Community Organization 1

The aim of community organisation is ‘developing a capacity’ in the community ‘by making it more organised’ to handle its own needs or problems. Community organisation is well-established method in social work. It has value orientation and the practice is guided by a set of general principles. In general, community organisation means helping the community to solve its problems. In the context of social work profession in India, the term is used to denote a method of social work to intervene in the life of a community.

DEFINITION:
1. Murray G. Ross (1967) defines community organisation as a “process by which a community identifies its needs or objectives, gives priority to them, develops the confidence and will to work at them, finds resources (internal and external) to deal with them, and in doing so, extends and develops co-cooperative and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community”.
2. Pattit(1925) defines CO as assisting a group of people to recognize their common needs and helping them to meet those needs.
3. Kramer and Specht (1975) defined that “Community organisation refers to various methods of intervention whereby a professional change agent helps a community action system composed of individuals, groups or organisations to engage in planned collective action in order to deal with special problems within the democratic system of values.”
Community Organization method is used for the following:
a. To meet the needs and bring about and maintain adjustment between needs and resources in a community.
b. Helping people effectively with their problems and objectives by helping them to develop, strengthen, and maintain qualities of participation, self-direction and cooperation.
c. Bringing about changes in community and group relationships and in the distribution of decision-making power.
d. The resources of the community are identified and tapped for solving the
community problems.

ASPECTS OF COMMUNITY ORGANISATION:
• Organized community groups attempt to influence government, corporations and institutions, seek to increase direct representation within decision-making bodies, and foster social reform.
• This allows them to draw in and educate participants, build commitment, and establish a reputation for winning.
• Organizing seeks to broadly empower community members, with the end goal of distributing power more equally throughout the community.


THREE BASIC TYPES OF COMMUNITY ORGANISING:
1. Grassroots and "Door-Knocking" Groups
2. Faith-Based Community Organizing (FBCO)
3. Coalition Building.





1. Grassroots and "Door-Knocking" Groups
Grassroots organizing builds community groups from scratch, developing new leadership where none existed and organizing the unorganized. It is a values based process where people are brought together to act in the interest of their communities and the common good. Networks of community organizations that employ this method and support local organizing groups include National People's Action and ACORN.

2. Faith-Based Community Organizing (FBCO)
Faith-based community organizing (FBCO), also known as Congregation-based Community Organizing, is a methodology for developing power and relationships throughout a community of institutions: today mostly congregations, but these can also include unions, neighborhood associations, and other groups. Progressive and centrist FBCO organizations join together around basic values derived from common aspects of their faith instead of around strict dogmas. There are now at least 180 FBCOs in the US as well as in South Africa, England, Germany, and other nations.
FBCOs focus on the long-term development of a culture and common language of organizing and on the development of relational ties between members.

PRINCIPLES OF CO:
Siddiqui (1997) have worked out a set of 8 principles.
1. The Principle of Specific Objectives
2. The Principle of Planning
3. The Principle of Peoples Participation
4. The Principle of inter-group approach
5. The Principle of democratic functioning
6. The Principle of flexible organisation
7. The Principle of Optimum Utilisation of Indigenous Resources
8. The Principle of Cultural orientation
PHILOSOPHY OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION:
• The fundamental philosophy of the community organizations is the principle of “Co-operative spirit" which promotes the people to unite together to address a common issue.
• Community organization recognizes the spirit of democratic values and principles and community organization is about is creating democratic involvement.
• Organizing is about empowering. When people unite together, barring all discriminations and get involved in the community organizations, they develop confidence. This empowerment comes when people learn skills to help themselves and others. The collective action helps in community building.
• The community organization recognizes the power of individual. It believes, through the collective strength of the people, better teamwork and adopting scientific methods can make comprehensive social problems.
• Another Philosophy is that of coordination. It is concerned with the adjustments and inter-relations of the forces in the community life for a common welfare.

HISTORY OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION:
In a broad sense we can say wherever people have lived together, some form of organisations has emerged. These informal associations of people always tried to do good to the people in need and protect the rights of the society. On the contrary the history talks about the formal organizations which were set up for the welfare of the community. The first efforts at community organization for social welfare were initiated in England to overcome the acute problem of poverty, which led to beggary.
The first effort of its kind was the Elizabethan poor law (1601) in England, which was set up to provide services to the needy. Another important landmark in the history of community organization is the formation of London Society of organizing charitable relief and repressing mendicancy and the Origin of the settlement house Movement in England during 1880.
In fact, these movements had a major impact in the United States of America. In 1880 the Charities organization was set up to put rational order in the area of charity and relief.
The major community organization activities in the United States could be classified in to three periods:
The Charity organization period. 1870-1917:
This era is the beginnings in social welfare in USA. The first (COS) Charity organization Society was established in the Buffalo in 1877 in USA. This movement was started with the influence of London Charity organization established in 1869. With in a short span of six years the COS had reached to more than 25 American cities.
Charity organization was concerned about two things:
Providing adequate personal services to families and individuals in need
Take steps to address the issues/problems in social welfare.
2. The rise of Federation 1917 to 1935
A large number of chests and councils came up after world war 1.The American Association for Community Organization was organized in 1918 as the national agency for chests and councils and it later became known as community chests and councils of (CCC) America. The Cincinnati Public Health Federation, established in 1917 was the first independent health council in American City. It is in this period that the American Association of social workers organized in 1921, the first general professional organisations, set up its training for the social workers and others who specialized in community organization.
A community chest is a voluntary welfare agency, co-operative organization of citizens and welfare agencies, which is the powerful local force for community welfare origination that handles large funds. It has two functions. It raises funds through a community -wide appeal and distributes them according to a systematic budget procedure. Secondly it promotes co-operative planning. co-ordination and administration of the communities social welfare.




3. Period of Expansion and professional Development 1935 to present time.
A marked significance of this era is the establishment of Federal Security Agency where we see the maximized involvement of the Govt. in welfare programs. In 1946 the agency was strengthened and re-organized following which in 1953 Department of Health, education and Welfare was established.
In 1946, at the National conference of social work in Buffalo, the Association of the study of community organization (ASCO) was organized. The main objective was to improve the professional practice of organization for social welfare. In 1955, ASCO merged with six other professional organisations to form the National Association of social workers. Community organization has been recognized as integral and important aspect of social work education in the American Association of Schools of social work education. At present thee is an active committee of Council on social work education involved in the production of teaching materials in community organization.
The first contemporary textbook on community organization titled " Community Organization for social welfare " published in 1945 has been written by Wayne McMilen's .
Another development in the history of community development is seen in the wake of World War II. Wartime needs were very special and crucial. During this time many councils and community war services came to the forefront. Among them (USO) united service organization is of prime importance as it was the union of many forces that served the needs of the military personnel and defense communities. The other striking characteristics of the period is the immense increase in the volunteer service i.e. defense council, American Red Cross and USO which co-ordinated and recruited the volunteers.
The other developments that took place after the World War II are as follows that are very specific to community organization area as follows.
The rehabilitation of the physically and mentally challenged
Mental health planning, problems of the aging
Prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency.
The present situation in community organization is the emergence of the new community development programs, which aims at providing, services to the less developed areas in the international social welfare. Therefore the present agenda is on working with the whole community and a greater emphasis on self -help.











HISTORY OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION IN INDIA
A historical account of the community organization is not available in India, as there has been only a rare documentation on social work literature in general and community organization in particular.
In India, the very concept of charity is deep rooted in the religious philosophy. Even before the commencement of the social work education in India in 1937, the community work was in place. But in the first phase from 1937 to 1952 the community work was in a dormant stage. During this period the social work was in its infancy and not many were employed in the community settings because. There were hardly any jobs that provided an opening for community organization. Professionals preferred to work in casework settings.
It was in 1952 the community development project was launched in India and with this we find the emergence of a new era of community work. The basic objective of community development in India was to awaken the rural people of their needs, instilling in them a sense of ambition for better life and making them aware of their right and power to find a solution for their problems. According to Mukerji (1961) Community development is a movement designed to promote better living for the whole community with the active participation and if possible with the initiative of community" According to him community development can be divided in to two process. 1.Extension education 2.Community organization. Extension education was expected to improve the quality of human beings by improving his/her knowledge and skills. By community organization Mukerji had in mind the setting up of three institutions in the village.
Village Panchayat
The village co-operative
The village school
During this period the thrust of the community work remained rural where as social work remained urban in character.
From 1970 onwards we could see a new trend in the community work practice. The social workers expanded their scope and operational area from their traditional approach of casework. to other developments fields. For example people working with school children started working with the community. The Ngo's and voluntary organization adopted a community approach. This shift has in-fact led to the use of process of community work. By and large the community work has remained welfare -oriented.
The current phase of community work in India is experiencing a growing dissatisfaction with its own practice or rather the out come of its practice. So efforts are on to create alternate ways of working with communities. In-spite of these, the professionals is involved in a variety of projects in both rural and urban areas to promote better living for the community.
Another trend in the community work is the involvement of the Business houses in promoting welfare in their neighborhood. This is commonly known as CSR. (Corporate social responsibilities) The business houses i.e. Tats, Escorts, and some of the multinational companies too have joined in this venture. This trend has attracted many professionals in this field

The Relevance of Community Organization for community Development.
Community Organization and community Development are interrelated. To achieve the goals of community development the Community Organization method is used. According to United Nations, community development deals with total development of a developing country that is economic, physical, and social aspects. For achieving total development community organization is used. In community development the following aspects are considered as important. The same aspects are also considered as important by community organization. They are,
a. Democratic procedures
b. Voluntary Cooperation
c. Self help
d. Development of leadership
e. Educational aspects.
All the above aspects are related with community organization. [a]Democratic procedures deal with allowing all the community members to participate in decision-making. It is possible to achieve this by community organization. The selected or elected members or representatives are helped to take decisions. Democratic procedures help people to take part in achieving community development goals. Community organization method permits the democratic procedures for people’s participation
[b] Voluntary cooperation means the people are suppose to volunteer for their participation. For this they are convinced. They should feel that they should involve in the process of development without hesitation. This is supported by community organization method. People’s emotional involvement is necessary according to community organization method. If discontentment is created properly then people will volunteer for participation. Community organization emphasizes the discontentment and people’s participation.
[c] Self-help is the basis for community development. Self-help deals with the capacity of mobilizing internal resources. Self-help is the basis for self-sufficiency and sustainable development. In community organization self-help is emphasized. Community organization is relevant to community development because both emphasizes the self-help concepts.
[d] Development of leadership is an important aspect in community development. Leadership deals with influencing people to achieve the goals. Community organization also emphasizes leadership. With the help of leaders the people are motivated to participate in action. Community organization is a relevant method to develop and use leadership. So it is applicable for community development.
[e] Educational aspects in community development means helping people to know, learn, many of the aspects like, democracy, cooperation, unity, skill development, effective functioning etc. In community organization the above mentioned aspects are considered as important. The process of community organization emphasizes education of the community. Thus both are emphasizing educational aspects of the community. Thus community organization and community development are interrelated and relevant. There are no opposing aspects in between community organization and community development and both emphasize the same aspects. Thus they are relevant. So in all community development programmes community organization method is used as implementing method.




Distinction between Community Organization and Community Development:

S.NO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
1 CO is a method of social work. CD is a programme for planned change.
2 Maximum emphasis on process. Core stress to end or goal.
3 Community organizers are mostly social workers and social change agents. Community development personnel can be from other professions like economics, Agricultural experts, veterinary experts, and other technical experts.

4 Community organization is not time bound. It is achieved step by step according to the pace of the people. Community development is time bound and time is specified for achieving the development.

5 In community organization people’s participation is important. In community development people’s development is important.

6 In community organization government and external agencies assistances are not important and needed. In community development external especially assistance from the government is considered as important.

7 Community organization planning is initiated by the people participation. In community development planning is carried out by an external agency mostly by the government.

8 In community organization people are organized to solve their problem. But in community development goals have to be achieved and for that people are organized.
9 Community organization is universal to all communities. Community development programmes differ from people to people and according to the nature of the country.

10 Community organization is used in all the fields. Community development is used in mostly economic development and for the development of living standards of the people.






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