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About community development
Community development is a set of values embodied in an occupation. It often plays a special role in overcoming poverty and disadvantage, knitting society together at the grass roots and deepening democracy.
Its purpose is to help groups and networks of people take joint action on matters that concern them for the public good, and enable individuals to influence the decisions that affect their lives.
The Community Development Challenge maps out the way forward for community development.
Community development combines 6 aspects:
- helping people find common cause on issues that affect them
- helping people work together on such issues under their own control
- building the strengths and independence of community groups, organisations and networks
- building equity, inclusiveness, participation and cohesion amongst people and their groups and organisations
- empowering people and their organisations where appropriate to influence and help transform public policies and services and other factors affecting the conditions of their lives
- advising and informing public authorities on community needs, viewpoints and processes and assisting them to strengthen communities and work in genuine partnership with them
This definition comes from the Community Development Challenge, published in 2006 by the leading organisations in community development and outlines a vision of a way forward for community development. The group made up of national community development organisations, academics, funders and practitioners.
What are communities?
Communities are diverse and fluid. Other people cannot tell you what community you belong to – it is self defined. Today, many feel part of their community in a geographical sense; others belong to online communities; others feel part of communities of a shared interest for example, by their ethnicity, sexuality or faith.