The primary outcome of community development is improved quality of life. Effective community development results in mutual benefit and shared responsibility among community members and recognizes:

The connection between social, cultural, environmental and economic matters; the diversity of interests within a community; and its relationship to building capacity.

Community development requires and helps to build community capacity to address issues and to take advantage of opportunities, to find common ground and to balance competing interests. It does not just happen — it requires both a conscious and a conscientious effort to do something (or many things) to improve the community.

Let’s consider some of the assumptions about the words "community" and "development".

Community

Often when we think of the term community, we think in geographic terms. Our community is the location (i.e. city, town or village) where we live.

When community is defined through physical location, it can be defined by precise boundaries that are readily understood and accepted by others.

Defining communities in terms of geography, however, is only one way of looking at them. Communities can also be defined by common cultural heritage, language, and beliefs or shared interests. These are sometimes called communities of interest.

Even when community does refer to a geographic location, it does not always include everyone within the area. For example, many Aboriginal communities are part of a larger non-Aboriginal geography. In larger urban centres, communities are often defined in terms of particular neighbourhoods.

Most of us belong to more than one community, whether we are aware of it or not. For example, an individual can be part of a neighbourhood community, a religious community and a community of shared interests all at the same time. Relationships, whether with people or the land, define a community for each individual.

Development

The term development often carries with it an assumption of growth and expansion. During the industrial era, development was strongly connected to increased speed, volume and size. Many are currently questioning the concept of growth for numerous reasons. There is a realization that more is not always better. Increasingly, there is respect for reducing outside dependencies and lowering levels of consumerism. The term development, therefore, may not always mean growth; it does, however, always imply change.

The community development process takes charge of the conditions and factors that influence a community and changes the quality of life of its members. Community development is a tool for managing change and, therefore, is not:

  • a quick fix or a short-term response to a specific issue within a community ,
  • a process that seeks to exclude community members from participating, or
  • an initiative that occurs in isolation from other related community activity .

 Community development is about community building as such, with the process as important as the results. One of the primary challenges of community development is to balance the need for long-term solutions with the day-to-day realities that require immediate decision and short-term action.

 

 

Flo Frank, Anne Smith (1999), THE COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENT HANDBOOK, AT OOLT OBUILD COMMUNITYCAP ACITY, for Human Resources Development Canada.

http://www .hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/community