Characteristics of Community Strengths - Essay Example

Characteristics of Community Strengths Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Characteristics of Community Strengths Introduction Community strength is the social structure that holds together a particular group of people, living in a specific location. It involves both formal and informal norms and structures that incorporate the aspects of trust, bonds, links, reciprocity, and networks formed in the day-to-day interactions of members of a community amongst themselves. Community strength is important in that it helps a group of people to achieve their established objectives, unity, and help towards each other in moments of distress. The success or failure of any community’s efforts to attain unity, and peace is determined by the degree of its community strength. The paper focuses to examine the definition of community and community strength in relation to the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities living in Australia. Discussion Various scholars have defined community; however, there is no clear and widely accepted definition. Its notions have been changing depending on a particular context and application, resulting to the evolution of its definition. Wood & Judikis, (2002) define community as a social group of individuals who share a sense of common purpose and interests over which there is an assumption of responsibility from both sides, acknowledging what connects them, being tolerant to their individual differences, committing to be each other’s brother’s keeper, and integrity for the common good of each one of them. Additionally, Sharma (1996) defines community as an ensemble of individuals residing in a particular locality and share a sense of togetherness. He further cites essential elements of a community as definite locality, group of human beings, community sentiments, likeness, permanence, naturalness, and having a particular name. Generally, a community is a group of people who live in the same area, share the same interests, norms, race, cultural and historical heritage. A community is important as it promotes a sense of belonging among its members, enhances unity, provides, and encourages the responsible use of resources found within its locality. The strength of a community is considered in terms of good social amenities and services, friendly and strong social capital, sustainable environment, opportunities for members to be involved in civic engagements, and strong governance among others. These aspects underpin the importance of communities as much as it also provides resources, information, and opportunities to its locals. A strong community achieves to shape its constituents identity, promoting a feeling of safety, security and belonging. It is evident that a community’s strength is the thread that binds its people, and there exists a mutual relationship merging the two. That is, the people on one side, and community that they comprise on the other hand. In the Australian set up, the divisions in the community’s unity led to the weakening of its community strength as Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals led separate lives, rarely did they act in unison. To begin with provision of local facilities and services, which entails the provision of proper medical care, education, and security, there is a vast inequality in its access between the two Australian communities. For instance, the Aboriginals have poor health, characterised by higher rates of infant mortality, having a short life expectancy, and significantly lower levels of formal education and employment. In terms of life expectancy, the infant mortality rates for the aboriginal is almost double that of non-aboriginal Australian children. Beginning from birth, Aboriginal Australians have a shorter life expectancy than non-Aboriginal Australians do. The variance is even wider for men, with a 69.1-year life expectancy for Aboriginals men and 79.9 years for non-Aboriginals men (Life Tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2010-2012).. This static clearly demonstrates that Aboriginal Australians experience higher death rates than non-Aboriginal Australians do. Furthermore, Larson, Gillies, Howard, & Coffin (2007) conducted a research on how interpersonal racism affects health and inequality; they found out that Aboriginal Australians who had experience incidences of negative treatment were likely to experience impoverished health. In their recommendations, they did suggest that experiencing negative racial treatment identified as a determinant of health, and warned that attempts to improve medical care and other initiatives may not completely reduce health inequalities in the absence of significant changes in the manner in which non-Aboriginal people relate with Aboriginal people. The latter is attributed to the weakening of the social capital of the Australian society. In regards to education and employment, which links to the inequality between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals health situation, there exists a wide gap in accessing this service between the two Australian communities (Craven & Mooney, 2013). This is in conflict with the requirement of quality education to all, for a community to have an economically productive human capital. Secondly, education and employment is an essential element to the betterment of the livelihoods and wellbeing of Australians. Here, statistics indicate that the portion of aboriginal Australians between 20-24 years completing year 12 or its’ equivalent is significantly lower, at 59 percent contrasted with 86-88 per cent among non-Aboriginal Australians (Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2014). The pattern is the same in rates of unemployment, whereby unemployment rate for Aboriginals is five times more than the rate of non-Aboriginals. Serr (2006) says the aboriginals are born into poverty, and die in poverty. Moreover, Maru & Davies (2011) in their study found out that employment levels are lower among Aboriginal Australians residing in rural areas. They attribute this to the lack of conventional labour markets. Important to note is the ironical situation whereby the Aboriginal employment participation is low in remote areas that have plenty of job vacancies, creating a phenomenon characterised by available employment opportunities and many unemployed people. They cite social networks as the factor contributing to this state, and to be used in addressing it. They used social network and social capital theory in a study conducted in a region in central Australia; it was found that the Aboriginals possess strong and heavy bonding networks. However, they have poor linking networks which have a degenerative influence affecting their motivation to participate in conventional job environment controlled by workplace ethics and expectations. Similarly, civic participation is also another characteristic of community strength. It refers to the active participation and empowerment of citizens to engage in matters of public concern, including political processes (Halstead et al., 2015). Under this condition, the civil society and all other stakeholders are empowered, accountable, and protected. Basic human rights like equal access to information, freedom of expression, and the independence of government institutions are upheld (Mohan & Bergman, 2004). In Australia, there is a strong sense of exclusion among the Aboriginals living in urban areas as they have been distanced from the institutions and individuals of the dominant culture. For instance, in a study of Aboriginal peoples’ relationship to a city development organisation in Winnipeg’s inner city, it was found out that the Aboriginals residing in the neighbourhood were not engaged, this was despite efforts of the organization to involve them, it appeared to be a demonstration of their social exclusion from public institutions (Silver, 2005). Again, seats with high indigenous populations tend to be reserved, the six high indigenous NT seats held by Labour party. This has a negative influence, in that, there is no electoral advantage for Country Liberal Party governments to put measures that promote indigenous enrolment and involvement, thus working to their disadvantage (Kelly, 2012). Equally important, strength in community embodies social capital. This refers to the peoples’ level of connectedness, positive socialisation, social engagement, inclusivity, and tolerance (Lesser, 2000). Networks form the backbone of togetherness, and promote cohesion and wellbeing among members of a community; furthermore, it is important for generating resources for individuals, families, and communities. Networks can be enhanced through community support groups, and availing opportunities to volunteer where people engage in activities that promote their common good, thus reinforcing the sense of care to each other. Networks can be categorised under close personal networks, broader bridging networks, and government networks (Inkpen & Tsang, 2005). Close personal networks are a source of material goods, practical help, and emotional support in times of distress, as long they remain positive; they improve persons’ health, wellbeing, and productivity. Broader networks arise from diverse backgrounds, and generated through participation in education, employment, and religion among others. They provide a wider pool from which resources can be drawn and promote positive social practices, merging together norms from diverse backgrounds. Among the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians community, there exists a lack of togetherness and social cohesion, resulting to the cold relationship between the two communities. Perdersen, Griffiths, Contos, Bishop, & Walker (2011), suggest that the non-Aboriginal Australians display negative attitude and prejudice towards the Aboriginals, they examined two previously conducted surveys and found out that; modern prejudice was more prevalent than old prejudice, secondly, political correctness was influenced by prejudice, and related to education, age, false beliefs and political inclination. Lastly, the negative attitudes towards Aboriginals achieved two purposes; a value expression function and an experiential schematic function. In general prejudice continues to exist, and further recommendations suggest that the public to be issued more information regarding the historical background, and norms of the Aboriginal people, as well as proper mechanisms to be put in place to contain the prejudice in the Australian society. Environment sustainability is another relevant aspect that characterises community strength, which arises from the fact many resources are depleting. Earth’s resources such as fossil fuel and oil are not limited in supply, thus a community that relies on them cannot be sustainably indefinite (Conteh & Segsworth, 2013). Resources such as water get replenished through ecological processes, but this process is not as fast, or commensurate to the rate at which it is depleted, or used. The Aboriginal Australians have been held up for sustainably using their land and common ownership, employing an economic mode that has minimal environmental impacts (Grinlinton & Taylor, 2011). On the other hand, non-Aboriginal Australians inefficiently mined and used natural resources leading to the unregulated resource harvesting state, and depletion of valuable resources. For better management of resources, the aboriginal people should also shift from majorly depending on land and its production, and turn to education and formal jobs as a means of diversification. Correspondingly, the Australian government should put in place mechanisms that will control and regulate the harvesting, and use of both renewable and non-renewable resources to promote sustainability, the mechanism being impartial to both the Aboriginals and non-aboriginal communities. Conclusion In brief, a community is a group of people with a shared identity, cultural, and historical heritage, its strength determined by the independence of its institutions, and the structure of its social, human, and economic capital. This is because, strong institutions empower, protect, and promote rights of its citizens without any form of discrimination, holding its leadership accountable, and strives to achieve social cohesion and unity. Further works in this topic should focus on establishing more elements that make a community strong. References Black, A., & Hughes, P. (2001). The identification and analysis of indicators of community strength. Department of Family and Community Services. Joondalup: Edith Cowan University. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1729048 Conteh, C., & Segsworth, B. (2013). Governance in Northern Ontario: Economic Development and Policy Making: Economic Development and Policy Making. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. Craven, R., & Mooney, J. (2013). Seeding Success in Indigenous Australian Higher Education. Emerald Group Publishing. Grinlinton, D., & Taylor, P. (2011). Property Rights and Sustainability: The Evolution of Property Rights to Meet Ecological Challenges. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Halstead J, M., & Steven C. Deller, S. C. (2015). Social Capital at the Community Level: An Applied Interdisciplinary Perspective. Routledge. Inkpen, A. C., & Tsang, E. W. (2005). Social Capital, Networks, and Knowledge Transfer. Academy of Management Online Journals, 30(1), 146-165. doi:10.5465/AMR.2005.15281445 Kelly, N. (2012). Directions in Australian Electoral Reform: Professionalism and Partisanship in Electoral Management. ANU E Press. Larson, A., Gillies, M., Howard, P. J., & Coffin, J. (2007, August 2). It's enough to make you sick: the impact of racism on the health of Aboriginal Australians. Australian and New Zeeland Journal of Public Health, 31(4), 322-329. doi:10.1111/j.1753-6405.2007.00079.x Lesser, E. L. (2000). Knowledge and Social Capital: Foundations and Applications. Melbourne: Elsevier. Maru, Y. T., & Davies, J. (2011, November 29). 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Ottawa: Canadian Centre Policy Alternatives. Wood, G. S., & Judikis, J. C. (2002). Conversations on Community Theory. Indiana, West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2002. Retrieved August 25, 2016, from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=DfOX6o-ikhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22George+S.+Wood%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBzb7m-9vOAhVMvRQKHSluDv8Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Read More