This project proposal will look at a specific community and identify a specific need within the

Social cohesion- there can be social interaction between different cultures in the community. Also you can get to know people in your neighbourhood and it allows people from different generations to mix and understand the other generations and how they live/lived.

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.

Social capital is the is the social connections that allow for social interactions in which an individual has opportunities to build bonds, help others out, and affect change for the better. When the social engagement is reciprocated, it can produce benefits for the multiple individuals engaged in the activity and so further the circumstance of the society.

Social capital is defined as the capacity of social institutions, such as families, churches, schools, or other community organizations to make an investment of attention and advice, support and concerned interest in other community members according to reformer L.J. Hanifan. As a dependent of the community social capital is applied to my everyday life. It helps me to obtain resources for my education such as scholarships, teaches me how to work together with my peers, becoming a positive role model to youth, and build trusting relationships with others in the community. Social capital is seen as a support group from leaders in the community.

Is there social capital present from an urban life? In some instances, it is present and absent in others, so what is the so-called "big picture" regarding whether or not it is present or absent overall? For evidence of the increasing presence of social capital, I will use as evidence my own personal experiences and observations. From my experience, city life can only alienate you if you let it. Putnam may be quick to blame electronic media for giving us excuses to decline social capital, or he

Community is built of two main elements. First, community requires communal caring. Members need to put themselves in positions where they are able to relate to other members and does everything “within reasonable limits of self-sacrifice” (65). The second is communal reciprocity. Individuals will serve other members of the community, not for exchange of goods, but to provide generosity and support. These elements of community appear in the lives of all individuals, even the most capitalist ones. Humans are entirely capable of these.

When discussing why societies are better with deep social capital, Putnam writes “dense networks of interaction probably broaden the participants' sense of self, developing the "I" into the "we” (Putnam, 1995, pp. 2-3). To me, this means that when people are not concerned with only themselves but also with others, things like peace building and community involvement occur. In terms of peace building, if social capital was dense and I had a high social capital level, when something intrigued me and drove me to advocate for peace such as ending violence, it wouldn’t be a fight that I was starting alone but instead the “we” would help fight this battle. For me, this means that if I really want to make a difference in this world, I need to be more involved and increase my social capital. By doing so, I can impact others to do the same and the chances of building peace as a community would be greater. Furthermore, the piece in the article where he ties the whole concept of social capital and its decline to bowling really hit home for me. When it is put in perspective in such a way that Putnam did to describe how even bowling has decreased in profits because people prefer now to bowl alone rather than a s a group or in a league, it really forced one to reflect upon their own involvement. (Putnam, 2010). If as a society and even myself we continue to not fully engage with others but rather masked by technology and our own life circumstances, peace will never be built. As someone who believes in social justice, I know that peace is something I want to help build and thus need to change my social capital

Throughout history we see a pattern that includes a boom in society alongside a boom in industry. As industry increases, many people move to cities, causing a lack of community and a greater sense of contribution to society as a whole. On the contrary, when we look at time periods with greater agricultural importance, there are many more close-knit family groups or small communities. This idea came into fruition after reading The New Community by Amitai Etzioni. This piece discusses the role of community and society, and how community is defined as unity and society is defined as diversity. On a basic level, we agreed with this statement. As industry booms, the role of the individual becomes less important, and the diverse skill set of a society becomes more important. In a community, there can be diversity, but all people involved need to have a strong commonality that bonds them. I agree more with an idea presented later in The New Community more. “What we need now are communities that balance both diversity and unity.”(Etzioni) This statement reflects our current society, which is extremely diverse. As a large populace, we need to find communities that will accept our diversity, while still sharing a

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

Alejandro Portes discuss the controversy surrounding the actual meaning and effects of social capital. Confusion arises due its applications to manifold topics as well as its uses on different group of people. He provided the concept by Pierre Bourdieu and James Coleman which centered on the benefits of social capital on an individual or a small group. He argued that Coleman focused on the advantages yielded to individual and then expand them to the whole community with subtlety. This transition is not well-defined and thus put social capital at risk of becoming synonymous with all positive things in

The One Roof Community Community Centre (ORCC) is a program associated with the Warming Room Community Ministries in Peterborough, Ontario. A meal is served twice a day during the week, and once a day on weekends (Warming Room Community Ministries, 2017). The building is also open for drop-in hours from 12-7, providing a warm place to stay during the afternoon. The Warming Room Community Ministries number one goal is to “work toward God’s dream of justice, peace and love in the City of Peterborough by meeting immediate needs, breaking down barriers that exist in the community and advocating for systemic change.” (Warming Room Community Ministries, 2017).

Bill Lee identifies community as “a complex notion of the way people live and connect with each other” (Lee, B., 2011, p.20), and defines “community organization as a social intervention which seeks to maximize the ability of oppressed or disadvantaged people to take action and influence their environment: .....”(Lee B., 2011, p.100). Lee also suggests that a pragmatic community organizing should have specific objectives that include community participation, sense of community, social production (Gamble, N. D. & Weil, M., 2009, p.123), proper use of appropriate resources, and social learning in order to achieve community goal focusing upon citizen empowerment (Lee, B., 2011, p. 94).

When conducting a needs assessment, people’s needs with in the community are assessed to see where gaps lie and improvements can be made. If carried out and reported correctly these needs are then bought to local government or relevant organisations/peoples attention, giving the opportunity for programs to be put in place to benefit the people of the community. This is where the third step of Finifter, Jensen, Wilson & Koenig (2005) process comes into place; the implementation of projects to assist where the gaps were found. “Implementation of recommended solutions should be the ultimate goal of any project to improve services and quality of life of a target population (Neely, T R).” The more efficient all three steps are carried out the stronger this method becomes. “The importance of disseminating results effectively using these guidelines cannot be stressed enough. A needs assessment will have achieved nothing if the results are not communicated effectively (Neely, T R).”

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

Brief summary description of the project proposal: Describe problem addressed, proposed solution, expected results, intended beneficiaries and reason(s) why assistance is requested from the Voluntary Fund.