Community Development Essay Research Paper Community DevelopmentA

Community Development Essay, Research Paper

Community Development

A Community can be defined as a group of people who don.t just live in the

same area, but also share the same interests, experiences and often concerns

about the area in which they live. Often when individuals have lived in a street

or area for a while they become familiar with each other and the issues

surrounding them. Children often attend the same schools and in many cases grow

up together, again sharing the similar experiences. In some instances adults may

work together, and quite commonly all community members will share the same

doctors, dentists, hospitals, health visitors and other public services and

facilities.

Frequently however, issues arise amongst a community that need attention. In

this essay I will outline and discuss some of these issues and the

interventions, projects or programmes designed and used to tackle and combat

them. The three models of intervention or, .Community Development., I will

discuss in this essay, .Social Planning., .Community Development., and.

.Social/Community Action., all have the same aim regardless of how it is

accomplished and this is to improve and maintain the conditions which affect the

lives of the community.

.Social Planning., is a model of development which can be described as,

.Doing For., the community. If it is perceived by government bodies that a

community has sunk so low that is unable to be resolved by using alternative

methods, (some of which will be discussed later in this essay), the government

will intervene with methods deemed necessary. Initially a profile of a community

will be drawn up using research methods, surveys and statistics that will

highlight the issues faced by the community. Then a plan to tackle these issues

will be decided upon and put into action.

.SureStart., is a Social Planning initiative, which came into force as a

government reaction to the levels of deprivation in Cornwall. Of the six

districts in the County Penwith came the highest, of the 60,000 population,

26,000 are aged 4 and under, 13% of households are lone parent households and

19% of the 201 lone parents are unemployed.

The .Treneere., area of Penzance showing as the highest area of

deprivation, 13% are unemployed, 46% are in receipt of income support and 16.8%

of adults are illiterate. During 1998 there were a total of 235 children

referred to social services 98 of which were aged 0-4 years old. With regard to

education, of the children attending the infant and primary schools in the area

33.4% are entitled to free school meals, the average in the county being 15.4%.

54% of the pupils between the two schools are registered with special

educational needs. Of the 244 primary schools in Cornwall the two schools ranked

1s and 4th in the deprivation rank. Along with these figures strong evidence

shows high levels of violence, high levels of riotism, high levels of drug abuse

and a complete absence of community facilities.

Figures taken from the .SureStart Trailblazer., proposal

As with all Social Planning the government specifies a time limit to achieve

the projects aims, goals and ultimately to improve living conditions. The .SureStart.,

project has a specified time limit of 2 years, in this time limit the project

aims to achieve the following: -

- Improve social and emotional development

- Reduce the number of primary school exclusions

- Cut by 10% the number of children on the child abuse register

- Reduce the number of post-natal depression

- 5% reduction in the number of low weight birth babies

- 10% reduction in children admitted to hospital with gastroenteritis,

respiratory problems and severe injuries

- 90% of children to reach normal speech and language milestones by 18 months

and 3 years

- 100% under 4.s are to have good quality play and learning facilities

- 75% of families are to report they have had an improvement in the services

provided by 2002

- Parent representation on the local board

- Juveniles are to have less contact with the criminal justice system

- Drug related crime on the decrease

- 16 . 19 year olds involved with economic activity i.e. Training or work

- Decrease in young people smoking

- Decrease in teenage pregnancies

- Finally long term outcomes.

Although the project was initiated by the government agencies the problems

were identified by government agencies, police and the Treneere residents and

Community Association the project has tried to look at the problems and the aims

from the point of view of the residents. The delivery of the projects intentions

will com from local representatives, voluntary organisations, church

representatives, health care providers, social services, education officials,

the police, the district council and housing a

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