NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM (NSTP) 2

Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS) 2

Literacy Training Service (LTS) 2
2nd Semester; AY 2024-2025

MODULE 1
THE COMMUNITY

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Explain the concepts of a community;

2. Realize the importance of understanding the dynamics of a community;
2. Cite and describe an example of a geographical and functional community.
3. Relate the concepts of understanding community to the objectives of NSTP.

WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?
There are various definitions and meanings of the term “community”.

According to Wikipedia, the English language word "community" derives from the Old
French comuneté (currently "Communauté"), which also comes from the Latin word communitas which means
"community", and "public spirit"; also from Latin communis, which means "common".

A community is a social unit with commonality such as norms, religion, values, customs or identity.

It is a collective of people with similar interests and goals whether living in the same geographic locality or not.
(Labuguen, F., et al)

Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or
neighborhood) or in virtual space through communication platforms.

Durable relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties also define a sense of community, important
to their identity, practice, and roles in social institutions such as family, home, work, government, society, or
humanity at large.

Although communities are usually small relative to personal social ties, "community" may also refer to large
group affiliations such as national communities, international communities, and virtual communities.

In another source, a community is defined as a collective of people with similar interests and goals whether
living in the same geographical locality or not. (https://www.academia.edu/29905321/NSTP_lecture_notes)

In a community, people share the same things, common interest and resources, such as: where they live, work
and play.

It is also a place where people solve problems together.

A community could be characterized by age group, ethnicity, gender, religion, location or profession.

DIMENSIONS OF A COMMUNITY
There are three (3) dimensions to be considered when we talk about a community. These are:

1. People: the community residents

2. Place: both the geographical and time dimensions
3. Function: the aim and activities of the community

CATEGORIES OF A COMMUNITY

1. Geographical Community
2. Functional Community
Geographical Community
Geographical Community, or sometimes it is called geographic community (Mark Felvus,
2015: Working with Groups and Communities), is defined by its geographical boundaries such as
neighborhood, villages, barangays, subdivisions, city or town. In involves physical spaces.

Geographic communities are clear targets for any community immersion undertakings or activities
because these can be easily identified. These are easily mobilized for action. Groups can be formed to carry out
intervention and prevention efforts that address needs specific to that community.

Functional Community
Functional Communities are Non-Geographical aggregates, bound together by some common factor
other than geographical place of residence or work such as: religion, occupation, profession, special interest or
need.

In functional community, people share common identity other location and often interact regularly,
such as a sporting club, a group of environmentalist, volunteer rescuers, rotary club, etc.

They often conduct regular meetings, activities or projects related to the function of their group or
community.

ELEMENTS OF A COMMUNITY
(https://www.academia.edu/29905321/NSTP_lecture_notes)
https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html
Investopedia

1. Demographics
2. History
3. Culture
4. Economy
5. Structure

1.Demographics
Demographics refers to the data relating to the population in terms of age, race, sex, employment
education, income, preferences, hobbies, birth, marriage and birth rates.

The most common demographic categories are: age, gender, race, marital status, number of
children (if any), occupation, annual income, educational

Governments, corporations, and nongovernment organizations use demographics to learn more

about a population's characteristics for many purposes, including community engagement or immersion for
development.

Demographics will help community immersionists or volunteers

“It is hard to be all things to all people if we do not know who those people are.”
(Know Your Demographics, Reach Your Community, by: Tony Foglio, December 26, 2016)

2. History
History tells you the story of how your nation, city, or community came to be everything that it is. It
tells you where your ancestors came from and tells you who they were. Most importantly of all, it
gives you the ability to spot (and appreciate) the legacies you may have inherited from them.

Allows you to identify certain patterns of change and people’s ways of adapting these changes that
can be useful in plotting your activities.

These are events of the past that contributed to the development of the community.
3. Culture

It comes from the Latin word cultura which means

cultivation; it refers to the ways of living of the people
https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-
culture.html

Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular

group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social
habits, music and arts.

"It encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear

it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong,
how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how we behave with
loved ones, and a million other things," Cristina De Rossi, an
anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, told Live
Science.

4. Economy
An economy consists of the economic systems of a
country or other area; the labor, capital, and land
resources; and the manufacturing, production, trade,
distribution and consumption of goods and services of
that area.

It talks about the income level of people in the

community.

It also considers how resources are utilized and

allocated, how much is produced.

http://www.wagrown.com/farm-to-table/

The economic status of a community usually includes

data on income, education, and employment as the
most common ones.

5. Structure
Community structure means the internal structure of an area, town, city, neighborhood or another
urban area. It includes the population and housing, jobs and production, service and leisure time areas, along
with transport routes and technical networks, their location and relationships.

The structure of the community is the result of many interacting factors, both abiotic (non-living) and
biotoc (living organism-related).
Here are some important factors that influence community structure: The climate patterns of
the community's location. The geography of the community's location.

Studying the structure of the community will provide useful recommendations to users in communities
based on common interests

ELEMENTS OF COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

To get familiarized with the community, one has to consider the following elements of community
structure: path, edges, district, nodes and landmarks.

Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves.
 Example: streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads

For many people, these are the predominant elements in their image. People observe the city while
moving through it and along these paths and other environmental elements are arranged and related.

https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2016/nov/07/new-road-signs-
provide-bike-friendly-addition-lawr/
ROCHELLE VALVERDE

Edges are the linear elements not used or

considered as paths by the observer.
Example: boundaries between two faces
Linear breaks in continuity

Shores, railroad cuts, edges of development, walls, bay walks.

They are lateral references rather than coordinate axes. Such edges may be barriers, more or
less penetrable, which close one region from another; or they may be seams, lines along which two
regions are related and joined together.

These edge elements, although probably not as dominant as paths, are for many people important
organizing features, particularly in the role of holding together generalized areas, as in the outline of a city by
the water or wall. https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/46443439880757017/

Districts are the medium-to-large sections of the city, conceived of as having two dimensional
extents, which the observer mentally enters “inside of”, and which are common, identifiable from the
inside; they are also used for exterior reference if visible from the outside.
Most people structure their city to some extent in this way, with individual differences as to
whether paths or districts are the dominant elements.

Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are
the intensive foci to and from which he is travelling.
They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence
of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another.
It can be of physical character like a street-corner hangout or an enclosed square. Usually,
these nodes stand as a symbol that could be easily identified or remembered.
They may be called cores. Many nodes, of course, partake of the nature both junctions and
concentrations. The concept of node is related to the concept of path, since junctions are typically
the convergence of paths, events on the journey. By Amarkgio - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33846888

It is similarly related to the concept of district, since cores are typically the intensive foci of
districts, there polarizing center. In any event, some nodal points are to be found in almost every
image, and in certain cases they may be dominant feature.
 Landmarks are another type of point reference, but in this case, the observer does not enter
within them, they are external.

They are usually a rather simply defined physical object: building, sign, store or mountain.
Their use involves the singling out of one element from a host of possibilities.

https://www.bworldonline.com/wonders-cagayan-de-oro/
St. Augustine Cathedral, landmark of Cagayan de Oro

Some landmarks are distant ones, typically seen from many angles of distances, over the tops
of smaller elements, and used as radial references.
They may be within the city or as such a distance that a for all practical purposes they
symbolize a constant direction.
Such are isolated towers, golden domes, great hills.
Even mobile point, like the sun, whose motion is sufficiently slow and regular, may be
employed.
Other landmarks are primarily local, being visible only in restricted localities and from certain
approaches.
These are the innumerable signs, store fronts, trees, door knobs and other urban detail, which
fill in the image of most observers.
They are frequently used clues of identity and even structure, and seem to be increasingly
relied upon a journey becomes more and more familiar.

Source: Elements of Structure, Marc Anthony de Villa June 27, 2015

https://www.slideshare.net/MarcAnthonydeVilla/elements-of-community-structure

ACTIVITY 1. Geographical and Functional Community

Give each an example of a geographical community and a functional community. Describe each of
the community you have identified. (Handwritten).