WEEK 4.1 - 7

• Community action


  Collective efforts of people directed toward addressing social problems (e.g., social inequalities, environmental degradation, and poverty) in order to achieve social well-being
• Community engagement


  The process of developing partnerships and sustaining relationships with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity or common interests for the purpose of working for the common good by addressing issues affecting their well-being
• Common forms of community engagement in the educational setting

  • Service Learning
  • Community outreach
  • Community engaged research (CEnR)
• Service Learning

  A teaching methodology that employs community service and reflection on service to teach community engagement, develop greater community and social responsibility, and strengthen communities
• Community outreach

  Voluntary services rendered by students, school faculty and employees, or alumni in response to the social, economic, and political needs of communities
• Community engaged research (CEnR)


  A collective process between or among faculty, students, and partner communities in conducting research, where the communities are considered as co-leaders in the design and conduct of the different phases of the research process
• Modalities of community engagement


  • Transactional
  • Transitional
  • Transformational
• Community Action


  A manifestation of a collective grasp and ownership of a situation that generally has an effect on them
• Forms of Community Action


  • Community engagement
  • Solidarity
  • Citizenship
• Transactional


  A one-way community project or activity that comes from service providers for the community. Interaction with the community is occasional, service is on a need per need basis (seasonal), and the service provider has full control of the community engagement process
• Community Engagement


  Interaction, sharing and relationships at different level, partnership between two parties such as academic institutions and local communities for mutual benefits and is characterized by reciprocal relations
• Transitional


  A two-way community project brought about by the process of consultation and collaboration between the service provider and the community. Repeated engagement between the community and the service provider takes place, with the community members primarily involved in the project implementation, but community project management remains in the hands of the service provider, informed only by consultations with the community
• Definition of Community Engagement (IUPUI Center for Service learning)


  • Active collaboration
  • Builds on the resources, skills, and expertise and knowledge of campus and community
  • Improves the quality of life in the communities
  • In a manner that is consistent with the campus mission
• Transformational


  A two-way community project characterized by active dialogue and critical reflectivity brought about by the process of involvement of the external agent and the community. There is joint learning and value-generation, and community leadership in the decision-making process is prioritized. Control over the community engagement process is shared by the external agent and the community, resulting in mutual trust grounded on sustained personal relationships and shared understanding
• Forms of Community Engagement


  • Direct Service
  • Community Research
  • Advocacy and Education
  • Capacity Building
  • Political Involvement
  • Socially Responsible Personal and Professional Behavior
  • Philanthropic Giving
  • Participation in Association
• The modalities of community engagement operate in a continuum, parallel to the levels of community engagement. Most community engagements begin as transactional, which may evolve into transitional or transformational depending on the readiness and maturity of both parties to initiate active participation
• Community Development


  A process wherein community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems and pursue community well-being
• Solidarity


  About regarding our fellow human beings justly and respecting who they are as a person, based on the perspective that a person is a relational being: a person in connection with other people, with the society and with the environment
• Solidarity


  • Removing the boundaries that prevent people from working together
  • Unifying the members of the community to achieve their common goals in community development
  • Associated with cooperation and collaboration, where each member of the community is taking and sharing his part or role in fulfilling the targets of community development
• Solidarity is more than just about unions
• Solidarity is about working with people on the things that matter to them
• Solidarity is about removing the boundaries that prevent us from working together
• Solidarity is both an emotion and a goal, a process and a state of being
• Community action


  Any activity that increases the understanding, engagement, and empowerment of communities in the design and delivery of local services
• Core values and principles of community-action initiatives


  • Human rights
  • Social equity
  • Gender equity
  • Participatory Development
• Boundaries that get in the way of solidarity


  • Race
  • Nation
  • Gender
  • Wealth
  • Anything upon which segregation can be created
• Human rights


  Universal and inalienable rights that all people around the globe are entitled to
• Boundaries create the effects of: 1) People on one side cannot experience the privileges that are largely arbitrarily awarded to people on the other side, 2) Those on the latter side cannot appreciate life on the first side, and therefore feel they are justified in their current position, 3) It creates resentment, often both ways
• Solidarity can flow from communication, but it requires action to become a real and present force
• Basic human rights


  • Right to life
  • Right to liberty
  • Right to property
• Sometimes, solidarity action needs to be confrontational to improve the lot of one group relative to another, and sometimes it needs to be conciliatory, taking down the walls and bringing people together as equals
• Right to life


  Moral principle based on the belief that a human being has the right to live and should not be killed by another human being
• Right to liberty


  The right of all persons to freedom of their person - freedom of movement and freedom from arbitrary detentions of others
• Right to property


  The right to own property, often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions
• Right to property


  • Slavery and the exploitation of others
• Social equity


  Equality and fairness in terms of the treatment of human beings, access to resources, and life chances
• Social equity


  • Fairness in distributing financial aids to the needy and impoverished
• Gender equality


  The state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including the state of valuing different behaviors and aspirations
• Gender equality


  • The existence of gendered comfort rooms
• Participatory development


  The involvement of local population in creating policies and in planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating development programs and projects that are designed to empower and help people make effective choices