community immersion aspect INSTP-CWTS 2 benefits
not only the communities served but also the students who are accorded the following advantages:

1. Have the opportunity for the students to appreciate other people's lives through living,
identifying, and associating with the people
2. Gain social acceptance derived from community relations coupled with the appropriate
community services and activities
3. Enhance experiences in conducting resource and community inventory mapping such as
identifying geographic coverage, pointing out resources and their uses, and determining
relationships of people with the existing resources
4. Establish rapport and relationship with different people who may be of help to them at
some future time.
5. Develop conscience that makes them realize how their ability to help solves problems in
the community and how indifference of people affects communities
6. Acquire first-hand experiences in dealing with community intervention and services
7. Have the chance to learn life skills that will enrich and better them as persons

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Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

Community Development Work

One might think that the community is something external to life, something extra like that of
having a car, owning a home, having a stable job, working with supportive coworkers, or having
thoughtful

neighbors. Community is every connection one has with the world around that sustains the way of life. A
community does not include only those people who live next door or who work in the same office, but
also those people who constructed the roads, who work at markets, factories and malls, and even those
who plant wheat, grow crops, and raise livestock. The people upon whom we rely on for our living are
often invisible or sometimes living thousands of miles away. These people constitute the work of the
community.

Community development work is the process by which efforts of the people at the grassroots
level are united with those of the government to improve the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of
the community. Community development works can be referred to as efforts to improve the economic
or structural conditions of a community. Such efforts may focus on business or job creation and physical
or infrastructure development. It must be emphasized that community development work in general is a
social learning process that serves to empower individuals and involve them in collective activities aimed
at socioeconomic development.

Moreover, community development works are actions that seek to build social capital, promote
interaction, and empower community residents to alleviate their living conditions. The building of social
capital is important in solving community problems, as the people who live, work, and interact in a
particular community enable their own community to function effectively.

Community development works operate on two models. The first model refers to efforts that
develop from within the community and are led by community members. The second model refers to
efforts that are instigated and run by professionals from outside the community.

Approaches in Community Development Work

Community works are often confused with community-based work. The similarity is that they
fall under the discipline of community development approaches. To differentiate, community work
requires the efforts of the people in greater or larger degree whereas community-based work involves
the community but in a smaller scale from what is essential in community work.

For instance, a group of young students selling homemade cookies to families in the
neighborhood and using the profit to fund for extra books to donate to their school library is likely to be
typed as community-based work. A whole community of parents aimed to provide donations to local
orphanages and thus held a local garage sale to earn extra funds is considered community work.
Community development approaches are defined by the following:

1. Sustainability (long or short-term)

2. Area of concentration (local, national, global, and overseas)
3. Field or specialization (e.g., education advancement or religion affairs)
4. Objectives, vision, and mission (e.g., social security or rural domination with the use of
kindness)

The categories listed are not guaranteed absolute, for community development works itself is
still broad. So are the lists that will be specified below as the different approaches to community
development work, nonetheless, these are the random, more specific lists of approaches.

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Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

1. Technical assistance approach is involved in the efficient delivery of improving

programs or services that allow communities to access outside experts in areas that may
be highly technical or that credentials for further funding or implementation.
2. Self-help approach encourages people within the community to work may demand
together, empowering communal independence. Individuals who are vulnerable,
voiceless, and powerless can develop enormous strength in self-help groups. This
approach may be demonstrated through activities that involve a visioning and goal
setting process.
3. Con approach deals with confronting the forces that are to solve problems by building
human capacity to address local issues blocking efforts and concerns and altering the
structure of the community in terms of engagement. The practices under this approach
value confrontations in a sense that conflicts provide impetus for improvement and
encourages critical thinking and the individual thought.
4. Structural or brick-and-mortar approach is more concerned with the foundation of the
community members in terms of constitution. It may involve the process of constructing
infrastructures that meet human needs or expectations. It can also be an understanding
of the multiple and intersecting forms of oppression that occur at personal, cultural, and
structural levels, with each level influencing oppression on the others.
5. Social justice and human rights approach focuses on the behavioral, cultural, ethnical,
and social affairs as a leading target for communal development in or outside the
community. The concept of social justice involves finding the optimum balance between
people's joint responsibilities as a society and people's responsibilities as individuals to
contribute to a just society. Human rights provide an internationally agreed set of
principles and standards by which to assess inequality. The two concepts are correlated
in a sense that human rights clearly define and authorize what is globally and legally
accepted from the various contexts on social justice.
6. Ecological or environmental approach targets crises as major focal point for
developmental, radical alternatives to address the natural make-up of the earth. The
approach focuses on the ecological or environmental protection and advancement.
7. Multi-method approach combines methods that will most likely ensure the progress
and success of communal work goals that are inherently unheard of. A multi-method
approach crams more than one kind of approaches into one-of-a-kind, hybrid-like
approach, which has been unconsciously practiced today by many organizations.

Approaches in community work are vast and still growing. How the communities interpret the
meaning of these approaches is up to them. What is more important is how they express those
interpretations into values that will lead to outcomes to better the community and society.

Community Development Project

Community development project is the term applied to any community based project that
covers a wide variety of different areas within a community or a group of networking entities. Projects
can covers almost anything, including the most obvious section of concern to any community, the
welfare element. Welfare community projects cover locally run and locally funded orphanages or even a
Christmas dinner kitchen for the homeless. Charitable projects in the community may include, but are
not limited to, ecological charities concerned with either the maintenance of green spaces, for example,
or in some cases, the prevention of the reduction or removal of green spaces. Old clothes collection
service can also be a community-based charity project. One important subdivision of community
projects, which at times overlooked, is that of an economic nature. Economic community projects are

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designed to create some sort of economic autonomy.
Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

All community projects are different in some way; the size and scope of these projects is
determined firstly by the community they cater to. The historical documentation of community
problems and the project designed to address those problems should be supplemented by community
assessment that determines current conditions and concerns. The assessments of current conditions
may include focus groups, nominal group process, and survey research.

Community Building
Community building is directed towards the creation of community composed of individuals
within an area or with a common interest. The building of social networks within a community fosters
collaborative work and hones problem-solving skills.

A wide variety of practices can be utilized for community building, ranging from simple events
like potlucks and food bazaar, to larger-scale efforts such as barangay or city festivals and construction
projects that involve local participants rather than outside contractors.

Community Building Practices

1. Community gardening helps improve neighborhood, build a sense of community, and connect to
the environment by planting and harvesting fresh produce and plants.
2. Community technology centers may help bridge the digital divide among generations. They may
also help foster connections to the environment through the re-use of technology and proper
electronic waste stewardship.
3. Sharing of skills or knowledge in music, dance, craftsmanship, mechanic, and the likes provides
excellent opportunities for community-building Service-oriented activities invite people to
strengthen relationships and build camaraderie as they help one another. This lays a foundation
for future successes in the community's endeavors due to the overall well-being and unity
produced.
4. Social activism involves the banding of communities taking action to produce social change.
5. Community organizing refers to the gathering of people to solve a problem. Unlike activism, it
does not involve a strategy for building power or for making specific social changes. Community
immersion is one of the strategies under community organizing.

CONCLUSION
Students are advised to inform the faculty-in-charge of the status of their community project, as
well as of other pertinent details when necessary. If the proponents and implementers have decided to
continue the activity even after the semester has ended, they can seek the assistance and support of the
school's extension services unit to sustain the project. Nonetheless, students must learn how to work
within the given time fame for their convenience and for the sake of the community.

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Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

APPLICATION
Name: _________________________ Course and Level: _________________
Facilitator: ______________________ Date: _____________
Instruction: Relate the following questions to real-life situations and write your answer on the space
below. Use separate sheet if needed.
1. If you were given a chance to design your own community immersion program, what activities would
you propose?
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2. How would you relate your online classroom experience to your community immersion as an NSTP-
LTS/CWTS 2 students?
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REFLECTION
Instruction: Write your reflection on the space provided. Use separate sheet if needed.
1. What did you learn from your recent immersion in the community?
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2. If you were to re-design the community development plan, what would you propose?
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____________________________________________________________________________________
Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

EXERCISE 1

Name: _________________________ Course and Level: _________________

Facilitator: ______________________ Date: _____________

1. Benefits of community immersion to students and the community

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2. Importance of community development works

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EXERCISE 2

Name: _________________________ Course and Level: _________________

Facilitator: ______________________ Date: _____________

Instructions: Write the letter that corresponds to the correct answer on the space provided before the number.

______1. What is an experimental process wherein the students come into direct contact and become involved in the
affairs of the community?

a) Community Extension
b) Community Immersion
c) Community Development
d) Community Participation

______2. Which is not included among the aspects of community life that a student can experience during
immersion?

a) Social
b) Political
c) Economic
d) Ethnic

______3. Among the advantages of immersion, what is derived from community relations coupled with the right to
offer services?

a) Social acceptance
b) Social responsibility
c) Conscience
d) Awareness

______4. It refers to the process by which efforts of the people at the grassroots level are united with those of the
government to improve the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the community.

a) Community development work

b) Community work
c) Community-based work
d) Community immersion

______5. It refers to the network of people who live, work and interact in a particular community enable their own
community to function effectively.

a) Community

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b) Social capital
c) Non- government organization
d) Society
Identifying Community
Needs
NSTP AND COMMUNITY

______6. When the entire community organizes a food bazaar to earn funds for the renovation of the community
church, what type of community development approach is involved?

a) Community development work

b) Community work
c) Community-based work
d) Community immersion

______7. Which of the following does not define community development approaches?

a) Specialization
b) Objectives
c) Sustainability
d) Credibility

______8. This approach encourages people within the community to work together, empowering communal
independence

a) Brick-and-mortal approach
b) Self-help approach
c) Ecological approach
d) Multi-method approach

______9. This refers to any community-based project that covers a wide variety of different areas within a community
or a group of networking entities.

a) Economic community projects

b) Welfare community projects
c) Charitable projects
d) Community development projects

______10. Sharing of skills or knowledge, social activism, and community immersion are common practices for
___________

a) Community building
b) Community work
c) Community development work
d) Community immersion

Note: Submit/return only your answers for this module (not the whole module). Do
not forget to indicate your name and section.

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