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Community Development

First Name Last Name

Department, Bow Valley College

Course Code: Course Name

Instructor’s Name

Due Date
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Community Development

Life expectancy, wealth creation and general economic and political development in

developed countries across the globe. However, studies reveal that the focus on wealth creation

and the stabilization of political and economic aspects of life limits the potential to develop

mutual responsibility in caring for one another within family groups or communities (He et al.,

2020). Individuals opt to buy the services they need using their economic and political influence;

hence, it increases the culture of loneliness and non-participation in the local communities.

Individualism in society limits the potential to achieve diverse and cross-level socio-political and

economic growth among members of society (He et al., 2020). Community development

endeavors to mitigate the unintended consequence of affluence, good health and long lives such

as high cases of anxiety, depression and poor well-being.

Community development remains a holistic approach and a structured determination to

help a group of people in a community to lead a socio-economically, politically and culturally

improved life. The terminology combines community with a development that endeavors to

improve the living standards of the members of society (Daniels et al., 2020). The success of

community development effort lies in the faith, commitment, and dedication of the members of

community in working together to enhance livelihoods. The participatory aspect of community

development demands the involvement of members of society from the conception to the

implementation of policies geared towards sustainable growth and development (He et al., 2020).

Community development ensures that local people take an active position in defining their issues

and taking the necessary measures to fix the challenges.

Community development operates on the backdrop of the principles of sustainable

development, empowerment, inclusivity, human rights, social justice, and equality. The aim of

community development remains the identification and mitigation of challenges and gaps that
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deny members of the Australian community the access to socio-political, cultural, and economic

opportunities (He et al., 2020). The inclusivity aspect of community development requires active

participation of the members of society from the selection of issues, implementation, and

execution to identify and decide on the ideal approaches for effective mitigation (Daniels et al.,

2020). Furthermore, the participation of the members of local communities in addressing the

issues they face guarantees the elimination of discrimination and inequality – aspects that

continue to deny deserving Australians the opportunity to contribute in solving challenges in

society.

Community development refers to the process community members initiate and engages

in collective endeavors that guarantees to accord them socio-cultural, economic, and political

growth and development. Community development initiatives run with or without the input of a

community development professional or agency (Westoby, 2019). The aim of community

development remains the empowerment of community members and the creation of stronger and

highly connected communities. It also denotes planned effort to build assets that enhance the

capacity of residents to improve the quality of their lives. Target assets may include different

forms of community capital such as physical, human, social, financial, environmental, and

cultural assets (Westoby & Harris, 2020). Community development applies the community

capital to enable practical response to local needs and opportunities.

Community members remain the experts in community development because the

members of community possess the highest understanding of their lives and communities. They

also value community knowledge and wisdom. The members of society lead the community

development programs at every stage – they decide, select, implement and evaluate issues and

relating mitigation strategies (Westoby & Harris, 2020). The members of community develop
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and deliver development programs in partnership with participants and stakeholders such as

organizations, individuals, and agencies. Still, the selection of participants and stakeholders rides

on the commonality in goals, objectives and the availability of resources to support the course.

The individualistic approach in sorting the socio-economic and political challenges such as

poverty, underrepresentation, exclusion and disenfranchisement continues to prove unreliable

because it encourages the vices it purports to address (Westoby, 2019). Community development

promises to provide cross-board mitigation to the challenges faced by members of society.

Government and private stakeholders continue to invest human and financial resources to

support effort by community development organizations because of the positive outcomes

associated with the operations of the groups. Some of the importance of community development

includes the continued stirring and the inspiration of a holistic socio-economic, political and

cultural growth within communities in Australia (Shields et al., 2021). Community development

provides an enabling environment for members of community to participate through the analysis

and selection of issues of concern for mitigation through a collective approach. For example,

initiatives by community development organizations contribute in addressing the problem of

housing in Australia (Haricharan et al., 2021). It also creates an enabling environment for

mitigating the problem of crime in local communities by providing alternative sources of income

for the unemployed members of the Australian community.

Exclusion and socio-economic and political disenfranchisement remain some of the

critical issues that affect members of the Australian community. Studies reveal that despite the

advancement in the potential to access opportunities, about 36% of members of the local

communities lack accessibility to critical government services such as education, health, and

security (Haricharan et al., 2021). Community development facilitates the development and
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implementation of structures that promote inclusivity and diversity by according individuals a

voice in the decision-making table on matters affecting their lives. Community development

compels the government and policy-makers to listen and consider the needs of the

disenfranchised members of community. Finally, community development ensures the

identification and reduction of duplicate efforts geared towards addressing the challenges faced

in society (Shields et al., 2021). It gives stakeholders the platform to tailor and combine effort in

addressing challenges in the community.

Community development workers contribute extensively in the mitigation of the socio-

cultural, economic and political challenges faced in society. First, community development

workers research and study the issues affecting local communities to gain a more profound

understanding (Majumdar et al., 2020). Gaining extensive knowledge and understanding of the

issues allows community development workers to initiate and execute active participation in

creating alternative views and approaches to mitigation strategies. Secondly, community

development workers use the information they gather during research to advice policy-makers

and stakeholders on the practical mitigation strategies that would guarantee warranted outcome.

Community development workers use their connections and past experiences to weigh mitigation

options based on tailored needs of the members of society (Gilboa & Weiss-Gal, 2022).

Community development workers remain the backbone in the success of community

development strategies.

The socio-economic, cultural and political advancement of the Australian society

continues to promote the concepts of individualism and loneliness because of the extensive

ability of individuals to fend for themselves at the expense community interaction and

participation. However, loneliness and individualism lead to counter-productive effects such as

anxiety, depression and the rise in suicide cases among young people. Community development

provides the strategies for identifying and mitigating the socio-cultural and economic challenges

faced in society through active involvement of the affected individuals. Community development

workers use their extensive knowledge and understanding of the societal issues to promote their

mitigation.
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References

Daniels, E., Bharwani, S., Gerger Swartling, Å., Vulturius, G., & Brandon, K. (2020).

Refocusing the climate services lens: Introducing a framework for Co-designing

“transdisciplinary knowledge integration processes” to build climate resilience. Climate

Services, 19, 100181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2020.100181

Gilboa, C., & Weiss-Gal, I. (2022). Change from within: Community social workers as local

policy actors. The British Journal of Social Work, 52(6), 3540-

3558. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab263

Haricharan, H. J., Stuttaford, M., & London, L. (2021). The role of community participation in

primary health care: Practices of South African health committees. Primary Health Care

Research & Development, 22. https://doi.org/10.1017/s146342362100027x

He, Y., Yu, H., Ong, E., Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Huffman, A., Huang, H., Beverley, J., Hur, J.,

Yang, X., Chen, L., Omenn, G. S., Athey, B., & Smith, B. (2020). CIDO, a community-

based ontology for coronavirus disease knowledge and data integration, sharing, and

analysis. Scientific Data, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0523-6

Majumdar, A., Shaw, M., & Sinha, S. K. (2020). COVID-19 debunks the myth of socially

sustainable supply chain: A case of the clothing industry in South Asian

countries. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 24, 150-

155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.07.001

Shields, K. F., Moffa, M., Behnke, N. L., Kelly, E., Klug, T., Lee, K., Cronk, R., & Bartram, J.

(2021). Community management does not equate to participation: Fostering community

participation in rural water supplies. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for

Development, 11(6), 937-947. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2021.089

Westoby, P. (2019). ‘A community development yet-to-come’: Jacques derrida and re-

constructing community development praxis. Community Development Journal, 56(3),

375-390. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsz013

Westoby, P., & Harris, V. (2020). Community development ‘yet-to-come’ during and post the

COVID-19 pandemic: From derrida to Zuboff. Community Development Journal, 55(4),

553-569. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsaa026