LESSON 1: APPROACHES IN

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

3 Forms of Approaches
 Self-help Approach— emphasizes processes that encourage community members to
work together, collaborate, and formulate decisions and actions to improve the conditions
in the community.
 focuses on institutionalizing process of decision-making by strengthening
relations within a community to incure change and progress.

 Conflict Approach — deliberation and confrontation of those occupying positions of

authority and professional officials who are charged with the responsibility of decision-
making for the community.
 to ensure that power and authoritative decision-making is redistributed.

 Technical Assistance Approach — employs the use of external actors and experts to
address community issues
 treats communities as consumers of services to be rendered by external entities
such as development workers and organizations.

Methods and Strategies for Community Development

Community Organizing — the process of building power by involving a

constituency or community members in identifying the problems that they share and
selecting the solutions to it.

Community Resource Management — a participatory process that enables

community to manage their own resources for their benefit.

Community Education and Learning — referd to the conscious efforts of members

of the communities to develop their skills and capacities to improve the quality of
their lives.
 Community Action Planning Community Action Plan
plays an important role in specifically defines the scope
addressing community issues and parameters of a
and solving problems. community based on its profile.

Community Action has 7 phases, namely:

 Establishing links and partnership-building with local groups

 Community profiling

 Needs and resources assessment

 Participatory action planning and leadership development

 Resource mobilization

 Plan implementation

 Monitoring and evaluation

ESTABLISHING LINKS AND PARTNERSHIP-BUILDING WITH

LOCAL GROUPS

Establishing Links is a Partnership-Building

process of identifying entails coalition
and locating different formation and
actors and players within strengthening relations
a community who share with key community
a common purpose, groups, stakeholders and
interest, and goal. individuals.
In building partnerships, it is necessary to follow do following steps:

Describe the organization and individuals who are actively engaged in resolving
the different problems and issues in the community.
Identify the organization and individuals who need to be involved.
Assemble the members of the partnership.
Alongside your anticipated goals, outline your partnership's objectives, goals,
and tasks.
As a group, state your goals, objectives, needs, and resources.
Describe the potential barriers and identify the various resources.
Describe how each sub-group will function and how collaboration will be
maintained.
Anticipate the steps involved in planning, addressing contingencies, and
sustaining your set community action.

LESSON 2: COMMUNITY
PROFILING
Community Profiling provides advocates with a descriptive
insights about the attributes and conditions of a community. It helps community
members be informed about the physical, socio-political, and material
characteristics of their community.

NEEDS AND RESOURCE ASSESSMENT

 Needs assessment — lets the community identify the things that it needs. It
helps determine what the community considers valuable and what problems
and issues should be addressed.
PURPOSES:

 To learn about community needs.

 To have a more objective and honest description of what people need.
 To discover possible needs that you thought didn't exist.
 To document or record needs which can be used in applying for funding
and advocating causes
 To ensure that the actions that you take are related to the needs of the
community.

 Resource assessment — helps the community be informed about resources

(such as material resources, financial, equipment, personnel) that can be
accessed to address the needs of the community.

PARTICIPATORY ACTION PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP

DEVELOPMENT

 Participatory action planning — involves the open and inclusive engagement of

groups and individuals in a community who have decided to pursue a goal or solve
a problem.

 Evaluation design — while undergoing the planning phase, this should also be
taken into account. It enables implementers of the plan to revisit, countercheck and
monitor the progress of implementation.

 Core working group — leaders emanate from a selected group, volunteers or

individuals. Leaders ensure that essential tasks, goals, and objectives are
accomplished.

Moreover, a strong and competent set of leaders encourages community members to

participate in activities which can help improve the conditions and well-being of the
community.
RESOURCE MOBILIZATION

 an important process that deals with the necessary steps in raising, maintaining,
and sustaining community support.
 It encompasses the appropriate, efficient and effective use of material support
(equipment and hardware), personnel support (volunteer), and knowledge support
(shared info).
 takes into account the importance of people and the strength behind their
utilization of limited sources.

PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

 refers to phase where actual and concrete implementation of tasks and

activities are done.
 The completion of the objectives is expected to result to the accomplishment
of the goals set by the community, incurring the desired change.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

 Monitoring — focuses on the status and progress of tasks and activities in the
course of the implementation of the community action plan.

 Evaluation — typically conducted in the middle and at the end of the scheduled
completion of the community action plan to evaluate the effectivity and success of
the project.

3 TYPES OF EVALUATION
Process evaluation — periodically conducted (typically mid-way of a planned project); it
allows communities to learn from the implementation process and make adjustments to ensure
their strategy's effectiveness.
Summative evaluation — conducted after the completion of the plan or at the end of the
project. It focuses on whether or not the implementation of the project has been completed.
Impact evaluation — concerned with the outcomes of the project/program/intervention,
particularly the change that has been incurred.
Outcomes — generally viewed as changes in conditions or states; it suggests that the
intervention has led to a positive transformation or desired condition.
PROBLEMS AND ISSUES IN COMMUNITY PLANNING

 There are several reasons and factors that can cause community action and
planning to fail.

 Resource constrains such as depletion of funds, concentration of control of

resources to a few individuals, or inaccessibility of tools and technologies
necessary for the successful completion of the interventions have proven to create
gaps and problems in the effectiveness of the community projects.

 The division and factions in the leadership, the lack of coordination, inadequacy of
competencies, and slow-moving bureaucratic procedures have also impeded the
progress of community initiatives.

 External factors such as the interference and meddling of local politicians,

traditional elites, and the violent intervention of armed groups have constrained
participation, volunteerism and community actions.