What is community development?
By equipping community members to solve issues and improve things, community development affects everything. Communities are built on justice, equality, and respect. This gives ordinary people control over their lives. Community development initiatives aim to strengthen and adapt communities to solve challenges by fostering responsibility and cooperation. The most essential part of community development is considering everyone’s assets and skills. Community development workers collaborate with locals and appreciate their information, suggestions, and life experiences (Ledwith, 2020). This collaboration keeps the community’s needs at the core of development. This promotes ownership and long-term success.
One important thing about community development is that it focuses on giving people more power. Community development projects help to change the balance of power and get to the root reasons for poverty and inequality by giving people in the community the tools, resources, and skills they need to make a difference. Empowerment is a process that includes personal growth, group activity, and changes to the whole system.
Why is community development and community participation important?
On an individual level, community development projects often focus on making people in the community better at what they do. This could mean giving people chances to learn and get trained, making it easier for them to get tools, and making places for personal growth and self-discovery. People who learn new things and boost their confidence can better speak up for themselves and their communities, questioning the status quo and demanding change. However, community development knows that more than giving people more power is needed to solve communities’ complicated problems.
Instead, it stresses the importance of working together and getting people involved. Community development projects bring people together around common issues and goals. This builds social capital and encourages a sense of community and support for each other. Community-led projects, like neighborhood revitalization projects, community gardens, or lobbying efforts, can use this energy to move forward (What is community development? 2023). Ultimately, community development aims to make neighborhoods more fair, strong, and just. This means getting to the bottom of the problems in society, the economy, and the environment and breaking down the structures and systems that keep people poor and unequal. It also means recognizing the fantastic potential that lives within communities and praising their strengths, assets, and toughness.
Community growth is a long-term process that needs constant work and dedication, but it can have huge effects that reach far and wide. Community development projects can help people gain more skills, knowledge, and confidence in their abilities. They can also make people feel more included in their community and related to others. People can better fight for their rights and want and hold decision-makers accountable when they are more involved and influential in their communities.
At the community level, great community development projects can bring about many good things, such as stronger social cohesion, more people getting involved in politics, safer communities, and better health results. Community development helps make communities more robust and more stable by giving them the tools to deal with problems and come up with their own answers. This makes communities more able to handle changes and stresses.
What is the role of Community Development workers in the process?
It is important to remember that community development is not done from the top down by outside experts or officials. Instead, it is a movement at the local level that people run in the neighborhood. Communities that work on community development need to know how to ensure everyone can be involved and that the community is responsible for making decisions. To do this, people who work in community development use a variety of plans and methods. These include asset-based community development, community organizing, direct action research, and popular education. These methods are based on the idea that community members’ knowledge, experiences, and goals should be valued, and everyone should work together to reach common goals (Lucena et al., 2020).
One of the main jobs of people in community development is to help people figure out what problems are most important to them and rank them (Abukari & Mwalyosi, 2020). To do this, they might have to do needs assessments, lead community talks and meetings, or just listen to what people say about their lives and experiences. Community development professionals help bring out the collective knowledge and experience that lives in communities by making spaces for genuine involvement and conversation.
Chosen principle: Social justice
Western Australian community development is centered on social fairness. It is an inspirational force that aspires to end community injustice and provide everyone equal access to resources, opportunities, and power to live complete lives. This notion helps and supports marginalized, abused, and damaged individuals due to unfair systems and bigotry. Community development workers in Western Australia who value social justice comprehend that injustice is embedded into society’s structures and institutions, not merely individual situations. They recognize they must confront and reform these fundamental structures of power and oppression to create lasting improvements.
Western Australian community development professionals prioritize social justice to promote inclusive communities. They collaborate with community members to identify issues and unjust treatment of diverse groups and provide community-led solutions.
The Kununurra Waringarri Aboriginal Corporation (KWAC) and its Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) initiative in Western Australia’s East Kimberley demonstrate this commitment to fairness. The remote town of Kununurra has a sizable Aboriginal population. It has historically struggled with high unemployment, little education and training, and social exclusion. These issues mirror the larger injustices Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians face. KWAC, an Aboriginal-led group with strong community roots, created the CDEP program because things needed to change immediately. This initiative sought social fairness and addressed the community’s economic, social, and cultural disadvantages.
Building the Waringarri Arts Center, which employs, trains, and advances Aboriginal artists, was a key CDEP plan component (KWAC, 2018). The Center aids Aboriginal areas most affected by high unemployment and little commercial possibilities by creating decent arts and culture jobs. It recognizes that steady, culturally appropriate occupations reduce poverty and promote social involvement. Another notable CDEP project was the Waringarri Aged Care facility, which provides culturally appropriate care for senior Aboriginal people. KWAC understood that older Aboriginal people had a right to high-quality, culturally sensitive eldercare vital to their health (McCabe & Harris, 2021). Building this institution addressed the area’s need for more quality senior care. It also allowed seniors to age honorably and connect to their culture and community.
Training and instruction were also crucial to KWAC’s social justice efforts. The Waringarri Aboriginal Adult Education Center offers local Aboriginal people a choice of education and training alternatives to meet their needs and ambitions. The program provides culturally appropriate education and skill-building to Aboriginal people, solving their education and employment issues.
Lastly, KWAC advocated for Aboriginal affairs, health, and community development policies and financing. They understood community-led programs were crucial, but long-term success required structural and regulatory reforms. By advocating for Aboriginal rights and needs, KWAC made society more fair and just (KWAC, 2018). These examples demonstrate how social justice-based community development in Western Australia may improve things. By addressing systemic inequality and promoting fair access to economic opportunities, culturally appropriate services, education, and decision-making, KWAC’s CDEP initiative empowered the local Aboriginal community to work together and fight disadvantage.
Conclusion
To summarize, community development improves neighborhoods and empowers residents. This strategy emphasizes social justice, community engagement, and community development workers to address the root causes of inequality and poverty. The Kununurra Waringarri Aboriginal Corporation’s Community Development Employment Projects program in Western Australia illustrates how community-led solutions that prioritize cultural appropriateness, education, and economic opportunities may improve things. Understanding how community development improves, fairs, and adapts communities is crucial moving ahead. We can create a world where every community can grow by supporting and investing in community-driven projects.
References
Abukari, H., & Mwalyosi, R. B. (2020). Local communities’ perceptions about the impact of protected areas on livelihoods and community development. Global Ecology and Conservation, 22, e00909.
KWAC(2018). Organisations – Promote and practice – Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/key-resources/organisations/160/?title=Kununurra+Waringarri+Aboriginal+Corporation++KWAC+&contentid=160_3
Ledwith, M. (2020). Community development: A critical approach. Policy Press.
Lucena, J., Schneider, J., & Leydens, J. A. (2022). Engineering and sustainable community development. Springer Nature.
McCabe, A., & Harris, K. (2021). Theorizing social media and activism: Where is community development? Community Development Journal, 56(2), 318–337.
What is community development? (2023). Australian Institute of Family Studies. https://aifs.gov.au/resources/resource-sheets/what-community-development
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