Community Development
Alison Randle • 16 May 2020
The goal of good community development is to get members of the community working together for the good of their community. With the sudden onset of Covid19 lockdown in March 2020, there are many examples where the community identified specific issues, then worked to find solutions, such as sourcing and delivering food to people unable to leave their homes. This is the best form of development, but can be the Achilles heel for non-governmental organisation (NGO) projects, if the project does things for the community. Despite the best intentions, the community becomes disempowered, or worse, dependent on the support. It can require specific (volunteer management) work to build the confidence of individuals to step up and take their rightful places.
In development management, we talk of development ‘of’ an organisation, and ‘through’ the work of an organisation. This might be supporting the committee of a village hall to build their capacity and gain skills such as making funding applications or effective community communication. It could also be working with the village hall committee to run a community consultation, or help them to launch a new type of event. With extensive community development experience, working in the rural communities of East Cornwall, I understand how to engage communities and build dialogue on which community solutions can be based.
The village hall is a classic community group, but communities also form by interest as well as geography, so much of my work over the last several years has been with sports clubs, often working on community development principles.
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