Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Community development
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Definitions == There are complementary definitions of community development. The United Nations defines ''community development'' broadly as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems."<ref name="unterm" /> and the International Association for Community Development defines it as both a practice based profession and an academic discipline. Following the adoption of the IACD definition in 2016, the association has gone on to produce International Standards for Community Development Practice. The values and ethos that should underpin practice can be expressed as: Commitment to rights, solidarity, democracy, equality, environmental and social justice. The purpose of community development is understood by IACD as being to work with communities to achieve participative democracy, sustainable development, rights, economic opportunity, equality and social justice. This practice is carried out by people in different roles and contexts, including people explicitly called professional [[Community Worker|community workers]] (and people taking on essentially the same role but with a different job title), together with professionals in other occupations ranging from [[social work]], [[adult education]], [[youth work]], [[Health professional|health disciplines]], [[environmental education]], [[local economic development]], to [[urban planning]], [[Urban regeneration|regeneration]], [[architecture]] and more who seek to apply community development values and adopt community development methods. Community development practice also encompasses a range of occupational settings and levels from development roles working with communities, through to managerial and strategic community planning roles. The Community Development Challenge report, which was produced by a working party comprising leading UK organizations in the field including the (now defunct) Community Development Foundation, the (now defunct) [[Community Development Exchange]] and the (now defunct) Federation for Community Development Learning defines community development as: <blockquote>A set of values and practices which plays a special role in overcoming poverty and disadvantage, knitting society together at [[Grassroots democracy|the grass roots]] and deepening democracy. There is a community development profession, defined by national occupational standards and a body of theory and experience going back the best part of a century. There are active citizens who use community development techniques on a voluntary basis, and there are also other professions and agencies which use a community development approach or some aspects of it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cdf.org.uk/SITE/UPLOAD/DOCUMENT/communitydevelopmentchallenge.pdf |title=Community Development Challenge Report |access-date=2009-02-13 |publisher=Produced by Community Development Foundation for Communities and Local Government |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127230744/http://www.cdf.org.uk/SITE/UPLOAD/DOCUMENT/communitydevelopmentchallenge.pdf |archive-date=2018-01-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote> Community Development Exchange defines community development as: <blockquote>both an occupation (such as a community development worker in a local authority) and a way of working with communities. Its key purpose is to build communities based on justice, equality and mutual respect. Community development involves changing the relationships between ordinary people and people in positions of power, so that everyone can take part in the issues that affect their lives. It starts from the principle that within any community there is a wealth of knowledge and experience which, if used in creative ways, can be channeled into collective action to achieve the communities' desired goals. Community development practitioners work alongside people in communities to help build relationships with key people and organizations and to identify common concerns. They create opportunities for :the community to learn new skills and, by enabling people to act together, community development practitioners help to foster social inclusion and equality.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cdx.org.uk/community-development/what-community-development |title=Definition of CD |access-date=2010-06-08 |publisher=Community Development Exchange |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714160130/http://www.cdx.org.uk/community-development/what-community-development |archive-date=2010-07-14 }}</ref></blockquote>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)