Dunbar (1972): “a series of community improvements which take place over time as a result of the common efforts of various groups of people. Each successive improvement is a discrete unit of community development. It meets a human want or need.”

Long (1975): “an educational process designed to help adults in a community solve their problems by group decision making and group action. Most community development models include broad citizen involvement and training in problem solving.”

Oberle, Darby, and Stoweres (1975): “a process in which increasingly more members of a given area or environmental make and implement socially responsible decisions, the probable consequence of which is an increase in the life chances of some people without a decrease in the life chances of others.”

Voth (1975): “a situation in which some groups, usually locality based such as a neighborhood or local community …. Attempt to improve [their] social and economic situation through [their] own efforts . . . using professional assistance and perhaps also financial assistance from the outside . . . and involving all sectors of the community or group to a maximum.”