Approaches to Working with Communities and Skills when Working with Communities - Literature review Example

Community Work Name Institution Course Lecturer Date Executive Summary A number of professionals work with communities depending on the needs and aspirations in the community. It is therefore necessary to know what community work entails and factors that determine the effective way in which a profession work with a community. This paper draws on various learning modules and critically combines a wide-range of research to promote a personal understanding of communities, approaches to working with communities and skills when working with communities. In all the three issues, a summary of key topic issues, a commentary based on personal understanding and a reflection of the learning is presented. Understanding communities The first module focused on understanding communities and community work. In practice, community work involves working in human services environment, social planning, crime-related and community-based agencies and various professions can work directly with a community depending on the community’s needs and aspirations. The module reflected on the meaning of community, expressions of community and skills that are critical to work with a community. It also highlighted the approaches to community work, the theoretical and conceptual basis in understanding community, concepts of community, cultural perspectives, community capacity, local level power structures and their influence to community work. As Adams (2008) points out, there are fundamentals of community work and first, community voice matters a lot. The service provides and the service itself has to address the real needs identified by the community. The basis of bottom-up approach when working within a community and developing projects finds it critical to listen and seek the community voice (Mendes 2009). In the process, the community is engaged in mapping the assets and identifying the deficits to make the project or community work effective. Any profession can work directly with community as long as the network of relationships and capacity to meet the community needs is developed. As identified in Taylor, Wilkinson & Cheers (2008), the bottom-up approach is an effective way to approach community work. Unlike where the service providers and influential members in the community dictate the way forward for the community, the approach is based on supporting the people, building a communal spirit to own the activities and work towards positive outcomes. There are a range of issues that make community work complex, but the approach can be rewarding as it helps people to be active in identifying the barriers and a range of issues that may hamper the attainment of their needs and aspirations (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2010). As Mendes (2009) points out, there are prerequisite that makes community work efficient and effective. It all starts with an understanding of the community which is very critical. By understanding the community, it is possible to come up with objectives, activities and inputs that are relevant and in a logical manner and for the best outcomes. As Fenwick (2008) argues, it is the role of the professional to establish and maintain effective relationships and partner with the people affected. Collaboration entails partnership between the service providers and the community. Service expectations and projects objectives should be clearly determined and mutually determined. There are forces within the community that influence the outcome of community work. If the service providers have to be effective, they need to target the local structures and involve them during orientation, training sessions, project development and supervision (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2010). Community partnership that targets such structure provides the service providers with information about the nature of community prior the commencement of community work. In addition, they offer an ongoing support and reduce the instances where they can act as barriers if they feel that they are not part of the decision-making processes (Smith, Muhajarine, Smith & Delanoy 2011). Ultimately, by making use of the structures, the service providers ensure that the social, economic and political context is effective to service work. I gained a totally different viewpoint about community work. The role of a professional working directly with the community is not to engage daily in solving the people’s problems, but the main role is to strengthen individuals, families and the entire community in meeting the current and future needs and aspirations. Community work also covers more than what I thought. In my view, I thought the main objective of working with community is all about empowerment but it is wider than that as the professionals working in a community can also help in building some stated needs and aspirations. I would actually say that the module was designed and structured in a logical way that helped me understand community work. I have gained a formal analysis of community and the discourses have allowed me to gain a social reality of wider community. The learning process was connected, with set goals and as I reflect back, I have continuously challenged the lay mans view I had about community work. Approaches to working with communities The module introduced and deliberated about the community work processes, applicability of process to a range of groups, community work and development of agency and government policy. Effective working with community is mapped by what the service providers want to achieve (Porter, Onnela & Mucha 2009). It begins with identification of constraints which might be policy, time, financial, outcome or desired outcome constraints. The approach adopted when working with communities depends on the goals and objectives of the project. Some approaches depends much on professional decisions while in others, the community is at the centre of contributions. The approaches make use of both top-down and down-up approach in their application. According to Taylor, Wilkinson & Cheers (2008), any community action falls under contributions, instrumental, community empowerment or developmental approach. Every approach depends on what is intended to be achieved at the end and its applicability depends on the process that is followed to achieve a desired outcome. An approach determines the level of community participation, the role of a profession as well as that of the community. In some of the approaches, the professional is overly involved and possess more power in decision making. Such an approach is therefore applicable to community work that requires less community inputs, in terms of planning, time, performance or evaluation of progress (Cristóvão, et al 2009). In other approaches, for instance, community empowerment and development approaches, the professional inputs and that of the community has to match or strike a balance in order for the initiatives to deliver as planned. The community has its significant contribution which is necessary in the whole process of implementing strategies (Gilchrist 2009). There are also five practice frameworks which are either developmental in nature or embedded in community empowerment. In another approach, the community is highly involved, for instance the contributions approach where the community offers resources, expertise and support services for the accomplishment of a project’s objectives (Taylor, Wilkinson & Cheers 2008). The role of the professionals is to make crucial decisions that lead to community participation. It is possible to note that, every initiative under community work can be grouped under any of the above approach. In understanding the approach that is applicable in a scenario, the professionals understand the issues that pertain to roles and responsibilities, resources, monitoring and control and power relations that guide the interdependence for performance. The five practice frameworks concerned the practical approach to the need of the community. The community members have an active role in interactional community and participative development frameworks. The frameworks insist on the community ability to connect and promote each others’ needs as things evolves in the process. It seems that the frameworks acts on the strongpoint’s of the community by bringing together their efforts, resources, expertise and professionals contributions to allow the communities reach important goals (Christopher, Watts, McCormick & Young 2008). In building capable communities, collective capacity and asset-based community development frameworks, the main idea is to empower the existing community. Professionals do not depend much on the communities in terms of resources, expertise and skills, instead, they require the communities availability in different campaigns, promotional strategies, work together in evaluating barriers and hindrances to community improvement. Community work is governed by the government as it has become more pervasive and more so with jurisdictional controls. It implies that, the government facilitates an effective policy development that shapes the roles of other entities like non-governmental organizations and the outcomes of their actions (Pittman, et al 2011). The module was informative and it expanded my outlook on community work. When I looked at each approach, I understood that the professionals have to be dynamic depending on community initiatives. I thought that the role of a professional was rigid in nature; making decisions and having the communities adopt them to perform, but I have noted that, in other approaches, communities can as well determine and have the professional follow on initiatives. The frameworks are important in the practice and that understanding has equipped me in to competently analyze and assume my role in community work delivery. The awareness and skills will form the basis of my professional performance and interaction with community in future. It has also allowed me to notice where I can work best depending on my interests and capabilities. I have analyzed myself as highly effective when it comes to community empowerment and in activities that emphasizes on community inputs. Skills in working with communities The module connected the previous topics by indicating the skills that are necessary for effectiveness of the approaches discussed. It sets the situations and the skills sets that are necessary in each case. There are a number of skills required in community work. There are a number of skills identified including; decision making, building and maintaining partnership, developing community leadership, community planning and building knowledge of community and its needs. As Oosterlaken (2009) points out, professional skills are important in community work and support. To enhance social and economic outcomes, skills are important. The skills help in community projects, resources management, educating, training, doing research, health promotion among others. According to Shulman (2011), professional skills continues and expands the community involvement and further support the vision towards a working, capable and prosperous communities. Skills depend on suitability of projects and programs in meeting the identified community needs. They also determine the social inclusion of community members, building community links, forming collaborative partnerships, programs and projects development in order to benefit the community who use the services. As seen in Taylor, Wilkinson & Cheers (2008), community decision-making have to be collaborative, inclusive and effective and the process takes into account the contextual factors, involvement, provision of information and resources, create a space and empowering the people to determine on their own. At the end of the day, it is all about the community and a professional biggest role is to facilitate the way the community will reach to decisions that ultimately and positively change brings the best outcomes. That way, the not only become efficient in the present but also in future opportunities and critical decision making points in initiative implementation (Shulman 2011). Community partnership aims at facilitating ownership of decisions by the community. The linkages and coalitions promote the way plans are implemented. In all the approaches as seen in module 2, any outcome will highly depend on inputs from both side; the community and service providers. Communication is very critical part in community partnerships. Partnership is consciously developed through activities that create intimacy, respect, identifying values and reaching an optimal point of performance (Amin & Roberts 2008). Community leadership depends on a range of styles which a professional chooses to adopt depending on the situation and the needs that are to be met. Leadership style determines the effectiveness of teams towards an objective (Rogerson, Sadler & Green 2011). Transactional style of leadership is applicable where the service providers are involved in major decisions and in a top-down approach while transformational is applicable in empowerment, down-up approach. Community planning skills systematically addresses the social, environmental and cultural issues in a community. Building knowledge depends on the information available for professionals through observation and research during the processes of initiation, interaction and implementation of initiatives (Amin & Roberts 2008). The final module was useful to me and particularly be the way it has helped me sharpen most of my skills. I have developed lifelong observational, self-awareness, critical thinking and verbal communication skills. I feel ready to utilize the skills in my field placement. I have realized that, I can make use of a single, two or multiple skills in a situation to accomplish a desirable outcome. I have developed a passion to see how the skills work alongside different approaches and it is a rewarding experience to see how as professional I can be if I apply such systematic knowledge. I have understood that there are skills that go hand-in-hand with different approach, for instance, knowledge building goes hand-in-hand with empowerment approaches while community decision making with the developmental approach. References Adams, R 2008, Empowerment, participation and social work. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Amin, A., & Roberts, J 2008, Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice. Research policy, 37(2), 353-369. Christopher, S., Watts, V., McCormick, A. K. H. G., & Young, S 2008, Building and maintaining trust in a community-based participatory research partnership. American Journal of Public Health, 98(8), 1398-1406. Cristóvão, A., et al 2009, Circles and communities, sharing practices and learning: Looking at new extension education approaches. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 15(2), 191-203. Fenwick, T 2008, Understanding relations of individual—collective learning in work: A review of research. Management Learning, 39(3), 227-243. Gilchrist, A 2009, The well-connected community: a networking approach to community development. The Policy Press. Mendes, P 2009, Teaching community development to social work students: a critical reflection. Community Development Journal, 44(2), 248-262. Minkler, M., & Wallerstein, N. (Eds.) 2010, Community-based participatory research for health: From process to outcomes. Wiley. com. Oosterlaken, I 2009, Design for development: A capability approach. Design Issues, 25(4), 91-102. 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