COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

DEFINITION
 A process by which people, health services and agencies of the
community are brought together to
 1. Learn about common problems
 2. Identify these problems as their own
 3. Plan the kind of action needed to solve these problems
 4. act on this basis

BENEFITS
 1. It contributes to the establishment of an environment with different
community resources – natural, institutional, technical, financial and
human resources – and can function with maximum effectiveness.
 2. It stimulates the various groups to examine their programs to
determine how well they are meeting their problems.
 3. People are given a chance to study their problems, offer solutions
and give a chance to plan an action
 4. As a result of this working together, a strong unity and coherence is
developed among various organizations and leaders of the community
represented so that they developed a feeling of responsibility for
making the program successful.
 5. Community organization sets up action pattern to solve problems.

PRINCIPLES IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

 1. Planning group needs to represent all people concerned and the
discussion must include people with technical knowledge of health
problems.
 2. Technique of asking questions is often important in developing
community organization and group discussion
 3. Major discussion should be made by the entire group
 4. Local factors and available personnel should be asked in
determining what types of organization is desirable and practicable.
 5. Functions of an agency and members must be defined
 6. A good organizational plan can succeed only when the people who
operate it will see its values which are compatible personally and not
antagonistic professionally.

PHASES OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

 1. Preparatory Phase
 2. Organizational Phase
 3. Education and Training
 4. Intersectoral Coordination Phase
 5. Phase Out

PREPARATORY PHASE
 AREA OR SITE SELECTION
 COMMUNITY STUDY OR SOCIAL INVESTIGATION
 ENTRY TO THE COMMUNITY AND INTEGRATION

ORGANIZATIONAL PHASE
 SOCIAL PREPARATION
 SPOTTING OF POTENTIAL COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER
 SMALL GROUP BUILDING
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
 REGULAR BUSINESS AND STUDY MEETINGS
 CONDUCTING COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS
 ACTUAL TRAINING SERVICES

INTERSECTORAL COORDINATION PHASE

 ESTABLISHING LINKS WITH OTHER SECTORS
 ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT OF ORGANIZING EFFORTS OF OTHER
SECTORS
 DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY LEADERS, LINERS
 CORE GROUP FORMATION

PHASE OUT
 REFERRAL TO COORDINATING BODY
 PERIODIC FOLLOW UP

FIVE CRITICAL ORGANIZING TASKS

 1. COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS
 2. COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
 3. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
 4. LEADER IDENTIFICATION AND GROUP FORMATION
 5. VALUES / PRINCIPLES CLARIFICATION

1. COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS
 Equivalent to the awakening or consciousness – raising phase
 Solution analysis
 Has to be done together with people to ensure that it becomes a tool
for conscientization, and not simply a purely administrative chore.

Major Activities
 Data Gathering
 Data Collection and Analysis
 Data Dissemination and Validation

2. COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
 organizing people to act on identification problems on a sustained level

Major Activities
 Community Planning
 Organizational Mechanics
 Group Assessment

3. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
 Project management
 a process of systematic identification, selection, acquisition, and
utilization of
resources towards of project objectives

Major Activities
 Advocacy
 Solicitation from NGO’s
4. LEADER IDENTIFICATION AND GROUP FORMATION
 CO espouses the distribution of leadership skills among several people
in grassroots organization; there should be no monopoly of control and
decision making by an “ elite poor “
 there can be different leaders for different tasks
 Training should not be concentrated on the officers of the organization
 the general membership has to be given equal opportunities to
develop their capacities and to increase their awareness
 The more members are trained in leadership and are given
opportunities to lead, the better prepared they will be to take on
responsibilities in the future.

 Major Activities
 Sociogram and character analysis
 Officers Training
 Ownership Trainings
 Training of Project Development, monitoring evaluation
 On – the – job training
 Team building

5. VALUES/PRINCIPLES CLARIFICATION
 When organizing people for power, caution has to be taken to ensure
that this power is not abused. There is necessity to undertake value
formation/clarification and principled-transactions among members of
the organization.
 The project around which the community is mobilized should not be
allowed to become a source of conflict and to lead to the eventual
disintegration of the group.
 On values and principles
 There should be a review of the values for which the organization was
created, and a review of how these values are actualized. Conflicts
themselves are natural and arise in any manner by which these are
resolved that matters.

Major Activities
 Feedback mechanisms between and among officers and members
 Retreats and recollection
 Affirmation of persons for “being” and “doing”
 Principles negotiations and mediation

APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

 1. WELFARE APPROACH
 2. MODERNIZATION APPROACH
 3. TRANSFORMATORY / PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

WELFARE APPROACH
 the immediate and or spontaneous response to ameliorate the
manifestation of poverty, especially on the personal level
 assume that poverty is God given; destined, hence the poor should
accept their condition since they will receive their just reward in
heaven
  Believes that poverty is caused by bad luck, natural disasters and
certain circumstances which are beyond the control of people

MODERNIZATION APPROACH
 also referred as the Project Development approach
 introduces whatever resources are lacking in a given community
 also considered a national strategy which adopts the western mode of
technological development
 assumes that development consists of abandoning the traditional
methods of doing things and must adopt the technology of industrial
countries
 believes that poverty is due to lack of education; lack of resources
such as capital and technology.

TRANSFORMATORY/ PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

 process of empowering/transforming the poor and the oppressed
sectors of society so that they can pursue more just and humane
society
 assumes that poverty is not God given, rather it is rooted in the
historical past and is maintained by the oppressive structures in the
society
 believes that poverty is caused by the prevalence of exploitation,
oppression, domination and other unjust structures.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PARTICIPATORY ACTION

RESEARCH ( COPAR)
DEFINITION
- a social development approach that aims to transform the apathetic, individualistic, and
voiceless poor into dynamic, participatory and politically responsive community.

- a collective, participatory, transformative, liberative, sustained and systematic process of

building people’s organizations by mobilizing and enhancing the capabilities and resources of
the people for the resolution of their issues and concerns.

- a process by which a community identifies its needs and objectives, develops confidence to
take action in respect to them and in doing so, extends and develops cooperative and
collaborative attitudes and practices in the community.

- a continuous and sustained process of educating people to understand and develop their critical
awareness of their existing conditions, working with the people collectively and efficiently on
their immediate and long term problems, and mobilizing the people to develop their capability
and readiness to respond and take action on their immediate needs toward solving their own
problems.

IMPORTANCE

 COPAR is an important tool for Community Development and People Empowerment as

this helps the community workers to generate community participation in development
activities..
 COPAR prepares people to eventually take over the management of a development
program in the future. COPAR maximizes community participation and involvement ;
community resources are mobilized for community services.

PRINCIPLES
  People, especially the most depressed, exploited and deprived sectors are open to change,
and are able to bring about change.
 COPAR should be based on the interests of the poorest of the society.
 COPAR should lead to a self – reliant community and society.

GOALS

A sustained community which empowers capacity to be aware and learn to solve their own
problem

WAYS TO ACHIEVE GOALS

 Educate people to understand and develop critical consciousness of their existing

conditions.
 Organizing people to work collectively and effectively on their problems .
 Mobilizing people to develop their capability and readiness to respond and to take action
on their immediate need toward solving their lomg term problems.

KEY CONCEPTS

 Participation
 Conscientization
 Action

PARTICIPATION
- communication between government and government organizations

CONSCIENTIZATION
- able to learn Research Principles through their participation, thus in the process,
increase their awareness.

ACTION
- movement activity, active

METHODS USED

 Progressive – action – reflection – action

 Consciousness Raising
 Participatory and Mass based
 Group Centered

ACTION-REFLECTION-ACTION
 begins with small, local and concrete issues identified by the people and the evaluation
and reflection of and on the action taken by them

CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
 consciousness raising through experiential learning is central to the COPAR process
because it places emphasis on learning that emerges from concrete action and which
enriches succeeding action.

PARTICIPATORY & MASS BASED

 because it is primarily directed towards and biased in favor of the poor, the powerless and
the oppressed
GROUP CENTERED
 - leaders are identified, emerged and are tested through action rather than appointed or
selected by some external force or entity.

PHASES OF THE COPAR PROCESS

 Pre – entry
 Entry
 Organization – building
 Sustenance and Strengthening

PRE-ENTRY
 initial phase where organizer looks for communities to serve
 Simplest in terms of actual outputs, activities and strategies and time spent for it.

ENTRY
 sometimes called the Social Preparation Phase
 signals the actual entry of the community worker in to the community
 activities includes sensitization of the people on the critical events of their life
 guided by following principles…

GUIDELINES IN THE ENTRY PHASE

 Recognize the role of local authorities by paying them visits to inform of their presence
and activities
 The appearance, speech, behavior and lifestyle should be in keeping with those of the
community residents without disregard of their being role models.
 Avoid raising the consciousness of the community residents, adopts low key profile

ORGANIZATION BUILDING PHASE

 entails the formation of more formal structures and the inclusion of more formal
procedures of planning, implementing and evaluating.
 where the organized groups, leaders are being given trainings in managing their own
programs / concerns

SUSTENANCE & STRENGTHENING PHASE

 occurs when the community organization has already been established and the
community members are already actively participating.
 the different committees are already functioning by way of planning, implementing and
evaluating.

STRATEGIES IN THE SUSTENANCE PHASE

 Education and Training
 Networking and Linkaging
 Conduct of Mobilization on health and dev’t concerns
 Developing Secondary Leaders

CRITICAL STEPS IN BUILDING PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION

 Integration
 Social Investigation
 Tentative Program planning
 Groundwork
 Role Play
 Mobilization or Action
 Evaluation
  Reflection
 The Meeting
 Organization

CRITICAL STEPS IN BUILDING PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION

 Integration – a CO becoming one with the people to:
 a. immerse himself in the poor community
 b. understand deeply the culture, economy, leaders, history, lifetsyle in the community

SOCIAL INVESTIGATION
 - A systematic process of collecting, collating, analyzing data to draw a clear picture of
the community

POINTERS FOR THE CONDUCT OF SOCIAL INVESTIGATION

 1. Use of survey questionnaires are discouraged
 2. Community leaders can be trained to initially assist the community worker.