Community Work and Community Organisation in Social Work

In social work the term “community work” is often used with different meanings. In social work literature we find that the term “community work”, “community development”, “community organisation” and “community empowerment” are at times interchangeably used for the work with communities. Some authors have used these terms for the same types of work whereas others use them to refer to different types of work with communities.

Community work has a long history as an aspect of social work. It has passed through various phases. All over the world it has been recognized as an integral part of social work practice. History shows that community work even preceded social work education. In UK and USA community work in social work began in the 1800 with the charity organisation movement and the settlement house movement. During the initial phase in UK, community work was primarily seen as a method of social work, trying to help individuals to enhance their social adjustment. The main thrust was to act as a means to coordinate the work of voluntary agencies.

There are several ways in which social work practitioners and others work in the community. In social work we find three main approaches namely, Community Development, Community Organisation and Community Relations/Services. While these approaches represent different situations or areas of community work, there are fundamental similarities in what is being attempted. Their components are often interlinked and at times overlapping.

What is important for us here is to understand that the community work is one of the basic social work processes. It is being used to attain the same basic objectives, as casework and group work. As you may be aware all the social work methods are concerned with removal of the blocks to growth of individual, group, or community, release of their potentials, full use of internal resources, development of capacity to manage one’s own affairs and their ability to function as an integrated unit. In community organisation, social work is concerned with the initiation of that process which enables a community to overcome those blocks (apathy, vested interests, discrimination) which prevent the community from working together; and facilitate release of potentials, use of indigenous resources and growth of cooperative attitude and skills which make possible achievement of even increasingly difficult objectives.

Thus, community organisation started more as a product of the maturation process than as the beginnings of a profession. The increasingly complex and interdependent nature of modern society makes community organisation almost a pre-requisite for smooth functioning of any society.

Source: * Dr. Suresh Pathare, TISS, Tuljapur (PDF File)

Photo Source:  https://j.mp/1kAByw9https://j.mp/1kAByw9