COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT openly and to work together toward goals identified
as being for their common good.
Definition of Community:
● The term community has two distinct
commutative meanings:
1) Community can refer to a usually small,
social unit of any size that shares common
values. The term can also refer to the
national community or international
community, and
2) in biology, a community is a group of
interacting living organisms sharing a
populated environment.
● In human communities, intent, belief,
resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a
number of other conditions may be present
and common, affecting the identity of the
participants and their degree of
cohesiveness.
Seven Community Definitions:
Definition 1: Community is a way of relating to
other persons as brothers and sisters who share a
common origin, a common dignity, and a common
destiny. Community involves learning to live in
terms of an interconnected "we" more than an
isolated "I'. It involves making choices which
reinforce the experience of relatedness and foster
the sense of belonging and interdependence.
Community begins, but does not end, in our face to
face relationships with the persons who are closest
to us.
Definition 2: A community is best defined as a
group of people who, regardless of the diversity of
their backgrounds, have been able to accept and
transcend their differences, enabling them to
communicate effectively and openly and to work
together toward goals identified as being for their
common good.
Definition 3: A community is a group of two or
more people who have been able to accept and
transcend their differences regardless of the
diversity of their backgrounds (social, spiritual,
educational, ethnic, economic, political, etc.) This
enables them to communicate effectively and
The word community. . . can refer to a specific
group of people (a geographical community, a
church congregation) or it can describe a quality of
relationship based on certain values and principles
Definition 4: Reaching community is both
intentional and challenging. The group process
requires that an individual give up learned defenses
and habitual way of behaving. Through increased
responsibility, risk and vulnerability of its members,
a group develops into a "safe place" providing an
environment of acceptance, appreciation of human
diversity, and nurturance of personal growth,
healing and self-discovery.
Definition 5: Emptiness is central to the community
building process. A challenging place to enter and
inhabit emptiness is fertile ground for the growth of
personal insights and deeper relationships.
Community Building is a powerful process - a
technology and a discipline -which helps us learn
about ourselves and relate to others in new ways.
Definition 6: A Learning Community is a group that
can live the experience of authentic community.
Competent and capable of vulnerable and authentic
communication, individuals have developed their
capacity to attend simultaneously to their own and
the group's consciousness.
Definition 7: Community is the goal. When this
stage is reached the full range of emotions can be
expressed. Even though community is the goal, it is
not a static state that once reached never changes.
Community can be palpable to some and very
subtle to others.
Introduction to Community Development
● "Community development is a structured
intervention that gives communities greater
control over the conditions that affect their
lives. This does not solve all the problems
faced by a local community, but it does build
up confidence to tackle such problems as
effectively as any local action can.
 Community development works at the level 4. A holistic view of the community, in which
of local groups and organizations rather groups take into account one another’s
than with individuals or families. The range goals and actions, as opposed to operating
of local groups and organizations as if each were in a vacuum.
representing communities at local level
constitutes the community sector. Community Building and Organizing:

● "Community development is a skilled ● Conscious community building is a process

process and part of its approach is the belief of deliberate design based on the
that communities cannot be helped unless knowledge and application of certain rules.
they themselves agree to this process. He states that this process goes through
Community development has to look both four stages:
ways: not only at how the community is
working at the grass roots, but also at how ○ Pseudo community: The beginning
responsive key institutions are to the needs stage when people first come
of local communities" together. This is the stage where
people try to be nice, and present
● Community development, often linked with what they feel are their most
Community Work or Community Planning, is personable and friendly
often formally conducted by characteristics.
non-government organizations (NGOs),
universities or government agencies to ○ Chaos: When people move beyond
progress the social well-being of local, the inauthenticity of
regional and, sometimes, national pseudo-community and feel safe
communities. Less formal efforts, called enough to present their "shadow"
community building or community selves. This stage places great
organizing, seek to empower individuals demands upon the facilitator for
and groups of people by providing them with greater leadership and organization,
the skills they need to effect change in their but Peck believes that "organizations
own communities. These skills often assist are not communities", and this
in building political power through the pressure should be resisted.
formation of large social groups working for
a common agenda. Community ○ Emptiness: This stage moves
development practitioners must understand beyond the attempts to fix, heal and
both how to work with individuals and how convert of the chaos stage, when all
to affect communities' positions within the people become capable of
context of larger social institutions. acknowledging their own
woundedness and brokenness,
Four Elements of Community Development: common to us all as human beings.
Out of this emptiness comes
1. Attention to the desires of the people
involved and to the areas where they live ○ True community: the process of
and work. deep respect and true listening for
2. Control by community members, who the needs of the other people in this
become active participants. community. This stage Peck
3. The concept of self-help, which is vitally believes can only be described as
important to the community development "glory" and reflects a deep yearning
process. in every human soul for
 compassionate understanding from
one's fellows.
Types of Community:
1. Geographic communities: range from the
local neighborhood, suburb, village, town or
city , region, nation or even the planet as a
whole. These refer to communities of
location.
2. Communities of culture: range from the
local clique, sub-culture, ethnic group,
religious, multicultural or pluralistic
civilization, or the global community cultures
of today. They may be included as
communities of need or identity, such as
disabled persons, or frail aged people.
3. Community organizations: range from
informal family or kinship networks, to more
formal incorporated associations, political
decision making structures, economic
enterprises, or professional associations at
a small, national or international scale.
Note: Communities are nested; one community can
contain another—for example a geographic
community may contain a number of ethnic
communities.
Understanding Community Developments
includes:
● Community Development is crucially
concerned with the issues of powerlessness
and disadvantage: as such it should involve
all members of society, and offers a practice
that is part of a process of social change.
● Community Development is about the active
involvement of people in the issues which
affect their lives. It is a process based on
the sharing of power, skills, knowledge and
experience.
● Community Development takes place both
in neighborhoods and within communities of
interest, as people identify what is relevant
to them.
● The Community Development process is
collective, but the experience of the process
enhances the integrity, skills, knowledge
and experience, as well as equality of
power, for each individual who is involved.
● Where Community Development takes
place, there are certain principles central to
it. The first priority of the Community
Development process is the empowering
and enabling of those who are traditionally
deprived of power and control over their
common affairs. It claims as important the
ability of people to act together to influence
the social, economic, political and
environmental issues which affect them.
Community Development aims to
encourage sharing, and to create structures
which give genuine participation and
involvement.
● Community Development seeks to enable
individuals and communities to grow and
change according to their own needs and
priorities, and at their own pace, provided
this does not oppress other groups and
communities, or damage the environment.
● Community Development is about
developing the power, skills, knowledge and
experience of people as individuals and in
groups, thus enabling them to undertake
initiatives of their own to combat social,
economic, political and environmental
problems, and enabling them to fully
participate in a truly democratic process.
● Community Development must take the
lead in confronting the attitudes of
individuals and the practices of institutions
and society as a whole which discriminates
unfairly against black people, women,
people with disabilities and different
abilities, religious groups, elderly people,
lesbians and gay men, and other groups
who are disadvantaged by society. It also
must take a lead in countering the
 destruction of the natural environment on
which we all depend. Community
Development is well placed to involve
people equally on these issues which affect
all of us.

● Community Development should seek to

develop structures which enable the active
involvement of people from disadvantaged
groups, and in particular people from Black
and Minority Ethnic groups.