Community Practice Flashcards
Orientation: Community Organization Practice
(COP)
uses a sociological, social systems, and social action perspective to address community problems
individual pathology is viewed as a product of a flawed social system, and unresponsive or destructive social institutions
What does COP do?
emphasizes knowledge related to social power, social structure, social change, and the social environment
recognizes the reciprocal process between the person and the social environment
social problems are explained as consequences of structural arrangements rather than resulting from personal inadequcies
Orientation: What do tasks and goals include?
- Altering public or private priorities to focus on problems of inequality and social injustice
- Promoting legislative change or the allocation of public funds
- Influencing public perceptions of social issues and social problems
- Improving or changing community agencies or institutions to satisfy community needs better
- Developing new methods, strategies and programs for addressing community problems
- Coordinating existing services and develop new ones
- Improving access to services
- Establishing new services and programs in response to new or changing needs
- Managing community organizations and programs
- Building the capacity of grassroots citizen groups to solve problems and make claims on public resources for under-served communities
- Seeking justice for oppressed minorities
Definitions and Characteristics: Brager and Specht (1987)
COP is an intervention method through which individuals, groups, and organizations engage in planned action to influence social problems
involves two major processes: planning and organizing
Brager and Specht (1987): Council on Social Work Education
Community Organization and social planning refer to a field of activity in which organizational methods of intervention are used to meet social needs and to counteract social problems
Common Characteristics: COP
focus of attention is on the social environment, not on psychological problems
involves professional intervention and activities accomplished with the participation and involvement of community representatives and coalitions with community organizations
emphasizes the development of enhanced social resources responding to community needs
Common Characteristics: Values
- Enhancing participatory skills of citizens by working with them, not for them
- Developing leadership
- Strengthening communities so they can better deal with future problems
- Redistributing resources to increases the resources of the disadvantaged
- Planned changes
- Problem-solving process
- Advancing the interests of the disadvantaged so they can influence the process of distributing social resources and the problem definitions causing services to be provided
Definitions and Characteristics: Assumptions Underlying COP (Ross)
- Community members can develop the capacity to resolve communal and social problems
- Members want to improve their situation
- Members must participate in change efforts rather than have changes imposed on them
- A systems approach considering the total community is more effective than programs imposed on communities
- Participation in community organization initiatives that involve social workers is designed to expose community participants to democratic decision-making
- Community participants can learn analytic, strategic, and interpersonal skills from an organizer who enables them to address community problems independently
Tasks of the Worker: Interactional
relating to people
Tasks of the Worker: Analytical
assessment steps in a COP process that will facilitate realizing agreed upon goals
Tasks of the Worker: Technical
techniques for distributing information to community members
Key Roles to COP: Socio-therapeutic
helps community members and leaders gain self and community problem understanding to facilitate problem resolution
Key Roles to COP: Enabler
helps community members use their own resources toward problem resolution
Key Roles to COP: Broker
Mediates and negotiates among different community groups
Key Roles to COP: Expert
Provide data and advice that community representatives can use to resolve problems
Key Roles to COP: Advocate
sides with the disadvantaged and represents their interests
attempts to help the disadvantaged secure a larger share of resources from power elements in the community
Key Roles to COP: Activist
most compatible with an advocate role
activist uses bargaining and power tactics, confrontation, and conflict (or contest) with those who control resources to influence the reallocation of decision-making power and social resources
Key Roles to COP: Organizer
joins groups and institutions together to take joint action toward specific goals
Tactic Selection (Brager and Specht, 1987): Selection of Tactics Three Major Factors
the degree of commonality or differences in the goals between the community group and target system
the relative power of the community group and the target system
the relationship of the community group to the target system
Types of Tactics: Collaborative
the existence of a perceived consensus in goals, parity of power, relatively close relationships, and cooperation and sharing
problem solving, joint action, education, and mild persuasion
Types of Tactics: Campaign
the existence of perceived differences in goals, inequality in power, intermediate relationships
hard persuasion, political maneuvering, bargaining and negotiation, and mild coercion
Types of Tactics: Contest
the existence of public conflict, dissensus in goals, uncertain power, distant or hostile relationships
public conflict and pressure
What’re the steps in the Problem-Solving Model in COP?
- Introduce self to the group
- Clarify why everyone is there
- Address problems
- Help the group develop guidelines and a consensus on the problems to address
- Help the group evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of focusing on specific problems
- Help the group
What is involved in step 6 of the problem-solving model, help the group?
- Focus on a concrete problem that is of immediate concern to the group
- Select a problem it can successfully solve
- Study alternative solutions
- Evaluate available resources
- Evaluate potential for public support
- Consider how the target problem constituencies will respond
- Evaluate potential for agreement among community members
- Monitor implementation including how the target population is responding by obtaining feedback
- Adjust and revise strategies and tactics in light of new information
Models of Practice: Locality Development
neighborhood work aimed at improving the quality of community life through the participation of a broad spectrum of people at the local level
Locality Development: Community Integration
process-oriented, the purpose is to help diverse elements of the community join together to resolve common problems and improve the community
Locality Development: Change Strategy
broadly defined community can resolve its problems and develop increased ability to solve problems through rational participatory problem solving
Locality Development: Tactics
an emphasis on consensus and capacity building
Locality Development: Worker Roles
enabler, coordinator, educator, broker within such settings as the neighborhood or village
Locality Development: Boundaries
total geographic community
Locality Development: Agency Type
settlement houses, Peace Corps
Models of Practice: Social Planning
emphasizes careful, rational study of community’s political, social, economic, and population characteristics to provide a basis for identifying agreed-upon problems and determining a range of solutions to community problems
Social Planning: Problem Solving
task-oriented
problems might include lack of child care, mental health services, police protection, etc
Social Planning: Change Strategy
fact gathering, rational action, and needs assessment
Social Planning: Tactics
consensus or conflict
Social Planning: Worker Roles
researcher, reporter, data analyst, program planner, program implementer, facilitator
Social Planning: Boundaries
total community or functional community defined by a common problem, such as the elderly or disabled needing special care
Social Planning: Agency Type
welfare councils, federal bureaucracy, planning board
Social Planning: Example
planning homeless shelters, after school recreation programs
Models of Practice: Social Action
requires an easily identifiable target and relatively clear cut, easily explainable goals
target is usually those community institutions that control and allocate funds, community resources, and power
Social Action: Examples of Situations Appropriate for Social Action Methods
conflicts between landlords and tenants, or employers and employees
direct action may be the only way to convince those with power to relinquish some of their resources and power
Social Action: Early Settlement Movement
used confrontation to achieve social goals, and frequently supported the efforts of unions to organize and to secure improved wages and better working conditions
Social Action: Change Strategy
issues identified, labeled, and described
individuals affected are helped to take action against powerful community institutions
Social Action: Worker Roles
advocate, activist, and negotiator
the worker is committed to a cause and pursues it with the clients and others
Social Action: Tactics
conflict, confrontation, contest, and direct action
Social Action: Examples
welfare rights organizing, tenant organizing, working with women’s rights movement
Models of Practice: Social Reform
work with other organizations for the disadvantages
workers role is to develop coalitions of various groups to pressure for change
by changing laws, the worker can overcome community resistance to local programs