Community Development Handbook

[Elisabetta Buendia]

The Routledge Handbook of Community Development explores community development theory and practice across the world. The book provides perspectives about community development as an interactive, relevant and sometimes contradictory way to address issues impacting the human condition. It promotes better understanding of the complexities and challenges in identifying, designing, implementing and evaluating community development constructs, applications and interventions. This edited volume discusses how community development is conceptualized as an approach, method or profession. Themes provide the scope of the book, with projects, issues or perspectives presented in each of these areas.

This handbook provides invaluable contextualized insights on the theory and practice of community development around core themes relevant in society. Each chapter explores and presents an issue, perspectives, project or case in the thematic areas, with regional and country context included. It is a must-read for students and researchers working in community development, planning and human geography and an essential reference for any professional engaged in community development.

Brian McGrath, Ph.D., Lecturer, School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway, Ireland and Research Fellow with the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society, NUI Galway Ireland. His work has revolved around generating stronger understanding and research evidence in areas of: sociology of community and place, youth identities, social support and community development.

Rhonda Phillips, Ph.D., FAICP, is inaugural Dean, Purdue University Honors College. Her work focuses on community economic development planning, and community well-being and quality of life studies. She is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and former editor of Community Development. She is editor of the book series Community Development Research and Practice, and co-editor of Introduction to Community Development.

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: p...@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Delivering a platform is just one part of helping a community thrive. Communities can exist without dedicated software solutions. They will often work around bad or overly interfering ones. Starting with a platform can mean too much emphasis on supporting a community through technology. See the platforms section below for more.

Just setting up the community (software, designing a logo, creating rules) is not enough. It should just work, but it rarely does. Invite people and encourage them to participate. Get them to share ideas, issues and solutions with the community - avoid doing it for them. Continuously find ways to ensure your community becomes the go-to forum. This means a lot of involvement and encouragement, especially in the early days.

Healthy, mature communities can become self-sustaining and self-developing. But a community development manager (CDM) will never entirely step away. Part of the challenge is creating opportunities to grow or refocus community activities. Find and enable advocates and community leaders. With careful planning and delivery, the community manager (CMGR) will find their role becomes more supporter than leader.

Whether someone is new to their job or has significant experience, they may be new to the community itself. Spend time and effort to bring them on board. You have a window of opportunity with new users to embed community participation as part of their daily activity. Help them understand its relevance and usefulness.

Welcome them publicly. Including their names in regular community emails or similar. Find opportunities to invite them into the conversation, drawing on their expertise or experience. Ask how you or others can help them and follow through where possible. Put a reminder in your calendar to check in with them after a week, a month or two months.

Look for people who could influence the tone and direction of community activity. They may contribute their own ideas and experience or be a good networker. A networker knows where to find information or who best to talk to. Approach them outside the main community conversation. Show that you value their insight and input. Ask them questions, for example, in which direction should the community be going? Are we concentrating on the right user needs? Enlist them to help grow participation with new users.

Community leaders (also known as hosts or moderators) share many characteristics with catalysts. But have a more formal role in day to day activities. Leaders help manage the community. They are identifiable to other community members as having an enhanced responsibility or a different role within the group. They are important because they are participant-leaders drawn from the community. Leaders understand the user needs. They also help lead and influence participation. Leaders are role models for constructive behaviour. As a general guide, recruit one leader per 30 members.

Identify likely candidates for the role. Look in your community or ask for volunteers. Asking may backfire if people step up who would not make a good community leaders. Maybe ask people to volunteer for a specific task, for example organise an event. Use that task to assess if they are capable, effective and approachable.

Create a set of simple tasks or responsibilities. They should be regular things leaders can do whilst their engaging with their community, for example check in to the forum at once a day, offer help and guidance to new users or collate feedback.

If lurkers are still not responding, reach out to them individually. Check if they are receiving messages. Ask what puts them off getting involved. Understanding the blockers to participation should help you to address them.

Below that would be an area that takes the remaining top half of the pyramid and extends - via a fat line running parallel to the side of the pyramid - all the way to the bottom. This area contains leaders. In a healthy, self-sustaining community, leaders do most of the day-to-day community contact.

Think of ways to involve, consult, represent and listen to them. This may be uncomfortable or difficult for you, but is worthwhile. Set yourself a challenge to engage with a number of members each week. Remember to try different approaches such as calling or visiting them.

The CMGR may (at least initially) initiate activity within the programme. The aim is to encourage the community to take responsibility for its own programme. This means both the overall plan and individual activities.

Community members need to feel that their community provides a safe space. They should be able to discuss their roles, challenges and workarounds without scrutiny. Having to perform in public will make new community members reticent to participate or highly selective about how and what they share.

A lot of discussion and group work can happen online. A good community programme should also contain opportunities to meet in person. This may be for networking, to tackle a particular common issue, to show work or discuss complex ideas.

Meeting in person should not be the only kind of event in your programme. Think about how people contribute. How could you offer a range of activities and types of contribution? In-person events may require travel, which limits attendance. Some members may not feel comfortable speaking up in a fast-paced, multi-person environment.

Communities need help to grow and flourish. There are some important activities and behaviours which you should prioritise. These are most likely to create a firm foundation for a self-sustaining community.

Think like the moderator of a good panel discussion. Your role is to help things to run smoothly. This includes thanking people for their contributions, inviting input and ensuring things run in the most effective way.

Wherever possible, do things with the community, not for them. Create opportunities for community members to contribute to and lead projects. Make sure you share responsibilities around, so it does not always fall to the same people. Solicit volunteers, but also seek out individuals and ask them to be involved. Help them to succeed and to look good in front of their peers. Follow up with public and private thanks, and further opportunities to be involved. You should look to transform infrequent contributions or involvement into more regular responsibilities or activities.

Whether you are a student in an urban planning program, a new employee at a housing agency or community development corporation, or a seasoned affordable housing advocate looking for a refresher on key programs, this resource will give you the overview of housing programs and advocacy tools you need to be a leader in the affordable housing movement and to advocate effectively for socially just housing policy for low-income Americans.

The Office of Community Renewal administers the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for the State of New York. The NYS CDBG program provides financial assistance to eligible cities, towns, and villages with populations under 50,000 and counties with an area population under 200,000, in order to develop viable communities by providing decent, affordable housing, and suitable living environments, as well as expanding economic opportunities, principally for persons of low and moderate income.

The state must ensure that no less than 70% of its CDBG funds are used for activities that benefit low- and moderate-income persons. The program objectives are achieved by supporting activities or projects that: benefit low- and moderate-income families; create job opportunities for low- and moderate-income persons; prevent or eliminate blight; or address a community development need that poses a serious and imminent threat to the community's health or welfare. Project selection shall take into consideration the recommendation of the relevant regional economic development council or the Commissioner's determination that the proposed project aligns with the regional strategic priorities of the respective region. To determine your projects Low-and-Moderate Income (LMI) eligibility, click here. For assistance in using this tool, please contact your assigned Community or Economic Developer.

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