INTRODUCTION
“Don’t mourn for me- organize!” -Joe Hill
A social work professional is someone who not only works for people but also has a wide range of ideas and knowledge about the steps that would provide maximum benefit to people. A social work professional, therefore, begins by knowing the basics for working with people which entails having an idea about working with communities.
Community, as a concept, cannot be defined in a single way. There are several perspectives that go into making a community. The Oxford dictionary of Sociology has defined community as follows:- The concept of community concerns a particularly constituted set of relationships based on something which the participants
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But besides identity, geography, problems, needs, resources, social capital, etc. are also shared. Ross has said that in some instances, community means a geographical area and in some instances it means an association of interests. In either case, community as a social system renders 5 functions: economic production, socialization, social control, social participation and mutual support. Social workers working with communities, undertake community organization.
Organizing can be viewed as a means of achieving and guiding local control over problems that originate elsewhere in society. Programs and services are aimed at certain populations of the disenfranchised or disadvantaged. Therefore, the understanding of community from the motive of community organization assumes that communities have inherent problems. For dealing with the problems that are being faced, it is important to understand the community in its totality.
Murray G. Ross (1967) defines community organization as a “process by which a community identifies its needs or objectives, gives priority to them, develops confidence and will to work at them, finds resources (internal and external) to deal with them, and in doing so, extends and develops cooperative and collaborative attitudes and practices in the
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Social planning model will be needed to supplement the former. The social planning model refers to community work where a worker or an agency undertakes an exercise evaluating the welfare needs and existing services in a town, village or municipal area, or maybe in a State, and suggest a possible blueprint for more efficient delivery of social services. Generally such attempts are confined to particular fields, such as housing, education, health, child care or women's development. Some may include plans for a better transport system or drainage facility under this type of community work. This model will be helpful for the following reasons:- o In the beginning it was said that the community has problems with drainage, education, housing, health and so on. To bring about overall improvement in the community, each and every aspect of it has to be taken care separately. For delving into those problems and solving, each aspect
A community is comprised of a group of goal oriented individuals with similar beliefs and expectations. Currently the term is used interchangeably with society, the town one lives in and even religion. A less shallow interpretation suggests that community embodies a lifestyle unique to its members. Similarities within the group establish bonds along with ideals, values, and strength in numbers unknown to an individual. Ideals and values ultimately impose the culture that the constituents abide by. By becoming part of a community, socialization...
Social Work is the study of people and how they interact with the systems in their environment and other people. Social Workers use theories, sets of ideas or concepts, of human behavior and apply them within their professional social work ethics to the problems facing clients in order to help them gain balance in the systems in their lives. Theories help to organize knowledge enabling social workers to help make sense of problems. There are many different theories. They have been grouped into broad categories called theoretical lenses (Rogers, A. 2013).
Community is defined as a group a people living in an area under the same conditions. Realistically, a community is so much more than this definition. It is people and their different beliefs that form a community. In the town of Milagro, Amarante Cordova, Ruby Archuleta, and a town coming together to rescue a fellow community member from jail exemplify the true spirit of what community is.
A community is the feeling of togetherness felt in a setting with a group of people who share similar characteristics. Living in Scott Hall my freshman year of college, shaped my view of community quickly. Going to organized events, socializing in common areas and interacting with my Resident Advisors gave me an ideal
Levin, R., McKean, L., & Shapiro, S. K. (2004). Community organizing in three south side Chicago communities: Leadership, activities, and prospects. Chicago, IL: The Center for Impact Research.
Community is like a Venn diagram. It is all about relations between a finite group of people or things. People have their own circles and, sometimes, these circles overlap one another. These interceptions are interests, common attitudes and goals that we share together. These interceptions bond us together as a community, as a Venn diagram. A good community needs good communication where people speak and listen to each other openly and honestly. It needs ti...
The term "Community" really did not have the meaning that we are accustomed to hearing and speaking in the modern day and age (1996). Instead it stands for almost a lack of "Community", meaning that there is no choice of where one ranks in the "Community", instead you are assigned even before production (natural birth is non-existent) your place in society and a person could never know what are the differences between being an Alpha or a Gamma. A person in the community is shared by everyone in the "Community", everyone belongs to everyone every person is shared sexually with one another, and there is no emotional bond because are breed not to have them.
Rothman, J. (1974). Three models of community organization practice. Strategies of community organization: A book of readings, 22-38.
Sense of community has been operationalised as a state like entity, and as the outcome of certain social processes. As such, a conceptual framework has been developed that allows understanding of the way people are socialised into their communities and maintain, or fail to establish and maintain, social engagement. This has also been understood in terms of process analysis of social change. Its linkage to power is important, as it helps define the setting in which power is used and is less likely to be abused. From a process perspective, sense of community is a changing feature of people’s relationships to others, and as such can be a barometer of change in 18 18 community. It can be beneficial in helping people create a sense of identity and a resilience to untoward social change. As a central aspect of the development and maintenance of social connectedness, it is useful in conceptualising adaptive and protective factors for positive life in community. Sense of community can also be associated with negative aspects of social life. The nature of exclusion of ‘others’ can lead to harmful social consequences. Local social cohesiveness can be at the expense of minority groups and newly arrived immigrant groups. It can provide an analytic tool
Should the most selfish elite individual take heed and meditate on the ideology behind community, he/she may awaken to the fact that many persons looking after one person has more advantages and a better survival rate than one trying to preserve one. The needs of the one will never outweigh the needs of the collective group. In the end individuality inevitably leads to self-destruction; therefore, commitment to community is a requirement for contemporary Americans and vital to its survival.
How would someone define the word community? A community could be anything. If one were to listen to an everyday conservation, the word community, would probably be used very little. The word community has multiple meanings, ranging from communist or socialistic society (Emerson) to the quality of appertaining to or being held by all in common (Oxford).
As the result of urbanization, cities have more problems to overcome such as pollution, overpopulation, drug abuse, congestion, crime, poverty, traffic jam, slum areas, and many more. There must be something to solve these problems. Government and citizens should be involved because taking care of city problems can’,t be done entirely by government. The community can be even more successful because it deals directly with problem areas.
Frequently however, issues arise amongst a community that need attention. In this essay I will outline and discuss some of these issues and the interventions, projects or programmes designed and used to tackle and combat them. The three models of intervention or, ‘Community Development’, I will discuss in this essay, "Social Planning", "Community Development", and "Social/Community Action", all have the same aim regardless of how it is accomplished and this is to improve and maintain the conditions which affect the lives of the community.
Social work is a profession which promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and enhance well-being. It is important to acknowledge the history of social work and the purpose of social work and why it exists. Social work is a questioned theory with different perspectives on what it is and how it should be practised. Social work helps people to deal with personal and social problems so that people can overcome or adjust to any personal difficulties. Social work is a combination of social stability and social change. Social stability promotes individual and social welfare and social change seek to change negative aspects of society. Values are implicit within the law and policy and these tend to reflect the values within society. Personal values can influence the way social workers interpret and implement their profession.
The Role of Community in Society Communities are an essential part of our society, because we all depend and interact with each other. Communities are groups of people that help an individual to learn and develop new ideas. A society is where people’s relations with each other are direct and personal and where a complex web of ties link people in mutual bonds of emotion and obligation. The idea of community has provided a model to contrast to the emergence of more modern less personal societies where cultural, economic and technological transformations have uprooted tradition and where complexity has created a less personal and more rationalized and goal directed social life.