The Concept of Community Work - Term Paper Example

Community Work Student’s Name Institution Date Community Work Introduction Community work enables people living in a particular area to mobilise resources which are then used for various initiatives to uplift their welfare. As a result, members are able to form partnerships with other entities to plan actions that need to be taken and project outcomes they are likely to achieve from different projects initiated. This makes them understand what they need to do to attain positive outcomes in their plans. Understanding Communities Community work can be described as a task that enables people in a particular location to develop effective relationships to achieve mutual goals. Community work helps communities to mobilise different resources to achieve their needs and aspirations. Through community work, people in a given location are able to support each other to increase their ability to register positive results out of a specific task they have embarked on. This allows them to pool together resources to attain positive outcomes out of various activities they are working on (Buchroth, & Parkin, 2010, p. 76). Community work takes various forms and varies from one location to another. For instance, a young person who sacrifices his own time and resources to build a facility where his peers can meet and discuss is considered to be involved in community work. A volunteer health nurse who takes time to work with other healthcare experts in his communities to serve elderly patients is considered to be engaged in community work. A social worker who works with different members of the community to start a counselling program targeting different people in the society is also considered to be engaged in community work. Social care is also an important aspect of community work. Social care helps to uplift the wellbeing and status of different vulnerable populations living in different communities (Zuber, Nelson & Luloff, 1998, p. 65). Social care makes it possible for people in different societies to overcome various challenges they are facing. Community health is another important aspect of community work. This ensures that people in a given community are able to access quality and affordable healthcare services. Community health involves all people of a given locality who are made aware of healthy choices they need to observe to ensure they continue living in a healthy manner. This makes them understand the importance of maintaining a clean environment to reduce health risks that result from poor hygiene and air pollution (Sanders, 2006, p. 98). Community members are also made aware of preventive healthcare services such as child immunisation and regular health checkups. This makes people more sensitive about various healthcare needs they face in their societies and they understand the implications of poor lifestyle choices for their health. Community work makes people more united because it makes them have similar objectives and aspirations. It allows different people to make good decisions that benefit all people to make them well equipped to deal with the various challenges they are likely to face in their communities. As a result, people become aware of specific actions they need to take to achieve positive results out of different communal goals they have set for themselves. Community work makes people understand the impacts of various processes and projects that are initiated and specific needs such projects are supposed to satisfy. This makes them collaborate with one another to achieve their initial expectations (Soni, 2011, p. 67). There are various determinants that affect the progress made out of different communal tasks which are performed by different people. The bottom approach in community work and development involves using the skills of people at the grassroots to bring about positive changes at a higher level. Senior policy makers and other leaders are able to use solutions which have been proposed at the grassroots to initiate positive change at the national level (Taylor, Wilkinson & Cheers, 2008, p. 87). As a result, a bottom up approach helps large organisations and administration systems to encourage people in various communities to propose ideas which are then used to bring about different positive changes. For a person to work effectively with members of a new community, he needs to understand their cultural background and lifestyles. He also needs to develop and sustain good working relationships with them to make them more interested in what he is doing. Approaches to Working with Communities For a person to work effectively with members of a particular community, he needs to use an appropriate method that guarantees positive results. A community worker needs to understand the desired outcome that is intended for a particular action before he collaborates with other members of a particular community to work on it. He needs to focus on time, policies and financial resources that are likely to impact on the way he performs various actions in a particular community. This will give him a rough idea on how the outcome he intends to achieve will be realised (Anthony & Leaper, 1991, p. 98). There are four main approaches a person can follow when working with different communities in various locations. The contributions approach takes place when members in a particular community contribute voluntarily to a particular project, initiated by professionals who make all major decisions. The professionals come up with different proposals which they share with the community members before a particular project starts. The instrumental approach is where the achievement of a particular objective is considered more important than the participation of members of a particular community (Popple, 1995, p. 34). A strategic plan that outlines the goals that are to be attained out of a particular initiative is tabled before stakeholders in a community who are then convinced to support it without hesitation. This approach is used to implement healthcare programs in remote communities which may not be aware about various health problems that are caused by their lifestyle choices (Sallah, & Cooper, 2007, p. 65). The community empowerment approach helps members of various communities to access resources and skills necessary to bring about positive changes in areas they are living in. Community members are given more information which helps them develop solutions on their own that affect their personal lives. As a result, community members have a bigger role to play to ensure they come up with effective decisions to help them achieve better outcomes in different activities they are involved in. The developmental approach is experimental and looks at the ability of a particular community to achieve various outcomes in different initiatives being proposed (Muirhead, 2002, p. 62). People living in targeted communities are involved in solutions which are used to achieve positive outcomes in different initiatives at the community level. There are different frameworks which are used to perform community work initiatives in various societies. The interactional community development framework is used to encourage unity between various sectors in a community to foster development in a particular society. For this framework to bear positive results, all members of the community need to make decisions together to ensure the task at hand is tackled appropriately (Epstein, 2010, p. 76). The participative development framework involves the inclusion of community members in making various decisions which determine how various development initiatives are carried out. In this approach, community members are able to propose a project and partner with external bodies and individuals to execute it until it is completed successfully. For this approach to succeed, the project initiator needs to understand whether all decisions which have been made at the community level represent the wishes of the majority to encourage everyone to participate fully. The building capable communities framework uses awareness initiatives to make people in a particular community aware of various factors that make them develop or lag behind. This helps members in a given community to build capacity to come up with effective solutions for various problems they are facing (Ife & Tesoriero, 2002, p. 64). The building collective capacity framework cedes the power to make various decisions to the community to enable them take charge of their own destiny. As a result, members of a particular community are able to cooperate and come up with strong partnerships that help them achieve specific objectives. The assets-based community development framework looks at what members in a community can achieve with the resources existing there. This encourages community members to develop home-grown solutions to various problems they are facing by efficient allocation of resources to help them attain positive outcomes. This framework looks at the strengths of members living in particular communities to find out how they can form beneficial partnerships with other entities to attain various objectives. Skills in Working with Communities For one to work effectively with different communities, he needs to know the structures he needs to use to ensure he makes correct decisions out of various processes. There are two major structures which are used to support communities to make appropriate decisions. Community advisory groups consist of various professionals working together with community stakeholders to come up with good decisions to be used in making specific resolutions that need to be acted on. All members in community advisory groups need to understand their roles and expectations to make them consult one another in a constructive manner (Weeks, Hoatson, & Dixon, 2003, p. 76). Boards of management are established through legislation where an entity which has a functioning constitution organises a meeting in which members who are supposed to sit on the board are elected. All members on the board make decisions on various issues affecting the community through consensus. In many community systems, decision making is a complex process that requires a lot of planning and consultations. There needs to be a way through which various members of the community are involved to ensure decisions which are made are acceptable and appropriate for the targeted recipients. In some instances board members may not make appropriate decisions and this is likely to lead to conflicts in a community organisation. Every board member represents specific interest groups in a particular community organisation (Wharf, 2002, p. 54). Therefore, board members need to meet people from a particular community to know their aspirations and challenges to ensure they come up with appropriate decisions. As a result, all important members in a community are able to feel that they are part of the initiatives adopted by the board members and this makes it easy for them to enforce various decisions. This makes them more united and helps them achieve positive performance in various tasks they are working on. Community partnerships help communities achieve their goals more effectively. Communities which have encouraged strong alliances between individuals and groups are able to have similar purposes which make it easy for them to achieve their goals. As a result such communities understand various issues which are involved by building linkages with other parties outside who share their vision. Before partnerships are formed, community needs and the nature of tasks to be used to achieve the set goals need to be assessed. This will enable all parties to understand the amount and nature of resources need to accomplish a particular project before it is initiated. As a result, members are able to plan accordingly on what they want to achieve out of various community tasks to ensure all objectives are achieved effectively (Mawson, 2008, p. 75). For partnerships to succeed, members need to be clear about the reason that made them form the partnership. There are various types of partnerships that are created by community members to attain various goals. Partnerships within the community can be formed through alliances to enable individuals attain their goals. Within –sector partnerships are formed by people with social relations to help them attain specific results out of various tasks. Across sector partnerships are formed by people from different community groups to benefit the community to help it attain positive results out of various initiatives (Meenai, 2007, p. 56). Partnerships can also be created with external members to the community to help it achieve positive results out of particular initiatives. Later, members are able to assess their efforts to find out if they have attained the objectives they had set for themselves in the beginning. Conclusion In conclusion, every person involved in a specific community project needs to be aware about various challenges that exist. They need to understand the importance of working together to attain positive outcomes that can be beneficial to all people in a community. They need to be more effective in their duties to attain positive results. References Anthony, R. & Leaper, B. (1991). Community work. London: National Council of Social Service. Buchroth ,I. & Parkin, C. (2010). Using theory in youth and community work practice. London: Sage. . Epstein, J.L. (2010). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Boston, MA: Westview Press. Ife, J. & Tesoriero, F. (2002). Community development: Community Based Alternatives in an Age of Globalisation. Frenchs Forrest, NSW: Pearson Education. Mawson, A. (2008). The social entrepreneur: Making communities work. London: Atlantic Books. Meenai, Z. (2007). Participatory community work. London: Concept Publishing Company. Muirhead, T. (2002). Weaving tapestries: A handbook for building communities. Mt Hawthorn: Local Government Community Services Association. Popple, K. (1995). Analysing community work: Its theory and practice. London: McGraw Hill. Sallah, M. & Cooper, S. (2007). Global youth work: Taking it personally. Leicester: National Youth Agency. Sanders, M.N. (2006). Building school-community partnerships: Collaboration for student success. London: Sage Soni, S. (2011). Working with diversity in youth and community work. London: Sage. Taylor, J., Wilkinson, D & Cheers, B. (2008). Working with communities in health and human services. Sydney: Oxford University Press. Wharf, B. (2002). Community work approaches to child welfare. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Weeks, W. Hoatson, L., & Dixon, J. (2003). Community practices in Australia. Frenchs Forrest, NSW: Pearson Education. Zuber, E., Nelson, S. & Luloff, A.E. (1998). Community: A different biography. 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