COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

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 community” Community organization is a process by which the capacity of the community to function as an integrated unit grows as it deals with one or more community problems. The task of the professional worker in community organization is to help, initiate, nourish, and develop this process. His task is also to make this process conscious, deliberative, and understood.

The fundamental aspect of the community organizations is the principle of " Co-operative spirit" which promotes the people to unite together to address a common issue.

According to the definition, community organization involves two major interrelated concerns:

a.       the interaction process of working with an action system which includes identifying, recruiting and working with the members and developing organizational and interpersonal relationships among them which facilitates their efforts; and

b.      the technical tasks involved in identifying problem areas, analyzing causes, formulating plans, developing strategies and mobilizing the resources necessary to have effective action.

Community organization adopts two approaches;

a.       Need-Resources Adjustment approach,

b.      Social Relationships” approach

The distinguishing features of community organization practice are derived largely from the three dimensions.

a.       The nature of its setting and focus– the community and its problems,

b.      The nature of its goals – enhanced functional capacity of the community and its ability to influence the social welfare policy, and

c.       The techniques it employs towards affecting the inter-personal and inter-group relationships of the members of the community.

Principles of community organization

Principles of community organization, in the sense in which the term is used here, are generalized guiding rules for sound practice.

a.       Discontent with existing conditions in the community must initiate and/or nourish development of the association.

b.      Discontent must be focused and channeled into organization, planning, and action in respect to specific problems.

c.       Discontent which initiates or sustains community organization must be widely shared in the community.

d.      The association must involve leaders (both formal and informal) identified with, and accepted by, major sub-groups in the community.

e.       The association must develop active and effective lines of communication both within the association and between the association and the community

f.       Principle of involvement-community member’s involvement in the change process should be made as free as possible without any restriction.

g.      Principle of agreed upon goal-the change process should be agreed towards the goal/objective that have been agreed on by the members (prioritized goals).

h.      Identification, mobilization and utilization of the available resources:

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION MODELS

Rothman has introduced three basic models of community organization. They are:

Locality Development Model

Locality development model is a method of working with community groups. It was earlier used by the settlement houses. Here the important focus is about the process of community building. Leadership development and the education of the participants are the essential elements in the process.

The basic belief is that communities have some common needs and interests and once the people realize this need and work together democratically they can take appropriate steps to improve the quality of life. Here the role of the community organizer is to enhance the involvement of the people in the community and help the community to plan and help them find a solution to the problem. It is similar to work of community development, which is done in the underdevelopment world.

Social Planning Model

It refers to the type of community work where a worker or agency undertakes an exercise of evaluating welfare needs and existing services in the area and suggests a possible blue print for a more efficient delivery of services; it is termed as social planning. It is concerned with social problems For example Housing, education, health, childcare and so on. Its aim is to affect a large population. The community planner works in greater capacity with the government and is often identified with power structure of the community but interested in the needs and attitudes of the community.

Social Action Model

Social action is a strategy used by groups or sub communities or even national organizations that feel that they have inadequate power and resources to meet their needs. So they confront with the power structure using conflict as a method to solve their issues related to inequalities and deprivation. In this type of community organizations the community organizer uses all means to pressure the power structure to give in to demands. The role of organizers may differ depending the issues they get involved in. The role may be of advocate, activist, agitator, broker or negotiator. This model was commonly used during the 1960's. This has been used as a means to redress the social problems of the nation, redistribute the resources and power to the poor and powerless. Social action as model has an important role in community organization.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION PROCESS

·         Identify the community of interest

·         Identify the community organization issue

·         Mobilization of community members

·         Identify of intervention strategies  - planning for action

·         Action

·         Evaluation and feedback

Process of Community Organization

Mc Kenzie and Smeltzer synthesized the works of other several scholars and came up with a 10 step approach to community organization

1. Recognition of the problem

The process of community organization begins when somebody recognizes the existence of a problem and decides to do something about it. If those who initiate the process are members of the community, this is referred to as grass root or citizen initiated or bottom up approach

Where the process is initiated by individuals from outside the community, this is referred to as top-down or outside –in approach, not every one can be an effective organizer who has a rare combination of attributes and skills.

2. Gaining entry into the community

After recognition of the problem the community must be properly informed. This is the most crucial step in the whole process that must be accomplished through the community’s most influential members (gate keepers/opinion leaders)

These are the individuals who control both formally and informally the political climate to the community, they also know their community how it functions and how accomplish task within it e.g. politicians, religious ledges, activist groups, education leaders etc.

Before approaching these individuals, one must study the community well; you should know where the power lies what type of politics must be used to solve a problem and whether the particular problem to be solved has ever been dealt with in the community.

3. Organizing the people

Obtaining the support of the community interested in seeing the problem should (executive participants, as they will end up doing the majority of the work).It’s also important to involve those individuals directly affected by the problem.

The work of this particular group is to recruit more members of the community to the course, this helps spread out of the work load and generate more resources to deal with the problem in expanding their constituencies, the organizers should be sure to

• Identify people who are affected by the problem of concern
• Ensure a reward for the volunteers
• Keep volunteers assignment  with their ability and expertise
• Consists providing appropriate training to make sure volunteers are okay with their task.

4. Identify the specific problem

This is the isolation and defining more carefully the problems that need to be solved.

Community problems are complex and the reality is that somebody usually benefits if the problem remains unsolved.

5. Determine priorities and setting goals

More often than not, the resources needed to solve all the problems are not available and thus need to prioritize. Prioritization is achieved through general agreement or consensus so that some of ownership, participants will not be wiling to give their resources, time, energy etc towards disowning the problem.

Once the problem is prioritized, goals need to be identified to serve as a guide for problem solving.

6. Arriving at the strategy and selecting intervention activity

These are the alternative strategies or consideration o various alternatives for solving the problem. Strategy involves selecting one or more intervention activities. Each type of intervention activities, again the group must work through consensus and compromise.

 7. Implementing the plan

This entails identifying and collecting the necessary resources for implementation and creating appropriate work plan (time schedule) for implementation. It is the carrying out of the activities that has been agreed on in the previous step that is embarked on at this step.

8. Evaluating the outcome of the plan of action

This is the comparing of the outcome of the process to goals and objectives that have been set initially. The achievement that was realized the factors that contributed to their realization or failure to realize that they are considered /ascertained. This provides for a learning opportunity and a motivation process for all who participated in the process.

9. Maintaining the outcome in the community

This is the most difficult step in the entire process. It is at this point that the organizers need to seriously consider the need for the community development i.e. the creation of an organization to provide a long term capacity for problem solving.

10. Looping back

This is the review/reconsideration of what transpired in the entire process before proceeding on the stake holders reflect on all activities that took place from the beginning and derived lessons for future intervention from them.

Challenges of community organization

The process of community organization is influenced by a range of internal and external factors.

Internal factors

·         Misunderstanding among the members

·         Lack of clear goal and objectives (different need)

·         Communication barriers among members

·         Poor patterns of work in the nature and variety of activities and the extend of autonomy and freedom of action

·         Lack of social interaction with the organization/community

·         Individual differences e.g. social economic status

·         Cultural diversity differences

External factors

·         Advance in information technology

·         Changing roles in a society

·         Conflicting interest from other stake holders

·         Government policy

·         Changing population trends

·         Lack of political goodwill

GROUPS AND DEVELOPMENT

The tendency to join with others in groups is perhaps the most important single characteristic of humans, and these groups leave an indelible imprint on their members and on society. To understand people, we must understand their groups.

A group is defined as two or more individuals who are connected to one another by social relationships.

A group refer to persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person

Group dynamics are the influential interpersonal processes that take place in groups. The size of a group influences its nature in many ways, for a group with only two or three members possesses many unique characteristics simply because it includes so few members. When people join a group, they initially spend much of their time trying to come to terms with the requirements of their role. If they cannot meet the role’s demand, they might not remain a member for long.

Types of groups

Groups can be classified into;

a.       Primary or secondary groups - Primary groups, such as family and friends, are small, long term groups characterized by face-to-face interaction and high levels of cohesiveness, solidarity, and member identification. Secondary groups are larger and more formally organized than primary groups, and they tend to be shorter in duration and less emotionally involving.

b.      planned and emergent groups - planned groups, which are deliberately formed by their members or by an external authority for some purpose, and emergent groups, which come into existence spontaneously when individuals join together in the same physical location or form gradually over time as individuals find themselves repeatedly interacting with the same subset of individuals.

                                                                    

Functions of groups

Provide their members with a sense of belonging. This allows people to feel connected to one another and helps society co-exist

Community mobilization

Community mobilization is a process whereby a group of people have transcended their differences to meet on equal terms in order to facilitate a participatory decision-making process. In other words it can be viewed as a process which begins a dialogue among members of the community to determine who, what, and how issues are decided, and also to provide an avenue for everyone to participate in decisions that affect their lives.

A community mobilization approach is valuable because it fulfills people’s rights to participate and to determine their own future. It enables groups to create local solutions to local problems. These local solutions will be more sustainable than external solutions that do not fit well with the local situation, culture and practices. When communities define the problem, set common goals and work together on their own programs, to achieve the goals, the communities change in ways that will last after the project ends.

Community mobilization allows people in the community to:

a.       Identify needs and promote community interests.

b.      Promote good leadership and democratic decision making.

c.       Identify specific groups for undertaking specific problems.

d.      Identify all the available resources in the community.

e.       Plan the best use of the available resources.

f.       enable the community to better govern itself

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT

A stakeholder is the "person, or organization that is actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. A stakeholder may also exert influence over the project and its deliverables."

Stakeholder is Individuals and groups with a multitude of interests, expectations, and demands as to what business should provide to society. A stake is an interest or right or ownership.

Stakeholders can be differentiated as either.

·         Primary stakeholders are those stakeholders that have a direct stake in the organization and its success

·         Secondary stakeholders are those that have a public or special interest stake in the organization

Stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder analysis is a process of systematically gathering and analyzing qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account when developing and/or implementing a policy or program.

The analysis includes such stakeholder characteristics as knowledge of the policy, interests related to the policy, position for or against the policy, potential alliances with other stakeholders, and ability to affect the policy process (through power and/or leadership)

Stakeholder analysis process

There are eight major steps in the process:

1.      Planning the process - Define the purpose of the analysis, and identify uses for the results. Information generated from stakeholder analysis may serve several purposes: to provide input for other analyses; to inform the development of action plans to increase support for a reform policy; or to guide a participatory, consensus-building process.

2.      Selecting and defining a policy. For a stakeholder analysis to be useful, it must be focused on a specific policy or issue.

3.      Identifying key stakeholders. Identifying the key stakeholders is extremely important to the success of the analysis.

4.      Adapting the tools. Generally, very little secondary information is available on stakeholders. As a result, the working group should plan to interview the priority stakeholders identified to gain accurate information on their positions, interests, and ability to affect the process.

5.      Collecting and recording the information.

6.      Filling in the stakeholder table. The table should address the types of stakeholder, the area of participation, objective of the stakeholder, perceived risk or attitude, stakeholder management strategy.

7.      Analyzing the stakeholder table

8.      Using the information

Importance of stakeholders

What Stakeholders Give

• Provision of financial assistance
• Provision of Technical Assistance
• Volunteer time
• Goods/Products
• Sponsorships
• Assets / Equipment

Partnership and collaboration

A legal partnership is a contractual relationship involving close cooperation between two or more parties having specified and joint rights and responsibilities. Each party has an equal share of the risk as well as the reward.

Collaboration involves cooperation in which parties are not necessarily bound contractually. There is a relationship, but it is usually less formal than a binding, legal contract and responsibilities may not be shared equally. Collaboration exists when several people pool their common interests, assets and professional skills to promote broader interests for the community’s benefit. The most important thing to remember is: Organizations don't collaborate – people collaborate.

Community development largely depend on collaboration and partnership since it deals will diverse people, community or groups who need to collaborate so as to improve their well being.

Importance of partnership, collaboration and networking

a.       Enables sharing of information and ideas thus enhancing the partner’s strategies and programme implementation

b.      Enables people/community groups to avoid duplication in delivery of services to communities this allows for effective utilization of resources in various intervention measurers

c.       It enhances feelings of ownership among different stake holders involved.

d.      Programs tend to be successful because of the complementarily of skills and expertise that is pulled together through networking collaboration and partnership thus reducing cost in terms of human and other resources.

e.       Collaboration and networking helps to crate cross border awareness of common problems.

f.       It provides members with support and encouragement as opposed to when one is working in isolations

g.      It provides the needy masses or groups of people with an ability to influence policies both locally and internationally.