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Community Development Principles – Frequently Flaunted?

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Julian Dobson usefully reminded me this morning;

Cracking on with ideas is good. Rooting them in community development principles and practical action is even better.

But what are these principles?  A quick bit of web research found this list from CDX in Sheffield:

Values

Community development workers support individuals, groups and organisations in this process on the basis of certain values and practice principles.

The values at the core of community development are:

  • social justice
  • self-determination
  • working and learning together
  • sustainable communities
  • participation
  • reflective practice

The practice principles that underpin these values are:

Social justice

  • respecting and valuing diversity and difference
  • challenging oppressive and discriminatory actions and attitudes
  • addressing power imbalances between individuals, within groups and society
  • committing to pursue civil and human rights for all
  • seeking and promoting policy and practices that are just and enhance equality whilst challenging those that are not

Self-determination

  • valuing the concerns or issues that communities identify as their starting points
  • raising people’s awareness of the range of choices open to them, providing opportunities for discussion of implications of options
  • promoting the view that communities do not have the right to oppress other communities
  • working with conflict within communities

Working and learning together

  • demonstrating that collective working is effective
  • supporting and developing individuals to contribute effectively to communities
  • developing a culture of informed and accountable decision making
  • ensuring all perspectives within the community are considered
  • sharing good practice in order to learn from each other

Sustainable communities

  • promoting the empowerment of individuals and communities
  • supporting communities to develop their skills to take action
  • promoting the development of autonomous and accountable structures
  • learning from experiences as a basis for change
  • promoting effective collective and collaborative working
  • using resources with respect for the environment

Participation

  • promoting the participation of individuals and communities, particularly those traditionally marginalised / excluded
  • recognising and challenging barriers to full and effective participation
  • supporting communities to gain skills to engage in participation
  • developing structures that enable communities to participate effectively
  • sharing good practice in order to learn from each other

Reflective practice

  • promoting and supporting individual and collective learning through reflection on practice
  • changing practice in response to outcomes of reflection
  • recognising the constraints and contexts within which community development takes place
  • recognising the importance of keeping others informed and updated about the wider context

This looks like a pretty good list of design criteria.

  • Anything missing?
  • Anything better?

Reading through this list and reviewing some of the current enterprise and entrepreneurship programmes being delivered in the name of community development and regeneration I am finding it hard to find (m)any that don’t significantly fail several of these tests of principles and values.

And I can’t help but think this matters…

NB: Since this piece was written a new way of codifying the values that underpin community development has been agreed:

Equality and Anti-discrimination

Community development practice challenges structural inequalities and discriminatory practices. Community development recognises that people are not the same, but they are all of equal worth and importance and therefore entitled to the same degree of respect and acknowledgement.

Social Justice

The aim of increasing social justice is an essential element of community development practice. It involves identifying and seeking to alleviate structural disadvantage and advocating strategies for overcoming exclusion, discrimination and inequality.

Collective Action

Community development practice is essentially about working with and supporting groups of people, to increase their knowledge, skills and confidence so they can analyse their situations and identify issues which can be addressed through collective action.

Community Empowerment

Community development practice seeks the empowerment of individuals and communities, through using the strengths of the community to bring about desired changes.

Working and Learning Together

Community development practice promotes a collective process which enables participants to learn from reflecting on their experiences.

Working for Social Change? Like to share an office in Leeds?

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The Refugee Council, a charity working with asylum seekers and refugees, due to funding cuts, now has more office space than it currently needs and would like to explore the possibility of sharing our premises with other like minded, social change organisations.

We could offer a competitive rate, friendly atmosphere and a potential to work in partnership.

We have desk space for approx 12 people.

We also have a Resource Centre on site offering meeting, training and events space. Our address is Hurley House LS11 5DQ, 10 mins walking distance from Leeds station.

For more information please contact Charlotte.Cooke@refugeecouncil.org.uk 07880 723265.

Anti-discrimination and Equality in Community Development Work

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Community development work is underpinned by a set of values.   The first of these centres on anti-discrimination and equality. According to Lifelong Learning, Community Development work ‘challenges structural inequalities and discriminatory practices.  It recognises that people are not the same, but they are all of equal worth and importance and therefore entitled to the same degree of respect and acknowledgement’.

This is a pretty radical position and one that is by no means self -evident.  ‘People are not the same, but they are all of equal worth and importance and therefore entitled to the same degree of respect and acknowledgement’. So a convicted killer is of the same worth and importance as a Nobel prize winner?  We should treat them both with the same degree of entitlement and respect?

We should offer equal respect and acknowledgement to a learned professor and a teenager with an ASBO? To Nick Griffin and Bonnie Greer?

This about approaching what Rogers called ‘unconditional positive regard‘ and what Gandhi was getting at when he said,

“All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others.”

This is not about valuing and acknowledging people’s opinions, actions, beliefs and ideas equally – but about valuing the human being that stands behind them.

The latest draft of the occupational standards for community development workers go on to say:

Community Development practitioners work with communities and organisations to challenge the oppression and exclusion of individuals and groups. This will be undertaken in a way which:

  • Acknowledges where there is inequality and discrimination, and rejects and challenges any form of it
  • Supports and develops anti-oppressive policies and practices
  • Respects, values, supports and promotes the value of difference and diversity
  • Promotes and supports diverse communities to agree on their common concerns and interests
  • Acknowledges the diverse nature of society and seeks to understand and support others to understand the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to marginalised communities and minorities.

This requires an incredible act of tightrope walking.

  • To reject and challenge inequality and discrimination without oppressing?
  • To promote the value of difference and diversity while helping diverse communities to agree on common concerns?