Chapter 6: Process of Community Development

Question 1

What are the 10 steps of the community development process?

Answer 1

1. Defining the professional’s role
2. Learning about the community
3. Entering the community
4. Consciousness-raising
5. Assessing needs and assets
6. Setting goals
7. Organization-building
8. Strategizing
9. Taking action
10. Evaluation

Question 2

What factor binds all 10 steps of the community development process?

Answer 2

Relationship management

Question 3

What are the 10 potential roles of a community worker?

Answer 3

-Organizer (arrange united action)
-Teacher (sharing of power; skillful, humble facilitation)
-Coach (assisting a team)
-Facilitator (helping a group reach agreement without taking sides)
-Advocate (speaks on behalf of those who are not yet able to)
-Negotiator (dispute resolution)
-Broker (bringing different groups together)
-Manager (directs effective work)
-Researcher (plans, collects, and interprets data)
-Communicator (awareness and skillful use of many communication forms)

Question 4

What are the 4 reasons for gathering preliminary information before beginning community work?

Answer 4

-Responsibility (understanding the context for what is going on)
-Credibility (through knowing some people and their histories)
-Versatility (knowing the key stakeholders and influences means flexibility in who you reach out to and when)
-Accountability (knowing what people want and helping them make it happen)

Question 5

Through what sources can community workers gain preliminary information about a community?

Answer 5

Primary sources: direct information gained by spending time with residents

Secondary sources: existing data that is available through libraries, schools, government departments, newspapers, census data, etc.

Question 6

What is fieldwork?

Answer 6

A method of gathering preliminary information for community work that involves direct observation and interaction

Question 7

What are some important factors to consider during the “entering” phase of community work?

Answer 7

-Power structures
-Social capital
-Boundaries
-Influential figures/connections
-Traditions, customs, and protocols

Question 8

What are the benefits and drawbacks to being an outsider in community work?

Answer 8

Benefits: being seen as neutral, more objectivity, easier work-life balance

Drawbacks: may take longer to gain trust and understanding, inability to fully understand community needs

Question 9

What are the benefits and drawbacks of being an insider in community work?

Answer 9

Benefits: easier to gain trust and understanding, clearer understanding of local power structures, personal motivation for change

Drawbacks: potential for bias (real or perceived), lower work-life balance

Question 10

What are the four types of power dynamics in community work?

Answer 10

-Power over (coercive; requires submissiveness, dependency, and fear)
-Power with (collaborative, right to be heard without imposing ideas, combining individuals’ strengths)
-Power within (personal power that comes from feeling safe enough to speak out, join in, and withdraw consent)
-Empowerment (combination of individual and group power that can be energizing or disruptive)

Question 11

What is consciousness-raising, and how it is related to critical consciousness?

Answer 11

Consciousness-raising is cognitive activity prompted by questioning, ideally with an outcome of new awareness of self in relation to society.

The purpose of consciousness-raising is to develop critical consciousness: the ability to see and take action against social, economic, and political oppression

Question 12

What is the difference between formal and non-formal adult education?

Answer 12

Formal: established curriculum taught by professional educators, often leading to a qualification for learners

Non-formal: non-continuous instruction (workshops, trainings, etc.)

Question 13

What are 2 types of adult education particularly relevant to community development?

Answer 13

Community education (for and within community, with the purpose of bringing people together to engage in dialogue/learning and share knowledge/common interests)

Radical adult education (understanding an challenging oppression through collective action, with a goal of critical consciousness)

Question 14

What are some challenges of consciousness-raising in community work?

Answer 14

-Biases and a tendency to impose our own values
-Meeting the needs of different learning styles
-Residents having difficulty identifying or expressing the causes of their discomfort
-Community divisions or lack of clearly defined needs

Question 15

What are “needs” in community work, and what other factor should be identified alongside them?

Answer 15

Needs reflect the gap between what is and what should be; a balanced needs assessment should also include assets (resources that bridge the gap)

Question 16

What should an effective community work assessment plan include?

Answer 16

-Definition of the community
-Intended audience for the results/who the assessor is accountable to
-Specific questions to be answered
-The approach to be followed
-Resources available for the assessment
-Procedures to be employed

Question 17

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

Answer 17

Qualitative: focus on words; researchers initially only have a rough idea of what they are looking for and become immersed in the subject matter

Quantitative: focused on numbers; researchers arrive knowing what they are looking for and remain objective/separate from the subject matter

Question 18

What are the benefits of qualitative vs. quantitative research in community work?

Answer 18

Qualitative: richness of results and attention to broader context

Quantitative: specificity of results and precise measurement

Question 19

What are some characteristics of an effective public forum or listening session?

Answer 19

-Exploratory and open to attendees from a range of backgrounds
-Focus on gathering general information about community members’ perceptions of issues/solutions
-Held at various accessible and comfortable sites
-Avoiding conflict with the timing of other activities (work, school, holidays, etc.)
-Deliberate advertising
-Personal recruitment of key participants
-Providing transportation, refreshments, and time for mingling
-Designating a facilitator, note-taker
-Introducing the purpose, agenda, and key participants
-Including time to discuss concerns, barriers, resources
-Providing a written summary to participants

Question 20

What is a paradigm, and what are its 4 componenets?

Answer 20

Paradigm = worldview

1. Epistemology
2. Ontology
3. Methodology
4. Axiology

Question 21

What is epistemology, and what are its 4 main types?

Answer 21

Epistemology concerns knowledge; how we know what we know

4 types of knowledge:
-Intuitive (beliefs, faith)
-Authoritative (people who are supposed to know)
-Logical (reason leads to truth)
-Empirical (sensory evidence)

Question 22

What is axiology, and what are its 4 main types?

Answer 22

Axiology concerns ethics, and what makes a decision “good” or “bad”

4 types of ethical conduct:
-Teleology (theory of what is good)
-Deontology (actions have consequences)
-Morality (guiding moral values)
-Fairness (participants’ rights)

Question 23

What is the difference between a goal and a visioning statement?

Answer 23

Goal: a brief statement about what a group wants to accomplish; should be based in reality (ex. to form a neighbourhood youth council)

Visioning statement: a broader, more idealistic, and more abstract statement about what a group is working towards (ex. “a healthy, vibrant community)

Question 24

What are some benefits to establishing an organization as part of community development work?

Answer 24

-Identifying common needs and collaborating on strategies to meet them
-Easier fundraising (especially if incorporated, or registered as a charity)

Question 25

What is a mission statement?

Answer 25

A brief description of an orgnanization’s purpose, business, and values that answer the questions:
-What are the needs we exist to address?
-What are we doing to address these needs?
-What beliefs guide this work?

Question 26

What is a board of directors?

Answer 26

A body of people who have the responsibility to guide and oversee an organization; usually unpaid, except for (potentially) the executive director

Question 27

What are the benefits and drawbacks of incorporation for community organizations?

Answer 27

Benefits: legal recognition, guaranteed protection of the group’s name, ability to apply for charitable status and offer tax receipts for donations

Drawbacks: takes time and effort, funding can come with strings attached, charitable status can limit a group’s ability to engage in advocacy/political action

Question 28

How are the objectives of community action plans often evaluated?

Answer 28

The SMART-C model:
-Specific
-Measurable
-Achievable
-Relevant
-Time-based
-Challenging (at an appropriate level)

Question 29

What are the 5 common elements of community action plans/strategization?

Answer 29

-Objectives (concrete, action-oriented; what you want to accomplish by when)
-Strategies (how objectives will be achieved and at what level; whether selective or universal, personal or environmental; targets of change)
-Changes expected (responses of the target to the strategy; impact of change on different groups)
-Action steps (who will do what and by when; who needs to be involved/informed)
-Implementation of the plan

Question 30

How can a community worker reduce concerns and improve confidence among community members in the “taking action” phase of the community development process?

Answer 30

-Organizing social activities to prevent discouragement/isolation
-Use of role-plays to practise certain actions and improve speaking/advocacy skills
-Planned debriefing after the action

Question 31

True or false: evaluation should be the last task in the community development process

Answer 31

False: time should always be set aside in the beginning of the process to decide how action plans will be assessed and how the group will know a goal has been achieved; evaluation can also be conducted at regular intervals, not just upon completion; funders often require certain data, and programs/assessments should be designed with those requirements in mind from the beginning

Question 32

What are the two types of evaluation, and how are they different?

Answer 32

Formative evaluation: conducted at regular intervals as a project progresses; used to adapt/fine-tune operations

Summative evaluation: performed after an activity has been underway for some time, or at its completion