Community Development and Its Principles

Definition of Community

  • Community: A group of people aiming to achieve objectives collectively rather than individually, emphasizing collective decision-making.
  • Communities can be classified as:
    • Healthy: Supportive structures promoting well-being.
    • Unhealthy: Lacking resources, cooperation, and support systems.

What is Community Development (CD)?

  • Definition by Minkler & Wallerstein (2002):
    • A process where a community identifies common problems or opportunities.
    • Mobilizes resources to develop and implement strategies to achieve collectively-set goals.
    • Emphasizes self-determination over reliance on experts.

Community Development (CD) and Community Capacity (CC)

  • Community Capacity (CC):

    • Refers to the assets within communities that enable them to control factors affecting their quality of life.
    • Focuses on strengthening community bonds to enhance collective action towards goals.

  • Individual Capacity:

    • Involves personal skills, talents, experience, and knowledge that empower individuals to contribute positively to their community.

Impact of Building Capacity

  • Building capacity requires:
    • Time and deliberate effort.
    • Active participation by community members, including questioning and debating issues.

Principles and Processes Underpinning CD

  1. Principle of Relevance: Ensures that community needs inform development efforts.
  2. Democratic Processes: Encourages participation and fairness in decision-making.
  3. Inclusivity and Participation: Involves diverse stakeholder engagement.
  4. Community Self-Determination: Empowers communities to define and reach their own development goals.
  5. Empowerment:
    • Enabling individuals and communities to change their social and political environments.
  6. Upstream Approach: Focuses on addressing root causes rather than symptoms (river metaphor: addressing issues upstream).
  7. Social Justice and Equity: Promotes fair treatment and equal opportunities for all community members.
  8. Commitment to Addressing Social Determinants of Health: Focuses on broader health influences like socioeconomic factors.

Communication in Community Development

  • Effective communication is essential and takes time to develop.
  • It serves as a tool for:
    • Enabling member contributions (knowledge, skills, abilities).
    • Preventing and resolving conflicts.

Black Experience in Canada: Police Interactions

  • Statistics on Unfair Stops:
    • Overall: 22% of Black Canadians reported being unfairly stopped by police in the past year.
    • Contrast with White Canadians (5% unfair stops).
    • Other non-white and Indigenous groups reported less than Black Canadians but more than White Canadians.
  • Regional Differences:
    • British Columbia: 44% (Black), 21% (Indigenous)
    • Atlantic Canada: 41% (Black), 22% (Non-white)
    • Ontario: Variability between Black (30%), Non-white (17%), and White (10%)
    • Quebec: Black (31%), Non-white (16%), White (7%)