lOMoARcPSD|3900964
Sck 3703 - Summary Participatory community
development
SCK 3703
Notes
Participatory community development
Study Unit 2 - introducing participatory community practice in social work
• Welfare: attempts to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged people in developed countries.
• Development: Attempts to improve the quality of life in developing countries
(especially previously colonised countries)
• SA has both
Background to community development
Welfare
Three views to welfare
1. The residual approach: problem-focused and individualistic
^ Services provided on a short-term /temp basis (counselling/job training) on the basis
that something is wrong with them
^ Individuals who are experiencing problems are considered responsible for their situation
2. The institutional approach: rights focused
^ Citizens are considered to have the right to / entitled to particular services ^ People's
needs are viewed as normal part of life - does not have to have anything wrong with
them to qualify for the services
^ Large-scale, long term welfare programs - social security like grants / pensions
3. The developmental or social development approach: a process of planned social change
designed to promote, sustain and improve the wellbeing of the population as a whole.
^ Goes hand in hand with a dynamic process of economic empowerment
^ Strong emphasis on poverty reduction, equitable distribution of income and wealth,
employment creation, health and nutrition, education and training, housing and ancillary
services ^ Encompasses developing programs that empower people to be involved in
meeting their needs ^ Moves beyond problem orientation, aiming to prevent social
problems by improving the conditions that affect people
Principals of developmental approach: participation and empowerment, self-reliance and sustainability
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Social work: Community work
The community centred approach
^ Includes work with a community focus
^ Work that community workers do on behalf of communities and their members
^ Represents work with others outside the community to benefit a broader category of people
^ Aim is to change social conditions and to ensure that the resources / services communities need
are made available to them by outsiders
^ Service focused - social / political action, social planning, social reform and influencing social
and other forms of policy
Community-based work
^ Direct service that is strategically implemented in conjunction with and in the context of the local
community
^ The worker works with the community for the direct benefit of the participating community
members
^ Represents the PCA to the community
^ Develops people capabilities to achieve that they regard as an improvement of their situation in
order to meet their basic needs
^ People become empowered to change conditions that affect their lives
^ Participants develop self-respect, self-confidence, self-reliant
^ Encompasses local participation, local indigenous leadership, local social conditions (strengths,
assets, needs and goals)
^ Change through empowerment based interventions, grass-roots organising, collective action
^ Community-based approach seeks social development of small groups of people - therefore
therapeutic r transformative in the sense that individuals change rather than social order
change.
Development: Planned change in a positive direction - evolving gradually
over time Four specialised area of change
1. Economic development: increasing country's wealth - Gross national product (GNP or GDP) -
GDP often used as a measure of how developed a country is
2. Political development: a process of gradual change during which people become more aware
of their capabilities, rights and responsibilities. People acquire political power so they can
participate in decision making, share and plan democratically and create and allocate
communal resources equitable and efficiently
3. Social development: changes and improvements in provision of health services and facilities,
education, water, energy, transport and communication. A macro welfare policy perspective
and an approach to social welfare
4. Human development: personal development / development that effects a transformation in
provision of individuals. A process of capacitating (making people capable) people to meet
their fundamental and basic needs themselves. People develop self-respect, confidence, self-
reliant. It fosters economic growth
• Developing country: country committed to economic and other progress / a synonym
for Third world countries
• Underdeveloped country: lack of development - refers to previously colonised countries.
Argued they are underdeveloped because of their history of exploitation
• Third world countries: In contrast to first world (US, UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
Germany) Associated with poverty and backwardness
• The South / opposite to the North and developed countries
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Sck 3703 - Summary Participatory community
development
SCK 3703
Notes
Participatory community development
Study Unit 2 - introducing participatory community practice in social work
• Welfare: attempts to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged people in developed countries.
• Development: Attempts to improve the quality of life in developing countries
(especially previously colonised countries)
• SA has both
Background to community development
Welfare
Three views to welfare
1. The residual approach: problem-focused and individualistic
^ Services provided on a short-term /temp basis (counselling/job training) on the basis
that something is wrong with them
^ Individuals who are experiencing problems are considered responsible for their situation
2. The institutional approach: rights focused
^ Citizens are considered to have the right to / entitled to particular services ^ People's
needs are viewed as normal part of life - does not have to have anything wrong with
them to qualify for the services
^ Large-scale, long term welfare programs - social security like grants / pensions
3. The developmental or social development approach: a process of planned social change
designed to promote, sustain and improve the wellbeing of the population as a whole.
^ Goes hand in hand with a dynamic process of economic empowerment
^ Strong emphasis on poverty reduction, equitable distribution of income and wealth,
employment creation, health and nutrition, education and training, housing and ancillary
services ^ Encompasses developing programs that empower people to be involved in
meeting their needs ^ Moves beyond problem orientation, aiming to prevent social
problems by improving the conditions that affect people
Principals of developmental approach: participation and empowerment, self-reliance and sustainability
,lOMoARcPSD|3900964
1
, lOMoARcPSD|3900964
Social work: Community work
The community centred approach
^ Includes work with a community focus
^ Work that community workers do on behalf of communities and their members
^ Represents work with others outside the community to benefit a broader category of people
^ Aim is to change social conditions and to ensure that the resources / services communities need
are made available to them by outsiders
^ Service focused - social / political action, social planning, social reform and influencing social
and other forms of policy
Community-based work
^ Direct service that is strategically implemented in conjunction with and in the context of the local
community
^ The worker works with the community for the direct benefit of the participating community
members
^ Represents the PCA to the community
^ Develops people capabilities to achieve that they regard as an improvement of their situation in
order to meet their basic needs
^ People become empowered to change conditions that affect their lives
^ Participants develop self-respect, self-confidence, self-reliant
^ Encompasses local participation, local indigenous leadership, local social conditions (strengths,
assets, needs and goals)
^ Change through empowerment based interventions, grass-roots organising, collective action
^ Community-based approach seeks social development of small groups of people - therefore
therapeutic r transformative in the sense that individuals change rather than social order
change.
Development: Planned change in a positive direction - evolving gradually
over time Four specialised area of change
1. Economic development: increasing country's wealth - Gross national product (GNP or GDP) -
GDP often used as a measure of how developed a country is
2. Political development: a process of gradual change during which people become more aware
of their capabilities, rights and responsibilities. People acquire political power so they can
participate in decision making, share and plan democratically and create and allocate
communal resources equitable and efficiently
3. Social development: changes and improvements in provision of health services and facilities,
education, water, energy, transport and communication. A macro welfare policy perspective
and an approach to social welfare
4. Human development: personal development / development that effects a transformation in
provision of individuals. A process of capacitating (making people capable) people to meet
their fundamental and basic needs themselves. People develop self-respect, confidence, self-
reliant. It fosters economic growth
• Developing country: country committed to economic and other progress / a synonym
for Third world countries
• Underdeveloped country: lack of development - refers to previously colonised countries.
Argued they are underdeveloped because of their history of exploitation
• Third world countries: In contrast to first world (US, UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
Germany) Associated with poverty and backwardness
• The South / opposite to the North and developed countries
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