Practicing Community Development

Community development is a radical profession. It is based on the belief that people can give purposeful direction to their collective future. How this occurs is based on the community, the issues, the current capacity of people and the resource base that is present.

Community development involves work in the ongoing lives of rural, urban and suburban communities. It is an international effort at the community level.

Community development is gaining knowledge and empowerment through a process of collaboration and action. The heart and soul of community development is creating experiences through which people learn they can take ownership of their situation and devise and implement plans of action. The measure of success in a community development effort is the quality of people it produces.

Practicing Community Development focuses on the ethical and practical aspects of community development. It is full of examples of people coming together and working through challenges. The authors use their experience as a base from which to explore how to help community members implement their visions.

This book is for community members and the people in agencies, government and nonprofit organizations who work with them. It can also be used as a textbook for beginning undergraduate and graduate courses in community development or other social sciences.