Book Report : Mobilizing Communities

If you examine a vehicle, you may agree that it is greater than the sum its parts. Individually, the engine, battery, tires, steering wheel, and steel body can’t haul a teen to school or an associate to work like they can when they are all working together as a cohesive unit. Just like any vehicle, the common wealth of a community is greater than the needs of the individuals that make up the community. When the individuals of a community entangle themselves in a web of wants and selfish desires, they tend to loose sight of the well being of the people who surround them, the environment in which they thrive off of, and, in the long-run, themselves. In conjunction, author Scott Russell Sanders’ article titled “Defending Our Common Wealth” highlights these points as well as emphasizes creating a new vision of wealth, encouraging community over consumption and consumerism to his audience.

Community development involves changing the relationships between ordinary people and people in positions of power, so that everyone can take part in the issues that affect their lives. It starts from the principle that within any community there is a wealth of knowledge and experience which, if used in creative ways, can be channeled into collective action to achieve the communities' desired goals.

When the members of a dilapidated and impoverished community are complacent with their current position within society, they are highly unlikely to see any positive change. To gain the attention of the government, one must care about improving oneś community. If a community wants to improve, they must employ the help of representatives that wish to immediately ameliorate them of their problems. However, a community taking this action is quite sparse, for many people are complacent or apathetic towards their current position within society. If people want to improve their material conditions in their community, they must take

The MAPP process driving by a community driven and community–owned approach — because the community qualities, needs, and cravings drive the procedure, MAPP gives the system to making a genuine community driven activity. This makes more grounded associations all through the group and gives access to the aggregate intelligence important to tending to the community that also includes core support team, MAPP committee and board community involvement. The Partnership is included with helping with the appraisals and giving criticism on the discoveries from the evaluations. The Partnership will distinguish vital issues and add to the advancement of objectives, targets and techniques for each of the need

Urban planners and community actors must prioritize the agency of individuals and capitalize on existing social capital in order to achieve well-being for all members of a community. Today, some projects exhibit such community conscious practices that have seemingly positive effects on the community. The East Lake community in Atlanta, Georgia began large scale revitalization of a neighborhood previously known as “Little Vietnam,” due to obscene rates of violence and gang activity (East Lake Foundation). The community suffered from many common ailments of poverty-stricken neighborhoods: high crime rates, poor education systems, and lack of access to jobs. Under the leadership of a few key actors and the dedicated work of the East Lake Foundation,

The power of investing in the community impacts society by helping those who are less fortunate, making their lives better.

An important part of being able to rebuild after a natural disaster, according to Daniel Aldrich, is to build social capital (Building Resilience 2). Throughout Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery, Aldrich uses examples from both Hurricane Katrina and the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake to show how effective strong societal bonds can be in repopulating cities that have suffered large natural disasters. A clear example, Aldrich articulates, is the difference between rebuilding efforts in the Village de L’Est and the Lower Ninth Ward. Originally these areas had roughly the same levels of poverty but Village de L’Est rebuilt a majority of the area while the Lower Ninth Ward is still mostly deserted (Building Resilience 1). The strong bonds that existed between the Village de L’Est residents allowed them to become more committed to reestablishing their community. For many of the areas in both conflicts, the reliance on societal bonds prompts an understanding that allows all members of the community to feel tied to the area and keeps the desire to rebuild

Community Core: The core of a community is its people and their history, values, characteristics and beliefs (Anderson & McFarlane, 2015). This stage of a community assessment is used to learn about the individuals that live within a community. Areas of interest include history, demographics, ethnicity, vital statistics, values, beliefs, and religion (Anderson & McFarlane, 2015).

A presentation was ran-through quickly detailing NBCD and explained the task (see appendix section 6.1). The task involved having a discussion about the ‘problems’ and needs of Griffith University. Focus returned to the three groups. I initiated a conversation one on one asking them to tell me what needs they identified, this was done in order to allow all participants to speak without fear of being talked over or belittled by another participant as this is common with other means of community consultation (Bhattacharyya 2004, p.21,Mengasha, Meshelemiah & Chuffa (2015, p. 165). This technique was successful as 63% of participants strongly felt they views were expressed (figure 2). A recorder detailed the needs on a map of the campus. I urged participants to say everything they had written down even if it had been said before in order to outline common needs or problems. Once this activity was complete I initiated a group conversation about some of the needs and problems. In accordance with Bhattacharyya (2004, p.21) and Goetting (2010, p. 3), many of the needs identified required a solution involving outside help, such as monetary grants, the mentality displayed was along the lines of “they need to do this for

Theoretically, community needs assessments are a great way to identify gaps within communities and improving the life of individuals within a target group. If there is a collaboration of all three components of the community needs assessment model, Assessment, Dissemination and

Community development is multi-faceted. Bhattacharyya (2004) argues that community development is not a distinct field and that not everything that is being done by developers to improve communities should not be regarded as community development. Bhattacharyya (2004) states that it should only be regarded as community development if the improvement pursues solidarity and agency which can be achieved through adhering to the principles of self-help, felt needs and participation.

Through this class, I understand the general gist of what controls the community in terms of power, organizational strength, and political influences. I have learned about what factors into certain decisions that community members make and what the recent outlook of community participation is. Even though I learned that community participation and involvement in organizations has declined over the past years, it is hopeful to find ways to combat this social apathy that is happening in America today. I enjoyed learning about strategies to help groups of people interact and create an active and responsive community power. The Greene and Haines text was well-organized, strategic, direct, and practical to the subject matter.

Ownership over the mode of production from a Marxist perspective has helped inform community development by allowing the community development workers to see that collective approaches are central to the concept of changing structures and processes within society.

Community is established locally but community development is a process that includes actors from inside and outside of the community to achieve sustainability. My previous essays have addressed the progression of community development from place-based attachment, organizing and advocacy to addressing the need and effect of government involvement. The final stop on the continuum of the community development is to analyze market-based approaches to community development. This paper will look at how a market based approach to community development is an important component of community development because it is the appropriate response to the current socio-economic, and political context that our country is in. A market-based approach provides a mechanism to define relationships and allocate economic resources to create systemic change within communities. increasing opportunities for social inclusion and economic sustainability

The CD involves in a continuing process in which maximises the opportunities for people to work collaboratively to identify and fulfil their needs based on the existing assets within the community (Kenny, 2011). As the society is not static due to the uncertainty and continual change, CD has to be flexible and fit within the context and the needs of the targeted community.