Tackling neighborhood poverty: developing strategic approaches to community development

Community development

Making sense of assets: Community asset mapping and related approaches for cultivating capacities

This working paper critically reviews some main aspects from asset based approaches highlights key strengths and weaknesses for future research/development. Drawing on a large body of reports and relevant literature we draw on different theoretical traditions and critiques, as well as practices and processes embedded within a broad range of approaches including, widely acknowledged frameworks such Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), Appreciative Inquiry (AI), Sustainable Livelihood Approaches (SLA) and Community Capitals Framework (CCF). Although these are presented as distinct approaches, there is a sense of evolution through them and many of them overlap (in terms of both theories and methodologies). We also include emerging frameworks, including geographical, socio-spatial, visual and creative approaches, stemming from a number of projects within AHRC’s Connected Communities programme and additional collaborations

Cultural Competency in Capacity Building

Discusses different capacity building approaches to improving cultural competency that are informed by community participation and multicultural organizational development

Rationales for Place-based Approaches in Scotland

The aim of this paper is to remove the confusion surrounding what place-based approaches are, the rationales behind their use, the development of this approach to public service reform in Scotland and the future challenges presented by austerity and welfare reform. Key arguments presented in this paper: The rationales driving the emergence of new place-based approaches at the neighbourhood level include: o The Civic – in the need for higher quality, more responsive services and for communities to deliver more services for themselves o The Joined-up - in the need for improved coordination and more integrated services o The Political – in the pressure to devolve more power over resources to front-line staff and the public o The Economic – in the idea that innovation through place-based approaches can lead to new preventive measures and improved performance As the pressure on CPPs to deliver outcomes increases, place-based approaches are becoming a catchall for a wide range of policy objectives with the risk of overload. Place-based approaches are currently being tested by Community Planning Partnerships as a vehicle for cost cutting, prevention and asset-based community development. These new features of place-based approaches are aspirational, rather than approaches that have been fully developed and embedded. They remain a key area of innovation. The complexity of place-based approaches means that there is a risk that local practitioners and policy makers become distracted away from the challenges of austerity and welfare reform. In low-income neighbourhoods, there is a need for the expansion of welfare services to support mental health, realistic assessments of capacity within communities, and the basic provision of neighbourhood services to enable community development

Artist Space Development: Making the Case

Based on case studies, discusses the challenges advocates of artist space development face, the arguments they make to garner support, the strategic approaches they take, and what they achieve in making artist space a priority in community development

Sustaining Economic Development by Reforming Basic Institutions through Community Participation

It is universally accepted and advocated that without community involvement and participation, development initiatives either in the economic or social sector, have little chances of success/sustainability, especially at the grassroots level, where the majority of the country’s population lives [AKRSP (1984, 1999); FAO (1989); Khan et al. (1984) and Mustafa (1998)]. In this connection the concept and approaches of community development have been tested in Northern Areas of Pakistan and the principles and experiences have been replicated in some other parts of the country by Non Government Organisations (NGOs), different national and international government projects and programmes [Mustafa and Grunewald (1996); NRMP (1993) and NRSP (1995)]. The need for conceptualising a realistic framework for collaboration between government/other development agencies and community organisations engaged in pursuit of both social and economic goals is imperative for an equitable and sustainable development because when it comes to community involvement, the two sectors cannot be divorced from each other [Khan (1999) and Reid and Khan (1996)]. The objectives of the paper are: to highlight the need and the importance of grassroots non-government institutions based on participatory community development approaches; to analyse the role of community participation models in the country and to recommend strategies for an effective linkage between grassroots non-government organisations and basic-services-driven government institutes for effective and sustainable development; also to review and recommend primitive structural changes in basic institutions as development partners.

CIVIC COMMUNITY APPROACHES TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTH: ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH PROSPERITY

The free market-based policies of the corporate community model have skewed economic development across the South. For many small, rural communities, the consequences of global capitalism have resulted in declining real wages, high underemployment, and increasing rates of income inequality. Backed by recent scholarship and grassroots movements that suggest both civic engagement and the presence of smaller-scale, locally controlled enerprises can help determine whether communities prosper or decline, this paper explores the links between social structure and rural development in the South. The goal is to expand our understanding of civic community theory as an alternative to the neoclassical economic model of development. Using a local problem-solving framework, we suggest that a departure from the traditional, neoclassical path of development is in order. We conclude that rural policy makers must establish a role for civic community in the rural development process if they wish to protect the welfare of workers and communities, while increasing the prospects of economic growth with prosperity.civic community, economic growth, rural development, social capital, Southern United States, Community/Rural/Urban Development, R11, O21, R58,

Communicating with organic producers in Wales

This paper reviews the services and activities through which the research and development community communicates with producers in Wales. These include publications (in hard copy and electronic media), one to one advisory services and group activities. It examines the appropriateness of different approaches for different situations, and makes the case for better integration of services under the new rural development plan

CIVIC COMMUNITY APPROACHES TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTH: DISCUSSION

Community/Rural/Urban Development,