BTCV Handbooks Online

Book:	Environments for All
Chapter:	2.6 All in a day's work
Section:	3. Community development
Metadata:	Details	Buy this book

Community development is about structured approaches to work with communities. At one level it is a professional discipline with skills and qualifications, but it's also a good description of what good community project workers are doing much of the time. It's an area where experience can be as valuable as skills, but having both is often the best way to be successful.

Sometimes 'working with communities' does not mean much more than offering some consultation. This may be all you need to do if you are running a one-off project, but it is unlikely to help change the neighbourhood in the long term. Successful work with communities takes more time, and needs both professionals and the community to learn to trust each other and to understand what is really needed in the area. A well-planned piece of work may indeed just be a specific project, but ideally it should do more than simply make that project happen. The community should end up with new skills and ideas: that's at the core of community development.

Community development is a bit like sustainable development: there are many definitions of it and people tend to focus on the bits that match their interests. But there are some widely used key points: these come from the Community Development Exchange (www.cdx.org.uk):

Community development is crucially concerned with the issues of powerlessness and disadvantage: as such it should involve all members of society, and offers a practice that is part of a process of social change.
Community development is about the active involvement of people in the issues that affect their lives. It is a process based on the sharing of power, skills, knowledge and experience.
Community development takes place both in neighbourhoods and within communities of interest, as people identify what is relevant to them.
The community development process is collective, but the experience of the process enhances the integrity, skills, knowledge and experience, as well as brings equality of power, for each individual who is involved.
Community development is about developing the power, skills, knowledge and experience of people as individuals and in groups, thus enabling them to undertake initiatives of their own to combat social, economic, political and environmental problems, and enabling them to fully participate in a truly democratic process.

The common word here is 'power'. Community development helps individuals develop the power to take their own decisions and change their own lives. Helping communities take power is not always easy - indeed many community groups may be happy simply doing what they're doing. But many do want to see long-term change: you may not be able to help them get a new school or health centre, but the skills and experience that they get from working on a local project may be very valuable in such longer-term objectives.

A wide variety of techniques and methods can be used to engage people as part of community development. The Community Development Foundation publishes a range of guides and books: their website (www.cdf.org.uk) has more information. There are also many training courses that range from one-day events focused around a single technique to long courses leading to professional and academic qualifications.