What is community development:
Community development is defined as the coming together of inhabitants of a community in a common geographical territory, to solve pressing issues that have been detering growth and standing against the community’s advancement. These developmental programs are usually sponsored by external agencies whose main aim is to help underdeveloped communities find footing in an everchanging world so they don’t become obsolete and suffer more.
Communities targetted for redevelopment programs usually have been in the back street of a nation’s plans and need an extra edge to make them visible and have a say in the nation’s runnings.
How to know communities in need of development:
- They lack basic amenities.
- Their economy is suffering
- Their main source of survival is hand to mouth system, from either farm produce or livestock.
- They lack a basic health care system.
- Education is on the low side.
- Manual labor is their exchange rate.
- Their practices have remained consistent over the years.
As every community is the building block for a nation, it is quite reflective of the nation when certain parts in it suffer from stagnancy and underdevelopment. That is why groups and agencies with the right capabilities embark on rescue missions to such communities to give them a better chance in society.
Communities that lack these structures become hubs for crime and the absence of basic amenities makes life a huge struggle for the members.
These groups that work towards improving communities do so by directing the members of such communities towards activities that will transform them also by providing some essentials for them.
Ways these groups help the community by utilizing its members.
- Building community network: by encouraging the members to interact better with each other.
- Support groups: by sectioning the community into support groups that serve one another.
- Teaching them better means of managing livelihood: by teaching the people better ways to cook, store farm produce and cater for livestock to achieve the most out of what they have available.
- Increasing skill sets: by engaging the youths in new skills that will be beneficial to the economy of the society.
Projects that foster community development:
- Labor-intensive projects: this involves utilizing available labor in the community to effect changes like building projects.
- Skills and knowledge acquisition: this is a situation where community members receive basic education on how to be and do better for themselves, and they are also taught new systems of making income or offering services.
- Economic advantage: whatever natural resources or unique skill is common in that area is introduced into the mainstream market as a solution hence increasing their value.
- Education sector: Either new school blocks are built or more volunteer educators are deployed to such a community to give the children quality education.
- Sanitation: most illnesses are caused by a dirty environment, hence the need for proper sanitary practices such as having a general waste site that has an incinerator and proper toilets.
Community development is an essential step in developing the country, hence the need to focus on areas that will boost such levels of growth.