Week 1 Chapter 1: Understanding Community

What is Community?

• Do they have boundaries?

  • Are these boundaries geographic (a city, a neighborhood, or something broader than these)

• Is it built on common interests, culture, ethnicity or shared experiences or concern?

• Is it virtual?

• Has long been a central theme in the study of sociology

Three Common Characteristics of Community

• Locale, or geographic area

• Common ties

• Social interactions

Early Foundational Work: Locale

• A reference to a place

• A central descriptor for community

• Has been widely accepted across disciplines

Sociology Characteristics

• Locale, geographic area

• Common ties, social interactions, and social capital

• Builds on concepts of social capital

Public Health

• Sees the community as a population

• Identifies social and political responsibility of the community

Psychology

• Introduces emotional connections and feelings associated with the “sense of community”

Cultural Anthropology

• Examining structure, norms, and social beliefs that bring people together

• Tends to take an ethnographic perspective of community

Anthropology: Hiller

• Proposed that groups of people differing in terms of place and time may also differ in their interpretations of meaning surrounding locale

• Distinguished between community and the community

• Separated the idea of common ties and social interactions from locale

• Community is the most powerful of the two concepts, emphasizing moral commitment, social cohesion, and continuity in time, or Gemeinschaft

Biology

• Breeding population

• Community means a good deal more to humans than a group with which one may breed

• A setting in which human beings learn how to be fully human

Community

• Common goal or the motivating reason for people to come together

• Thrives of self help and equal consent

• People come together to do something that cannot be done in isolation

• A group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations or settings

• Is suggested that people come together to do something that cannot be done in isolation

• A collection of people who interact together in the same environment

• Emphasizes the experience of belonging

• It means to be part of something (a membership) and with that membership comes accountability

• Interested in promoting “healthy” communities where people are interdependent

Community in Our Cultural World

• The setting in which, from one generation to the next, human beings learn ho to be fully human

Community as a Metaphor

• The world is in crisis, offering both danger and opportunity

• Saw community building as the only viable way to maintain society as the world is transformed

What Does Community Mean Today?

• Collective groupings

• Experience of belonging

• Membership→ accountability→ transformation and change

• Healthy communities

  • People are interdependent on each other

Capacity Building

• A central tenant of communities

• Learn to help themselves

• Focus: Help people become change agents rather than objects of change

Key Components of Capacity Building

• A sense of community

• A level of commitment

• The ability to solve problems

• Access to resources

Occupational Therapy in the Community

• Community focus

  • Defined by condition

  • Ex: children with disabilities

• Overlapping communities and complex nature of relationships in society

  • Ex: introducing a new program in the community, how it will impact them

• What kinds of services a community might want, needs, and value?

Locale, Unity, Technology, and the Future

• Communities, represented by no fixed locale

• Still offer a strong sense of unity

Age in Place

• To remain in the homes and communities to which they have become accustomed and that they “belong to”

Virtual Communities

• Expanded understandings on definitions of community

• Threats that come with virtual communities

• Many avail themselves of the information and connections it provides as a component of their daily round of occupational engagement

• Today have become commonplace

• Can be seen as offering a wide range of opportunities from access in the form of supporting a cause to marketing products and services

Globalization

• Connection

• Availability of diverse information

Attention to “Communitarian Design, Architecture, and Planning”

• We can make our physical environments (both private and public spaces), as well as all of the contexts of practice more community-friendly

• People should be provided with shared space within which to mingle, and that development should be planned in ways that enhance rather than hinder the sociological mix that sustains a community

Designing Physical Spaces that Support Community

• Spaces that are formally planned as meeting places are most often designed for control, negotiation, and persuasion rather than communal intimacy

Attributes that Demonstrates a “Sense of the Whole” or Community

• A sense of community ownership

• Engagement in meaningful work

• Eecological sustainability

• Respect for differences

Ecological Sustainability

• A sustainable way of life recognizes that Earth’s resources (food, water, etc.) are finite and the growth of all living systems is limited

• When our lifestyles are aligned with principles of sustainability, we feel more secure and self-respecting and when they are not, we often feel vaguely uneasy

Community-Centered Practitioners: Wanting to Help- Nurses

• Community as a point of service

• The first practitioner to consider community as a point of service as well as investigation

• Home- and community-based practices of conventional nursing were recognized as among the most efficient and effective ways to deliver service to individuals and families

• Concerns have always actively included public health issues

• The profession has concerned itself with altering unsafe physical environments, addressing health-threatening hygienic conditions of individuals and populations, and promoting the immunization of children

• Has been devising theoretical structures to address additional community-centered issues such as oppressive social arrangements, poverty, and political disenfranchisement

• Today, is addressing the multiple needs of whole communities as well as of target groups within communities

Emancipatory

• The practices advocated by the nursing profession

• Designed to free individuals and groups from oppressive situations through education, practice, and action

Community-Centered Practitioners: Wanting to Help- Psychologists

• Power and organizational structures

• Are seen as changemakers as well as providers of professional care

Community-Centered Practitioners: Wanting to Help- Social Workers

• Have seated the core of their practices in communities through aggregates of individuals as well as individuals and families within the larger community

• These practitioners have developed their own theoretical constructs to address the needs of individuals within communities and the structures of organizations that, at times, may assist or impede a successful individual and family interface with the larger community

Meaning of Community for Occupational Therapists

• Address not only the needs of the person, but also societal and environmental factors that affect the health and and well-being of individuals and populations

• Needs of the individual + contextual factors that affect health and well-being of individuals and populations

• Not only based on relationships, but also partnerships and coalitions

  • The inclusion of relationships has implications for OT practice that go beyond the locations of practice

  • Context (actual space) may be important because it influences the relationships

• Com (“with”)

• Unity (“togetherness and connectedness”)

Factors or Functions of Particular Interest to Occupation-Centered Program Designers: Community Can Serve as an

• Sociability arena where members are able to develop friendships through regular interaction

• Organizational base where members feel a kindred notion of commonality, leading to an organization or unique banding together

• Reference group suggesting an identification

Elements of Community Reflected in Occupation-Centered Programming

• Common theme

• Membership

• Rituals for community building

• Patterns

• Jargon

• Memory

Elements of Community Reflected in Occupation-Centered Programming: Common/Shared Theme

• All communities share this and, for many of our community programs, this “shared theme” is expressed in our mission and goals

• Sometimes is the reason for meeting, as in the structure of clubs

• Expressed in the organization’s mission and goals

Elements of Community Reflected in Occupation-Centered Programming: Membership

• Gathering around a theme/purpose that provides a structure for membership

• Sometimes it is formal and other times it is informal

Elements of Community Reflected in Occupation-Centered Programming: Rituals for Community Building

• May be formal or informal

• Important for community building

• Ex:

  • Saying a pledge, establishing the “behavioral” rules of the day, and putting on your club T-shirt may be formal indicators that you are meeting for an agreed purpose

  • For more of an informal ritual, gathering for a cup of coffee and conversation before initiating work in a community garden is no less meaningful

Elements of Community Reflected in Occupation-Centered Programming: Patterns

• The movements and territories of the members

• Are central to the functions and character of many ongoing programs

Elements of Community Reflected in Occupation-Centered Programming: Jargon

• The shared language a group may use to discuss the common theme

• Are central to the functions and character of many ongoing programs

Elements of Community Reflected in Occupation-Centered Programming: Memory

• Built up over time as the group, the community, creates a shared history

• Are central to the functions and character of many ongoing programs

Social Capital

• Social relationships and networks serve as a form of this because they require investments of time and energy, with the anticipation that individuals will be able to tap into these resources when necessary

• The connectedness between people (the relationships) in their communities

• Needed to create positive community change

Most Frequently Used Indicators of Social Capital

• Voter turnout

• Newspaper readership

• Participation in voluntary organizations

• Attendance at local organizational meetings

Ways Social Capital Can Operate and Provide Benefits

• Social networks are an important channel or source for information

• Social ties and networks can be a source of influence

• They can be a form of social credentials (ex: finding jobs)

• Helps reinforce identity

Two Types of Social Captial

• Bonding

• Bridging

• Both are needed to create positive community change

Two Types of Social Capital: Bonding

• Involves dense social networks among small groups of people that bring them closer together

• Accumulates in the daily lives of families and people living in communities through the course of informal interactions

Two Types of Social Capital: Bridging

• Is composed of loosely connected networks of large numbers of individuals typically linked through indirect ties

• Is outward-looking, connecting communities and people to others

Reciprocity

• Looking out for one another

• Give and take

• Our most effective programs will build social capital not only between those we help, but also with the broader community

• Successful programming will encourage reciprocity between the many layers of the community

  • Population of interest and extended community members

• By extending notions of reciprocity beyond our immediate population of interest, we are ensuring greater individual connectedness and future successes

Cultural Shifting

• Bridging of two or more communities to foster the inclusion of people with disabilities within the mainstream

• Finding a “fit” for our clients/patients/member in existing communities and not establishing pockets of isolated communities is our imperative

• Empowering clients means that they choose the community they wish to occupy, and inclusion may not be their choice

• Addressing contextual forces to mobilize change

Occupational Therapy Practitioners as Organizers, Developers, Agents of Change, and Capacity Builders

• Facilitate a participatory process

  • To build capacity and guide change

  • Invite community members as collaborators

• Balance between identifying problems/needs and strengths/assets

• Can work to build community capacity in many ways, but offering knowledge, skills, and access to resources for problem solving may be the most natural to the way we have learned to practice

Change Agent

• You design and plan a community program that will bring about change

Consensus Building

• Along with asset building and participation, is the new or renewed interests of community programming and development

Capacity Building

• Becoming active agents of change rather than the objects of change

• The ultimate goal of helping communities learn to help themselves, regardless of how large or small they may be

Several Key Components to Capacity Building

• A sense of community

• A level of commitment

• The ability to solve problems

• Access to resources

Build Assets

• Community building and development is a participatory effort to mobilize community assets that increases the capacity of residents to improve the quality of their lives

• The gifts, skills, and capacities of individuals, associations, and institutions within a community

Focusing on Need

• Identifies problems and mobilizes communities to address local issues

• May prompt residents to look to others outside the community (professionals) for help

If Your Goal is to Bring About Change That Will Blend Communities: First Step

• Identify the larger community

• Find the point of connection

If Your Goal is to Bring About Change That Will Blend Communities: Second Step

• Finding the venue or play point

• This is the actual program and the context within which it will take place- where the two communities come together

If Your Goal is to Bring About Change That Will Blend Communities: Third Step- Gatekeeper

• A critical element needed for the bridging of communities

• The person who will introduce and endorse your programming

• May be an indigenous member of the community who has either formal or informal influence

• Occupy many positions and may not even be physical members of the local community

  • Ex: funders and legislators

• An organization that has already successfully bridged a relationship with the population/community of interest

• The person you must partner with, often to gain access to the community and ensure the success of your program

• Are not always those who are in leadership roles (formal leaders), and it may take some investigation to find the right person or persons

Key Informants

• Those who, because of their position in the community, possess information and insights about the community

• May be both formal and informal community leaders

  • Ex: public officials, school and health care personnel, prominent businesspeople, police, and local clergy

Impetus for Large-Scale Change that will Affect Communities: Change Curve

• A recognition that change is not cyclical but it is an ongoing process that never returns to status quo

• Programs need to be revisited, adapted, and reinvented to meet ongoing changes

• Our community programs, to grow and flourish, must have a built-in understanding that adaptation and reinvention in response to inevitable change will be a necessary working mechanism

The Condition of Being “On the Edge of Chaos”

• The precondition for transformation to take place

Chaos Theory

• Early on, was developed to understand the movements that caused thunderstorms, hurricanes, and other similar phenomena

• Today, it is being applied to almost every body of information, including the nature of social dynamics, particularly how organizations form and change

• Suggests that, instead of resisting life’s uncertainties, we should embrace the possibilities they offer

• Can be referred to as an elegant mathematical grounding for a postmodern social science that affirms variety and change as natural attributes or characteristics of social systems

Questions That Can Be Asked When Chaos is Considered a Metaphor When Relevant to Interest in Communities

• Why they change?

• How to program when change is most likely?

• How to predict the consequences of change?

Attractors

• Those agents compelling change

• Are of interest to those wishing to understand change

• Analogous to a compass “orienting a living system in one particular direction”