Understanding of Community Work
Discuss about the Community Decision Making Process Dramatization.
In the current time, community development is one of the major areas to consider due to the reason that understanding the communities will help to determine the current trend. In addition, in the current time social communities are more diverse in nature. Thus, having the clear understanding about the communities will help to identify the diversity and designing the approaches about working in the community. However, it is also to be noted that working in the current social communities will require diverse and extensive knowledge due to the reason that there are number of elements that should determined and evaluated in order to have effective management of social communities.
This report will discuss about the learning being gained by me regarding the understanding of community. In the entire course work, there are number of resources being used in order to provide the overall view of the community management. These learning resources are mainly divided through lectures and videos. This report will discuss about the knowledge that is being gained by me from the learning materials. In addition, all the learning materials will be divided in three major modules for evaluation.
The first step in having the knowledge of community development is to have the clear understanding of community work. In the first four lectures, I have gained the basic and foundation knowledge regarding which factors should be considered in the community work. In this module, it is discussed about what are primary tools or provisions required in ensuring the safety in the community work (Eversole, Barraket & Luke, 2013). In the safety provision section, the different ways of emergency evacuations are also being discussed. The difference between the personal and public issues is also being discussed in the lectures. Community work is also defined along with its different elements in empowering the society and community. On the other hand, I have learned about the community building from multimedia materials also (www.youtube.com, 2018). These factors are discussed along with considering some of the major challenges that may get emerged. I have also learned about the responsibilities that should be considered in working with the aboriginal people.
The above stated learning is important for me in my future community work due to the reason that in doing the community work, I should have the knowledge and idea about the basics of community work. Discussion of the safety factors is important due to the reason that it will help to regulate and control the safety issues and concerns that are associated with the community work. Discussion about the personal and public problems is also important due to the reason that in the due course of community work, there can be instances where personal problem can get confused with the public issue and thus the effectiveness of the entire process will get hampered along with emergence of issues and barriers (Berkes & Ross, 2013). It is also important to have the knowledge about the probable challenges to be faced in community work. This is due to the reason that it will help in preventing the probable barriers in the future cases.
Approaches to community
Prior to the presentation if the module of understanding of community works, I was only having the idea about what is community work without having its detailed view. In addition, the discussion of the different elements of community work also changed my thinking about the definition of social work. Prior to this learning, I was having the opinion that community work is only concerned with a particular social group. However, this module helped to understand that community work involves different elements and factors and there is an important need to determine all these factors effectively. In addition, I was also having the feeling that social work or community work cannot have any challenges but this module changed this theory by stating about number of potential challenges or issues that may get emerged.
The first module discussed about the basic understanding of community work. However, in the practical implementation of the community work, there are number of differences can be identified. These differences from the basic understanding of community work are being discussed in the module two. One of the major learning from this module is the four approaches of community development. Thus, the evaluation and analysis of these approaches has given the knowledge about which approach should be used in which situation. In addition, the criticisms associated with respective approaches are also being discussed in this module. Operational domains are also important in designing the approach of the community development. This module also discussed about the importance and role played by government in community development (Warner & Sullivan, 2017). In this module, the varieties of services offered by the government in empowering the community are also being discussed. Thus, the major objective of this module is to discuss about the role of government in community development. Moreover, it is also to be noted that the multimedia materials are also being used in delivering this module (www.youtube.com, 2018). The video mainly discussed about the role of leadership in the community development.
The discussion in this report helped me in having the knowledge about how to implement the understanding of community development in real world situation. This module is also having the importance of enabling in designing the effective and ideal approach in community development. On the other hand, discussion of the operational domains also helped to gain the knowledge about the importance of leadership in the community development. For me, it holds more important due to the reason that in the future activities of community development, leadership effectiveness will determine efficiency of the entire process of community development. Another major theme discussed in this module is the role played by the government in the community development. Government plays an important role in building the community and in this module; the different aspects of the role played by the government are being discussed. Thus it helped me in gaining the knowledge about how to get the government involved in the process of community development. Another importance for this aspect is that without the effective determination of the role of government in the community development work, it will be difficult for more to initiate the process of empowering the community in the future.
This module has also played an important role in changing my current attitude regarding the approaches in community development. This is due to the reason that I was having the opinion that government is having less and separate role to be played in community development. This is due to the fact that I was having the opinion that private and government institutions are having separate roles to be played and they do not have any interrelation between them. However, this module reflected that the roles played by both private and government institutions are interrelated and all the private stakeholders should have to depend on the governmental roles. On the other hand, in this module it is also being stated that the services offered by the government are the major sources for empowering the society. Thus, my previous opinion regarding the limitation of the government role in the community development got changed and this module also made me believe that all the private stakeholders involved in the process of community development are depended on the government activities. I am now also having the opinion that the activities initiated by the government helps in having the favorable social infrastructure on which the private stakeholders can play their roles effectively. In addition, I was also having the opinion that having the basic understanding of the community development can help me in initiating the activities in the real world situation. However, with this module, I came to know that there is difference between the basic understanding of community development and real world implementation process. Thus, the approaches discussed in this module helped me in having the idea about different approaches in initiating community development activities in the real world situation.
The last module discussed about the factors that should be considered in working with the community. The main objective of this module is to discuss about the decision making process in community development. This is discussed in this module that decision making process in other sectors is different from that of the community development service. This module also discussed about the participative decision making process along with its potential challenges. There are number of barriers and challenges being discussed in this module. On the other hand, this module also discussed about the ideal structure of decision making process in the community development. Another important point being discussed in this module is community leadership (Martiskainen, 2017). The major differences between the conventional leadership and managerial roles with that of the community leadership are also being discussed in this module (Etuk et al., 2013). In addition, the ideal qualities to have with the community leader are also being discussed in this module. Elements and aspects of relational relationship are also being discussed in this module (www.youtube.com, 2018). This module also discussed about the community partnerships and its importance in community development (Hillier, 2013). There are number of reasons being discussed for initiating community partnerships in community development activities.
The major importance of this module is in providing the utility of leadership in the community development activities (www.youtube.com, 2018). This is due to the reason that in the community development process, having effective leadership will help in enhancing the efficiency of the community development process. In addition, discussion of different leadership approaches in this module also helped in providing different options of initiating leadership styles that can be initiated based on different situation. This module is also important due to the reason that community leadership is also being discussed in this module. There are number of aspects and elements that should be considered in initiating the community leadership. Without effective and proper determination of the different factors, community leadership cannot be made effective and efficient. These factors are evaluated in this module and will help me in having the basic understanding of the factors that should be considered in initiating community leadership. Apart from the discussion of different leadership approaches, community partnerships are also being discussed in this module. This point is important due to the reason that it helps in providing the need of having partnership in the community development. With the help of this module, i will be more aware about partnering with different stakeholders rather going single in the community development activities.
This module is also having greater influence on my existing beliefs and feelings. This is due to the reason that in before going through this module, it was having the opinion that leadership does not have influence and utility in the community development. According to me, conventional organizational processes are more favorable for the initiation of the leadership roles over the community development activities. However, with the help of this module, it is clear to me that leadership is also important in the community development activities in order to enhance the efficiency. In addition, I had not given the importance to community partnership but with the help of this module, I am now having the idea about how much the community partnership holds value in the community development.
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that from the three modules discussed, there are extensive knowledge and idea being gained by me. However, the major aspects that I have gained are importance of leadership in the community development. These modules helped me to determine the level of importance of leadership in the community development. In my future community development projects, I will be more focused towards gaining leadership skills. It also changed my view regarding the utility of having effective leadership in community development work. Another important learning being gained by me is the importance of roles of government in the community development. This helped me in having the understanding that without the assistance of the government, community development activities cannot get influenced. The last major factor is the importance of determining the safety elements in the community development practices. This helped me to have the knowledge that prior to the initiation of the community development activities, it is important to have the safety standards followed. It enabled me to think that safety concerns are also relevant in the community development activities.
Reference
Berkes, F., & Ross, H. (2013). Community resilience: toward an integrated approach. Society & Natural Resources, 26(1), 5-20.
Etuk, L. E., Rahe, M. L., Crandall, M. S., Sektnan, M., & Bowman, S. (2013). Rural leadership development: Pathways to community change. Community Development, 44(4), 411-425.
Eversole, R., Barraket, J., & Luke, B. (2013). Social enterprises in rural community development. Community Development Journal, 49(2), 245-261.
Hillier, Y. (2013). Working together: community and university partnerships. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 3(2), 94-106.
Martiskainen, M. (2017). The role of community leadership in the development of grassroots innovations. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 22, 78-89.
Warner, M., & Sullivan, R. (Eds.). (2017). Putting partnerships to work: Strategic alliances for development between government, the private sector and civil society. Routledge.
www.youtube.com. (2018). Community Capacity Building. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8FycxjmTR0
www.youtube.com. (2018). Community Decision Making Process Dramatization Video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3UaLz08jhc
www.youtube.com. (2018). Leadership in community capacity building. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eth_ZIjngN8
www.youtube.com. (2018). Social capital and the power of relationships: Al Condeluci at TEDxGrandviewAve. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaBUV2J0ax4