What is Community Development?
- Community development is a way of strengthening civil society by prioritising the actions of communities, and their perspectives in the development of social, economic and environmental policy.
- It seeks the empowerment of local communities, taken to mean both geographical communities, communities of interest or identity and communities organising around specific themes or policy initiatives.
- It strengthens the capacity of people as active citizens through their community groups, organisations and networks; and the capacity of institutions and agencies (public, private and non-governmental) to work in dialogue with citizens to shape and determine change in their communities.
- It plays a crucial role in supporting active democratic life by promoting the autonomous voice of disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.
- It has a set of core values/social principles covering human rights, social inclusion, equality and respect for diversity; and a specific skills and knowledge base.
- Good community development is action that helps people to recognise and develop their ability and potential and organise themselves to respond to problems and needs which they share.
- It supports the establishment of strong communities that control and use assets to promote social justice and help improve the quality of community life.
- It also enables community and public agencies to work together to improve the quality of government.
Purpose
People want to live in healthy communities.
These are communities in which they:
- feel able to be who they are
- have positive prospects for their future
- experience respect and equal and fair treatment
- build on the experience of the people who are excluded from the labour market
- understand from their perspective what knowledges and skills they consider
- worthwhile learning in order to build a more equal just and sustainable society
- make explicit the global relations of power that shape education & training, the economy and society
- act in support of emerging alternatives by increasing the space for alternatives to take hold and become self-sustainable
- make explicit a new pedagogy for the basic adult education sector
Focus
To achieve this people want to be in a community that:
- creates wealth and gives everyone access to its benefits
- cares for all its members, when they need it, throughout their life span
- provides an environment that is safe and attractive
- enables people to express and celebrate their creativity and diverse cultures
- enables everyone to participate in decisions that affect their lives