Nature of Community

a "group of people with diverse

characteristics who are linked by social
ties, share common perspectives, and
engage in joint action in geographical
locations or settings." (Kathleen M.
MacQueen et.al, 2001, American
Journal of Public Health)
Nature of Community

a "self-organized network of people with

common agenda, cause, or interest, who
collaborate by sharing ideas,
information, and other resources."
(Business Dictionary)
 both
a feeling and a set of relationships
among people. (Chavis and Lee, 2015)
Nature of Community

 If we are to sum it up, a community refers to the people

who live and coexist with each other and who share a lot
of things in common.
 Despite the fact that these people possess
characteristics different from each other, there could be
a meeting of minds at certain points like their ideas over
matters involving their coexistence, about their cultural
perspectives or regarding their established relationships,
or the like. And these people have built relationships
anchored from trust, love, and sense of belongingness,
compassion and responsibility.
Nature of Community

 There is but one thing trivial about communities and this

concerns the territorial or geographical setting. Not in all
instances do the people who comprise a community live
close to each other, because in some scenarios there
could be people who live miles away from each other but
they still consider themselves as belonging to one and
the same community.
 Before we shall take the other integrative concepts of
community, let us summarize the peculiar features (as
culled from www.yourarticlelibrary.com/society) of
community. They are the following:
Peculiar Features of Community

 1.
An aggrupation of people, without
regards to their demographic accounts,
and the size, where a community is either
small or large, is immaterial for the
organization of the community.
 2.If it is a national community, the
second important element is the definite
locality where the members live in.
Peculiar Features of Community

 3.
Community sentiment which is shared by the
community members, which pertains to the
shared feelings of the people towards any
endeavor involving the community in general.
 4.Naturality which pertains to the fact that a
community is organized as naturally as can be,
that it becomes instinctive among the members
of the community to come together to form a
socio-political aggrupation organization.
Peculiar Features of Community

 5.Permanence refers to the permanent nature

of the aggrupation in terms of its existence
and the physical location of their territory. A
community is not as temporary as a crowd.
 6.Similarity has reference to the cultural
details, historical accounts, and normative
standard of behavior, usages and the like
which are common to the members of the
community.
Peculiar Features of Community

 7.Organized social life which means that

all aspects of the social life of the people
are included in the community life, and
with this essence, a community is the
miniature of the society.
 8.
Wider ends which refers to the different
objectives that the community is geared at
and not focused in just one end or purpose.
Community Action

 any activity that increases the understanding,

engagement and empowerment of communities
in the design and delivery of local services.
(Local Government Association)
 includes
a broad range of activities which are
sometimes called 'social action' or 'community
engagement’.
 the
sum total of the collective endeavor of the
people.
Community Action

 An example of which is capacitating the women in the

production of face masks using indigenous or local
materials. In the said sample activity, the women would
not only be trained but they will be empowered-
empowered in the sense that these women will be
given an employment opportunity not just for a day or
a week but probably for months or even a year or
years. A mere clean-up drive or tree-planting would be
a community activity but it lacks a long- range
empowerment, therefore it does not answer to the call
of a community action.
Community Action

 Community action programs bear

different objectives.
 differin terms of the involvement of
the people, with particular reference to
the identified sector and the identified
officials and the program focal person
as well.
Community Action

 there is a variation of kinds of activities, like the

conduct of leadership training or literacy program or
health awareness or food preservation training-
workshop and the like.
 Bottom line, whatever the activity is, all of these
community action programs are geared towards
engagement and empowerment of the people and
these same people shall be capacitated with the
skills of planning, designing and delivery of local
services.
Purposes of Community Action

1. To help and encourage the children

and the youth.
2. To help and support the
marginalized sector.
3. To invigorate and honor the elderly.
4. To strengthen the community, as a
whole.
Importance of Community Action

 Accordingly, community action poses importance to the dynamism

of the people. Community action is implemented not just out of the
whims of the leaders or just for a show, rather, it is undergone for a
cause. Because of this, the significance of a community action could
be broken down into the following:
 1. Community action is about putting communities at the
heart of their own local services. This means that the people in
the community are motivated in making the community's objectives
and needs as their focus and they themselves will be the ones
taking charge of the services to satisfy such. The community
members are the participants to any community action initiative and
whatever and however they are capacitated, they themselves will be
the ones who shall deliver the identified service and gain from it.
Importance of Community Action

 2. Building community and social capacity.

 This presupposes that community action activities would
help develop skills which would capacitate the people for any
endeavor while they would be intimated with the needed
knowledge and ideas. The skills which the people would be
capacitated with shall have a long range effect, meaning, the
people could use such skill in engaging in business, or to
earn an income or to capacitate other people. This way, the
people become active participants to the community-
building.
 As mentioned earlier, it is not capacitating the people for just
a day or a week, but could even be for a lifetime.
Importance of Community Action

 3. Community resilience.
 This means that the community could become self-
sustaining with the skills and knowledge they are
capacitated with. For instance, the women sector are
made to undergo trainings like basket-weaving or the
male sector are given a training on handicrafts
production using local materials, then the community is
able to support itself economically. When the community
becomes a self-sustaining entity, then the community as
a whole shall be able to withstand whatever problems,
difficulties and issues that will get in their way.
Community Dynamics

 According to Oxford Languages and Google,

“dynamics refer to the forces or properties
which stimulate growth, development, or
change within a system process."
 Itentails vigor, energy, stamina, strength
enthusiasm, and any other positive stimulus
within the person and beyond him, so as to
bring about growth and development or any
welcome change in the person.
Community Dynamics

 a process of change in the midst of the people in the

community, powered by the unequalled vigor and
enthusiasm of the same people.
 shall exist when the people are capacitated. Going back to
the scenarios cited earlier, we can say that as a
consequence of then of an invigorated elders, empowered
children and youth and marginalized sector and a completely
strengthened community, community dynamics become a
reality. No vacuum left to allow any form of negativity to rule
over the people. All that the people would manifest are
energy and enthusiasm. All of which would refer to
community dynamics.
Indicators of Significance of
Community Dynamics
 1. Community dynamics allows the members of
the community to think creatively and act
strategically towards the achievement of
community- set goals. When people are invigorated
and full of enthusiasm and stamina, the better their
mental set becomes and they could conceptualize
more feasible and practical plan of action as a matter
of keeping it up with the developmental goals of their
community. The same vigor, stamina and enthusiasm
will enable them to work on the implementation of the
conceptualized community initiatives.
Indicators of Significance of
Community Dynamics
 2.With community dynamics at hand, the
quality of living of the more vulnerable
sectors of the community is alleviated. One of
the first targets of community initiatives is to secure
the status of the impoverished and other
marginalized sectors of the community. Thus, if the
more fortunate community members are not
energetic enough to work for social change therein,
then, the streamlined sectors would remain in the
lowest ebb of the community.
Indicators of Significance of
Community Dynamics
 3. Community dynamics allows the people to
develop a good insight of how and what they
feel about the place they live in. Knowing,
appreciating and understanding the very physical
conditions in the place where you live in would make
you develop good attitude or as we colloquially say,
good vibes, towards the community. This would be
done only when you are interested about your
community; when you want to get involved in any
undertaking of your community; when you have
innate concern about your community.
Community Dynamics and Applied
Social Sciences
 We have learned in Disciplines and Ideas in the Applied Social
Sciences that there are three areas of concern, namely Counselling,
Social Work and Communication. In all three areas, the practitioner
needs to have a background about the personality that makes up a
community she is bound to work for and work with. Because if one
has not experienced being immersed with a certain community
previously, she would not be in the know on how to deal with the
energy, stamina and enthusiasm of your clientele. Having a feel of
community dynamism would capacitate say for instance a social
worker to effectively and efficiently dispense of her job in the field
dealing with the marginalized sector as her clientele, or a police
officer in dealing with offenders or a teacher dealing not only with
her students but with the stakeholders as well.
Community Action and Applied
Social Sciences
 Most of the community action programs designed and
implemented are related to the tasks of Social
Workers, Communication practitioners or Teachers or
Counsellors and the like. Examples of which are
Reading Program for the Children and the Youth,
Leadership Training and a lot more. It goes without
saying then that community action and Applied Social
Sciences work together and would provide the
appropriate training for the would-be-graduates of
college programs aligned with Applied Social
Sciences.
Career Choices and Community
Dynamics and Community Action
 As per observation, most graduates of the Humanities and
Social Sciences strand, venture into college programs like
Psychology, Education, Criminology, Communication Arts
and Bachelor of Arts courses. And if you look deeper into the
nature of work one has to engage with after graduation, you
are right, the job calls for some skills and knowledge of
community dynamics and community action. For instance, as
cited earlier, as an Education graduate one would not only
be charged with teaching the learners but to become the
guidance counsellor giving advices to the students and even
the parents or go for home visitations maybe bringing with
her some provisions for the concerned student.