Summary SCK3703 Community work summaries

Table of Contents
POVERTY AND THE POOR AS CONTEXT.............................................................................................................................3
Poverty and the poor....................................................................................................................................................3
Poverty, women and development...............................................................................................................................3
Responses to poverty....................................................................................................................................................4
Stakeholders in community development.....................................................................................................................4
PRACTICE MODELS............................................................................................................................................................5
Community development.............................................................................................................................................5
Community education...................................................................................................................................................5
Social planning..............................................................................................................................................................5
Social marketing............................................................................................................................................................6
Social action..................................................................................................................................................................6
COMMUNITY WORK: AN OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................7
Origins of community work...........................................................................................................................................7
Relationship between community work and other social work methods.....................................................................8
Relationship between community work & community development...........................................................................8
The nature of community work....................................................................................................................................8
Nature of community development............................................................................................................................11
THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS......................................................................................................................................13
Person-centred approach............................................................................................................................................13
Social construction......................................................................................................................................................13
Critical theory.............................................................................................................................................................13
Assets-based community development......................................................................................................................14
Appreciative inquiry....................................................................................................................................................14
Sustainable livelihoods................................................................................................................................................14
Developmental approach............................................................................................................................................15
Social development approach.....................................................................................................................................15
Basic needs approach.................................................................................................................................................15
Systems perspective....................................................................................................................................................15
COMPONENTS AND PARTICIPANTS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.............................................................................16
The Environment.........................................................................................................................................................16
The community and the action group.........................................................................................................................17
The community worker’s organisation........................................................................................................................17
The community worker...............................................................................................................................................17
COMPONENTS OF COMMUNITY WORK..........................................................................................................................19
The community...........................................................................................................................................................19
The practitioner..........................................................................................................................................................19
The context................................................................................................................................................................. 20
PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT METHODS AND SKILLS..................................................................................................21

, Introduction................................................................................................................................................................21
Broad-angle scan.........................................................................................................................................................21
Listening survey..........................................................................................................................................................21
Collecting stories.........................................................................................................................................................21
Appreciative inquiry....................................................................................................................................................21
Mapping...................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Community self-surveys..............................................................................................................................................22
Swot analysis...............................................................................................................................................................22
Social analysis.............................................................................................................................................................22
ETHICS, PRINCIPLES, FEATURES & OUTCOMES OF PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT........................................................23
Ethics for social workers..............................................................................................................................................23
Principles of community development.......................................................................................................................23
Features of community development.........................................................................................................................24
Outcomes of community development......................................................................................................................24
THEMES OF ACTION........................................................................................................................................................26
Initiating the project...................................................................................................................................................26
Planning...................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Implementation..........................................................................................................................................................26
Evaluation/reflection & control...................................................................................................................................27
Termination.................................................................................................................................................................27
THE COMMUNITY WORK PROCESS.................................................................................................................................27
Step 1: Do a situation analysis.....................................................................................................................................28
Step 2: Identify & analyse impediments.....................................................................................................................28
Step 3: Formulate a plan of action..............................................................................................................................29
Step 4: Implement the plan of action..........................................................................................................................30
Step 5: Evaluate the process & results & sustain change............................................................................................31

, POVERTY AND THE POOR AS CONTEXT
Poverty and the poor
 Basic needs not being met, lack of sufficient means of subsistence.
 Perception of poverty influence how we respond to deprived people- “poverty” & “poor” are “labels.
 Poverty: condition experienced by groups of people referred to as “the poor”, reflected by economic
indicators.
 Absolute poverty: next meal/absence thereof means difference b/t life & death.
 Relative poverty: basic needs met, experience disadvantage i.t.o their social environment.
 THEORIES ON CAUSES OF POVERTY:
o 2 categories: 1- personal responsibility & personal dysfunction; 2- blame society, created & damaged
by oppression.
 VIEWS OF UNDERSTANDING POVERTY:
o Max-Neef: Poverties of unmet, fundamental human needs-
 Economic concept of poverty inadequate.
 Any fundamental need not adequately satisfied = poverty.
 Types of poverty:
 Subsistence- income, food shelter
 Protection- health systems, violence, arms race
 Affection- oppression, exploit natural enviro
 Understanding- poor education
 Participation- marginalisation, discrimination
 Identity- alien values, exile
 Destroyer- supposed to satisfy 1 need, destroy community’s ability to meet other needs
 Pseudo-satisfier- create false sense of satisfaction
 Inhibiting satisfier- can prevent fulfilment of other needs
 Singular satisfier- only satisfy one need
 Synergic satisfier- satisfy 1+ need at the same time
 Human scale developmental approach: economic growth isn’t enough to alleviate poverty. Is
people-centred, so sees people as change agents in their own future. Satisfy all needs, not just
economic.
o Chambers: Poverty as entrapment-
 Poor: households trapped in a cluster of disadvantage.
 People easily exploited & vulnerable, have insufficient skills & resources.
 Households experience:
 Material poverty- lack of food
 Isolation- unable to pay for school/ travel
 Vulnerability- insufficient assets
 Powerlessness- low status
o Freire: Poverty as oppression-
 oppressed people within a culture of silence.
 They become “beggars without choice”
 They have no decision-making power- so they protest & react w/ aggression.
 They confront the system to say they’re still human.
 “THE POOR”:
o Label given by outsiders & creates distance. Ignores their individuality.
o Poverty becomes an impersonal phenomena- label makes them nameless & faceless = “us” & “them”.
o Lost their self-determination & become dependent.
o Not a homogenous group w/ common interests.

Poverty, women and development
 Male development at expense of women’s
 Women are most NB change agents- give decision- making power & authority
 Change occurs when women become empowered
 Women more open to change & their needs differ from men’s

,  Change oppressive practices & traditions.

Responses to poverty
 Understanding & causes of poverty develops as follows:
o Defined as shortage of things
o Shortage of skills, local motivation & initiative
o As a failure of different systems
o Insufficient mobilising vision
 4 stages of development
o Generation 1: Welfare & Relief
 Direct service delivery to meet immediate shortage.
 Provide short-term assistance to help them get back on their feet/ stimulate the
economy.
 Related to the individual/ family.
 Assistance depends on funds, staff, admin of the organisation.
 Eg. Faith—based organisations.
o Generation 2: Small-scale, self-reliant local development
 Endeavour to build capacity/ empower self-help, self-reliant local action that will
continue beyond the period of assistance.
 Assist organisations to mobilise groups and focus on development of human
resources, to satisfy their own needs through self-reliant, local action.
o Generation 3: Sustainable Systems Development
 Focus beyond local community, attempt to effect changes in policies & institutions.
 Aim to change existing systems, to provide Generation 2 w/ links to supportive
national systems.
o Generation 4: Development Strategies
 Seeks to address deficiencies of 3rd Generation & facilitate global action.
 Communicate ideas & info through mass media to energise voluntary actions.

Stakeholders in community development
 1st sphere: National government
o Formulate policy & legislation, plan national strategies.
o Address problems through socio-economic legislation, poverty alleviation programmes,
welfare & development projects
 2nd sphere: Provincial government
o Formulate provincial policy & structures.
 3rd sphere: Local government
o Municipalities responsible for social development in their sphere.
 NGO’s & CBO’s
o Independent, private & voluntary. Provide aid & relief, initiate developmental work.
o Direct efforts to communities suffering great poverty, political inequality & isolation.
 The private sector
o As part of social responsibility, they develop & fund initiatives especially where their workers
reside/ where business in located.