{"id":345,"date":"2009-11-02T09:30:47","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T09:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedscd.wordpress.com\/?p=8"},"modified":"2009-11-02T09:30:47","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T09:30:47","slug":"anti-discrimination-and-equality-in-community-development-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2009\/11\/02\/anti-discrimination-and-equality-in-community-development-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-discrimination and Equality in Community Development Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community development work is underpinned by a set of values. \u00a0 The first of these centres on anti-discrimination and equality. According to Lifelong\u00a0Learning<\/a>, Community Development work ‘challenges structural inequalities and discriminatory practices.\u00a0 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’.<\/p>\n

This is a pretty radical position and one that is by no means self -evident. \u00a0‘People are not the same, but they are all of equal worth and importance and therefore entitled to the\u00a0same\u00a0degree of\u00a0respect\u00a0and acknowledgement’.<\/em> So a convicted killer is of the same worth and importance as a\u00a0Nobel\u00a0prize winner? \u00a0We should treat them both with the same degree of entitlement and respect?<\/p>\n

We should offer equal\u00a0respect\u00a0and acknowledgement to a learned professor and a teenager with an ASBO? To Nick Griffin and Bonnie Greer?<\/p>\n

This about approaching what Rogers called ‘unconditional positive regard<\/a>‘ and what Gandhi was getting at when he said,<\/p>\n

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\u201cAll humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others.\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is not about valuing and acknowledging people’s opinions, actions,\u00a0beliefs\u00a0and ideas equally – but about valuing the human being that stands behind them.<\/p>\n

The latest draft of the occupational standards for community development workers go on to say:<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

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