What is Community?

sustaining areas where natural resources are

The word "community" is derived from readily available.
Latin and has been used in the English 2. Sub-urban Types of Community
language since the 14th century. The Suburban communities are often perceived as
word community is derived from the intermediate to rural and urban communities.
Latin communitas (meaning the same), That is why it is known as “suburban”. They are
which is in turn derived more abundant in population as compared to the
from communis, which means rural community and less in number relative to
"common, public, shared by all or an urban community. Such communities are
many" (encyclopedia). often out-lying a larger city. They have limited
A community is a group of people living resources and little political autonomy.
in the same place or having a particular Suburban areas are often referred to as single-
characteristic in common such family homes or housing divisions that are
as norms, religion, values, or identity. closer to each other.
A community is a group of people that Suburban areas mostly began to emerge in the
live at the same place and share some 19th and 20th centuries as a result of improved
common characteristics. There are many infrastructure such as railroad transport that
types of communities that we are going facilitated commuting. Suburban communities
to discuss in detail, but first, let us look are mostly settled around an abundance of
at the standard features of a community. adjacent flat land. In some countries, such
suburban areas are referred to as
TYPES OF A COMMUNITY <neighborhood= of cities or a “town”
3 Types of Community – Basic Communities 3. Urban community
1. Rural Community – Types of Community An urban community is often perceived as the
The rural community can be characterized as a opposite of a rural community. The lifestyle of
natural phenomenon. Every society has a rural an urban community is highly impersonal,
community, no matter how distinct their culture complex, and heterogeneous in their identities
or pattern of social life is. People who have and lifestyle.
extreme similarities in objectives and ambitions Communities are the product of rational choice.
of living, shape up a community that is a product There is a complex division of labor with
of natural, free will. specialization in professions and jobs, which
Agriculture is a fundamental part of the identity shapes up the identity of an urban community.
of a rural community. People of rural Modern facilities and infrastructure are also
communities have a higher degree of central to urban communities. State officials and
homogeneity in their character and more face-to- diplomatic activities are also fundamental to
face interaction with each other. urban communities.
Necessary facilities such as schools, hospitals, Urban communities are based on a larger
police stations, etc. are mostly absent from such population, and most often, urban areas are
a community life. Such communities are often overcrowded due to it.
perceived as due to a lack of proper
infrastructure. Typically, inhabitants of a rural Five Types of Community–Organizational
community have to travel to the nearest city or Communities
town for access to necessary facilities like Organizations are another big form of
medical care, etc. community to consider. In this section on the
Rural communities are mostly made up of ‘types of communities’, we have included the
smaller populations that spread out to self- different types of organizational communities
for your ease and understanding. Following are
the five types of communities according to community of pianists. These communities don't
organizational typology have much strict code of rules, because they are
limited to the breadth & and scope of the
Unaffiliated Interest.
It is among the types of community that is
based on individuals who are not closely Actions
associated with each other. This can also account A community can also be made up of people
for subordination in some cases. who are acting together to bring a change. For
They might only be present at any validly example, a community of feminists. There can
convened meeting where their action is required be various shades of such types of communities
for a common objective. as well. Every culture & and philosophy
Federated interprets these actions differently.
Such communities are associated with each
other due to a common purpose or cause. They Place
cooperate in a standard and collective Co-existence in a geographical area can also be
environment. It can be seen as a partially shape up a community. For example, a
individualistic and unified community. community of Muslim ex-pats in Poland. This is
a hybrid form of both the Interest & Action
Affiliated Types of Community types of communities. The geographical location
Affiliated communities are the ones that have serves also in the concept of Nationalism &
some commonality or shared interest among its Nation-states.
members due to a connection to an organization.
For example, an affiliated military community Practice
would mean that they spend some portion of Communities can be formed by people who are
their life has a direct link to military lifestyle from the same profession or undertake the same
such as servicing in the military or having a activities. For example, A community of young
kinship, etc. doctors. These communities are both at national
& international level.
Hybrid
A hybrid community is one of the types of
community that is based on the model of a
hybrid society that has two or more modes of Circumstance
subsistence. For example: transitioning from one Some communities are brought together by
state to another like agrarian to industrial. A external events or situations. For example, a
modern-day hybrid community is based on community of refugees.
socio-technical advancements, such as the
emergence of virtual communities. COMPONENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS
Managed Types of Community OF A HEALTHY COMMUNITY
It is a type of managed community where some A healthy, equitable community is one that
management exists for the coherence of the offers complete social, physical and mental well-
community. being to all its residents at all stages of life and
has the following themes embedded across all
5 Common Features/ Elements of a the components: accessibility, affordability,
Community stability, diversity, safety, equity.
Interest 1. Healthy Housing
People with common interests or passions can
together form a community. For example, a
Stable and affordable housing protects health healthy breakfast are better prepared to learn.
and provides the ability to engage in healthy Children who get regular physical activity
opportunities. perform better.
Healthy, Stable and Affordable Housing 4. Healthy Economy
Socially integrated housing that is stable and A strong local economy builds household
affordable, near transit, appropriate for all financial security for all and promotes
income and generational levels, has healthy everyone’s health.
indoor air quality and is free of pests, mold and Thriving and Inclusive Economy Diverse local
similar negative conditions and energy small businesses, economic opportunities with
efficiency. family, supportive wages/benefits, fair labor
Health Connection practices, job skills trainings, and community
Housing is the cornerstone of a healthy support of new and current businesses.
community. Housing enables people to build Health Connection
roots in a community - get to know their Financial insecurity makes it difficult to afford
neighbors, build a social network of support, and and meet basic needs, leading to higher rates of
become civically engaged. depression and stress, and subsequently more
2. Healthy Neighborhoods health problems.
Complete neighborhoods make it easy for People with higher incomes and more wealth
residents to be healthy every day in their live longer. Cardiovascular, asthma, obesity,
communities by making the healthy choice, the overweight, and diabetes are highest among low-
easy choice. income people. Places with income equality
Complete Neighborhoods and Communities tend to be healthier.
"People-centered= design with residential,
businesses, services, schools, jobs, recreation FACTORS AFFECTING THE HEALTH OF
and transit in close proximity, high quality THE COMMUNITY
infrastructure and street design with good A community has three features: People,
lighting and landscaping to support mixed uses, Location and Social System (Allender et al.,
transit and walkability. 2009; Hunt, 2009) Factors related affect the
Health Connection health status of the community.
Complete neighborhoods promote health by Characteristics of the Population
creating opportunities for everyday physical People
activity, access to healthy foods, growing the Population variables that affect the health of the
local economy, and supporting social community include size, density, composition,
connections. rate of growth or decline, cultural characteristics,
3. Healthy Schools mobility, social class, and educational level
High-quality education creates pathways to (Allender et al., 2009).
better health. Population size and density influence the
High-Quality Education System Strong number of size of health care institutions. This
programs from K-12 to college level and trade explains the concentration of health care
schools, universal childhood and enrichment institutions in urban areas. Negative effects of
programs, affordable afterschool programs and overcrowding include: easy spread of
childcare, and opportunities for youth career and communicable disease; increased stress among
skill development and adult education. members of the community; rapid degradation
Health Connection of housing facilities; and water, air and soil
Education is one of the top three determinants of pollution. On the other hand, sparsely populated
health outcomes. The more education someone areas, like rural areas, have limited resources,
has, the healthier they are. Students who eat a
resulting in difficulty in providing health •Directing expectant and new mothers to
services. healthcare resources so they can receive proper
Location of the Community care for themselves and their infants.
Location •Conducting education programs or handing out
The health of the community is affected by both information about lead poisoning, substance
natural and man-made variables related to abuse, dangers of smoking, teen pregnancy and
location. Natural factors consist of geographic sexually transmitted diseases.
features, climate, flora, and fauna. Community •Stopping the spread of infectious diseases such
boundaries, whether the community is urban or as HIV/AIDS, influenza or hepatitis.
rural, the presence of open spaces, the quality of • Aiding the elderly in managing chronic health
the soil, air, and water, and the location of health conditions.
facilities are influenced by human decisions and •Providing care to sick or injured children and
behavior (Benson, 1980; Allender et a., 2009). adults.
Social System within the Community
A social system is the patterned series of What is Community Development?
interrelationships existing between individuals,
Community development empowers persons and
groups, and institutions and forming s coherent
groups within society to have the capacity to
whole (Meriam-Webster Online Dictionary, improve their lives. Community development is
2012b). Social components that affect health a positive change and value-based process that
include family, economic, educational, aims to address imbalances in welfare and power
communication, political, legal, religious, based on inclusion, human rights, social justice,
recreational, and health systems (Allender et a., equity, and equality.
2009.).
Community development involves changing the
ROLES AND ACTIVITIES OF COMMUNITY
relationships between local and uncivilized
HEALTH NURSE
people and the elite, rich, in positions of power.
Functions of Community Health Nurse: This enables them to participate in the
There are seven major functions of community discussion of community issues that affect their
health nurse, those are mentioned in the lives.
following:
1. Clinician, Community development is a process where
2. Educator, community members take collective action on
issues that are important to them. This might be
3. Advocate,
done with or without the support of a
4. Managerial,
community development professional or agency.
5. Collaborator, Community development is intended to
6. Leader, empower community members and create
7. Researcher. stronger and more connected communities.
What Are the Responsibilities of a Community
Health Nurse? Community health nurses possess Community development is a holistic approach
strong clinical and critical thinking skills and grounded in principles of empowerment, human
rights, inclusion, social justice, self-
have the analytical ability to solve problems and
determination and collective action (Kenny &
make decisions. They can adapt their nursing
Connors, 2017).
care to the needs of a diverse group of patients.
A community health nurse's job may include Community development considers community
these responsibilities: members to be experts in their lives and
• Administering well-Being assessments and communities, and values community knowledge
vaccinations. and wisdom. Community development programs
are led by community members at every stage –
from deciding on issues to selecting and and are engaged in an estimated 3,250 projects
implementing actions, and evaluation. worldwide.
Community development has an explicit focus When does Community Development start in
on the redistribution of power to address the the Philippines?
causes of inequality and disadvantage.
The Philippine experience of community
The United Nations defines community development can be traced back to 1958 when
development as "a process where community the Philippine Government launched a
members come together to take collective action nationwide program under the Philippine
and generate solutions to common problems." It Assistance on Community Development or
is a broad concept, applied to the practices of PACD (Samonte, 1982).
civic leaders, activists, involved citizens, and
professionals to improve various aspects of
communities, typically aiming to build stronger Principles of Community Development
and more resilient local communities.
There are a lot of people around the
globe engaged in the process of development
History of Community Development whereby their role is to mobilize members of the
community and stakeholders to address real
Amongst the earliest community development problems among people. They all come from
approaches were those developed in Kenya and different backgrounds, trainings and school
British East Africa during the 1930s. thoughts when comes to community
Community development practitioners have over development and may represent a wide spectrum
many years developed a range of approaches for as engineering, education, health, agriculture,
working within local communities and in religion and culture, in brief, community
particular with disadvantaged people. Since the developers may bring vast experience from their
nineteen sixties and seventies through the different fields of deployment but the most
various anti-poverty programs in both developed important element must be the common goal or
and developing countries, community interest of community development
development practitioners have been influenced
by structural analyses as to the causes of Ethical principles
disadvantage and poverty i.e. inequalities in the Human Orientation The most important abstract
distribution of wealth, income, land, etc., and human need is dignity. Essama-Nssah (2004)
especially political power and the need to sees it as the necessity of public policy to enable
mobilize people power to affect social change. citizens to choose to lead fulfilled lives. People's
Thus the influence of such educators as concrete needs are addressed whereby the focus
Paulo Freire and his focus upon this work. Other is also on human dignity, happiness, and
key people who have influenced this field are contentment. Human orientation is against a
Saul Alinsky (Rules for Radicals) and E.F. situation whereby people are affected by
Schumacher (Small Is Beautiful). There are a physical development. The important aspect here
number of international organizations that is that human beings as dignified free beings
support community development, for example, who channel their own life in cooperation and
Oxfam, UNICEF, The Hunger Project, and reciprocity with others, rather than being
Freedom from Hunger, which run community passively shaped or pushed around in the
development programs based upon community manner of a ‘flock or ‘herd’ animals. Nussbaum
development initiatives for the relief and (2000: 78-80) list the following central human
prevention of malnutrition. Since 2006 the capabilities as an indicator of human dignity:
Dragon Dreaming Project Management 1. Life: the ability to avoid premature death
techniques have spread to 37 different countries
2. Bodily health: the ability to have good health CDs should practically gain the sense of
with adequate nourishment and shelter ownership of the project. Ownership is a critical
concept in community development because
3. Bodily integrity people assume that ownership means that they
4. Sense, imagination and thoughts: the ability to are in control in literal sense that they even
use these to imagine, think and entitled to make decisions without involving
other.
5. Reason in a truly human way.
Sustainability
6. Emotions: the ability to have attachments to
things and people outside oneself The golden rule of community development is
that no community development project should
7. Practical reason: the ability to conceive of the damage the environment because sustainable
good and engage in critical development does not compromise a single
universal goal. The frank definition of
8. Reflection about the formulation and
sustainable development states that it is
implementation of one’s life plan
development that meets the needs of the present
9. Affiliation: the ability to live with and without compromising the ability of future
towards others, and to engage in various • social generation to meet their own needs.
interaction with dignity and respect.
Release
10. Other species: the ability to live with
It has been mentioned that development‘s
concern about the world of nature
ultimate goal is to eradicate poverty completely,
not to address or deal with some manifestation
of poverty. In other words, the success of
Participation development will come after people are living
People are mobilized not to be involved but to out of deprivation trap.
participate fully, that is to have a role in Practical principles
planning, assessment, implementation, and
evaluation phase of community development. It Learning talks to gaining skill and knowledge
is of high important that community member are from the project but in western culture people
made part of decision making because one way become so conditioned to ideas of excellent,
or another, those decisions will affect the. The perfection and professionalism.
liberal view emphasis that through participation,
Compassion
a vibrant local knowledge base is used for
development. Now it becoming clear CDWs is very special
unique people with a broad range of skill that are
carried by something that are closed to sympathy
Empowerment and empathy. The facilitating and enabling task
of the CDWs is not just another ordinary job
The concept of empowerment has been loosely whereby anyone can assume the role. The
used by most people without a clear principle of compassion is very ironic as CDWs.
understanding of what it entails. Like for an A simplest explanation of compassion is that the
example if they teach one a certain skill they person with compassion stands in the shoes of
claim that they applied empowerment. It is the object of his/her compassion.
important to avoid tokenism or window
dressing, which is putting people on positions
just for the mere fact of placing them.
Adaptiveness
As stated in the previous study unit, CDWS
Ownership must avoid blue print projects because they are
likely inflexible. Adaptiveness require change of drive the development process themselves by
mind set because one is entering a new identifying and mobilizing existing, but often
environment or new setting so is in high demand unrecognized assets.
to be optimistic.
 The power conflict approach concentrates on
Simplicity creating a peaceful community. The process
deals with solutions that will deal with conflicts
The principle of simplicity contrasts with the that slow the progress and hamper the
notion ‘bigger is better’, no ‘simplicity does’. development process
Chambers (1978:211) talks of the big project
trap and says that the learning, releasing
approach is not suited to complex techniques.
This principle is quite clear, the smaller and Community development work
simpler a project the easier it is to get long- Community groups identify important concerns
lasting results. and issues and plan and implement strategies to
Approaches in Community Development mitigate their concerns and solve their issues.

The community development approach involves

different methods and techniques of operation
and functioning with communities for
conventional programs and organizations. Characteristics:
Community development approaches include the
1. Power relations between agencies and
needs-based approach, problem-solving
community members are constantly negotiated.
approach, participatory approach, asset-based
approach, community-based approach, power- 2. The problem or issue is first named by the
conflict approach, welfare approach, and rights- community, then defined in a way that advances
based approach. the shared interests of the community and the
agency.
 The needs-based approach focuses on the
community's needs, deficiencies, and problems. 3. Work is longer term in duration.
It focuses on identifying needs in a deteriorating
community and creating external inputs to meet 4. The desired outcome is an increase in the
those needs. As a traditional approach, is community members’ capacities.
generally understood as a deficit model that 5. The desired long-term outcomes usually
focuses on the community's needs, deficiencies, include a change at the neighborhood or
and problems. community level.
 The problem-solving approach focuses on
different methods and approaches that can be
used in creating different solutions for the When to use community development
problems that are faced by communities
Community development is not always a
 The participatory approach focuses on suitable approach to use. Community
ensuring that people are educated and development may be particularly appropriate:
encouraged to participate in the development
process. People should participate in every step
from initiation to evaluation of every 1. To address social and community issues –
development project and program. community development is a good approach
 Asset Based Community Development is an when you are trying to create change at a
approach to sustainable community-driven community or neighborhood level. For example,
development. Asset Based Community if your goal is to improve community safety,
Development's basis is that communities can increase community cohesion, reduce social
isolation or create communities that are better
for children. -Dianeyqanda
2. for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities – community development is a
good approach to use with Aboriginal or Torres
Strait Islander communities because it can
enable self-determination and strengthen local
First Nations organisations and grassroots
community groups (Higgins [AIHW & AIFS],
2010)
3. for disadvantaged communities –
community development initiatives work well in
disadvantaged communities where they can
alleviate some of the impacts of disadvantage on
children and families by building social capital
and social inclusion (Ife, 2016; McDonald,
2011; Price-Robertson, 2011; Ortiz et al., 2020)
and can empower community members to
challenge inequitable conditions that are
negatively impacting their wellbeing (Ife, 2016).

Community development may not be the best

approach if:

1. You already know what you want to do – If

the outcomes you want to achieve and the
activities that you will use are already decided
then there is no space for the community to
determine outcomes and activities. Similarly, if
you don’t have the authority or resources to
implement the community’s decisions,
community development is not a suitable
strategy.
2. You have limited time or short-term
funding – Community development is a long-
term process. Engagement and planning can take
a year or more, and it can take several years to
implement projects and ensure sustainable
results.
3. Your focus is improving specific individual
skills – If you are seeking to build individual
skills in a specific area (e.g. parenting skills or
literacy), a program that targets these directly
may be more appropriate.