UNIVERSIDAD DE ZAMBOANGA

PAGADIAN BRANCH, INC.

Zone 4, Airport Rd., Brgy Tiguma Pagadian City
Tel No: 215-4206

THE COMMUNITY AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

According to this view, the term community was defined based on the
elements that it possesses. Other elements that a community may possess are
the following:
● History
● Space Relations
● External Relation
● Resources
● Technology
● Knowledge and Beliefs
● Values and Sentiments
● Goals
● Norms
● Position and Roles – elected and not el
● Power
● Leadership
● Influence
● Social Rank
● Reward and Punishment

TYPES OF COMMUNITIES

Geographical Communities Has boundaries, territories

Rural / Urban Communities The traditional way of
classifying communities
Sectoral Communities e.g. Women, Youth, Farmers,
 Fisherfolks
Functional Communities Groups of people who share
some common interest or
functions
Tribal / Indigenous e.g. Aetas, Mangyans
Communities
Special Types of Communities e.g. disabled, parishes,
e.g. disabled, parishes, families
families

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

The term “Community Organizing” was first used by American Social

Workers in the late 1800s to refer to the specific work they were involved in
with settlement houses for new immigrants and the poor. “Community
Organizing” was the term used to describe their efforts to coordinate
services for these groups.

Other definitions have evolved throughout the years:

“Community Organizing is systematic, planned and liberating change

process of transforming a complacent, deprived and malfunctioning
community into an organized, conscious, empowered and self-reliant, just
and humane entity and institution.” Philippine Business for Social
Progress (PBSP)

Community Organizing (CO) is a continuous process of:

● Educating the people to understand their critical consciousness of
their existing conditions;
● Organizing people to work collectively and efficiently on their
problems;
 ● Mobilizing people to develop their capacity and readiness to respond
and take action on their immediate needs towards solving their long
term problems. [UP College of Social Work and Community
Development]

A BRIEF HISTORY: COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION IN THE

PHILIPPINE SETTING
Through the Philippine Ecumenical Council for Community
Organization (PECCO), Community Organizing was introduced in the
Philippines during the First Quarter Storm of the seventies. The group
organized communities in the Tondo area where the program, Zone One
Tondo (ZOTO) was born. The program was replicated in other parts of the
Philippines, including the rural areas and was usually introduced through
church structures.
Organizing efforts continued even when the Martial Law was
declared. During this time, Community Workers began pushing for people‘s
participation and community organizing became the tool for achieving this.
International Development Groups and government both began to support
and fund Community Organizing Programs. Community Organizing began
to proliferate.

GOALS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Community organizing is important because through this, people

work together in an organized manner and become more effective when
social change takes place. But what, basically is community organizing
for? Read on to learn the different goals/ purpose why this method is still
being widely used in the different parts of our country, and the whole
world.

● PEOPLE EMPOWERMENT
● IMPROVED QUALITY OF LIFE
● LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND MOBILIZATION
● SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

1. “Go to the People, Live Among the People”

- One cannot help the community towards its development if the
organizers stay and work within the comforts of an office/
school and do not integrate with the people.

2. “Learn, Plan and Work with the People”

- The people know better than any other outsider what their
needs and problems are.

3. “Start With and Build on What the People Know”

- Community organizers must begin with the indigenous
resources, technologies, and structures that the community
has.

4. “Teach By Showing, Learn by Doing”

- For the community to learn effectively, the worker must
demonstrate different procedures or techniques and not merely
give instructions.

5. “Not Piecemeal but an Integrated Approach”

- Community organizing is an inter-relationship of various
elements and factors.

6. “Not Relief, But Release”

- Community organizing is a process that liberates a community
from its identified problems
GETTING STARTED: THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
PROCESS
As earlier defined, community organizing is a systematic process.
This process, when expounded, shall consist of the following phases:

PHASE ONE: COMMUNITY SELECTION

● Pre-Entry Stage
After your specific community has been identified, organizers are
then expected to conduct a social investigation (S.I) on the said area,
conduct initial interviews with the community persons and to go around
performing a site/ ocular inspection.

● Entry Stage
The community has the right to know of the organizer’s entry in their
area. Because of such, a courtesy call to the barangay officials and
respected leaders form the said community is necessary.

PHASE TWO: INTEGRATION

“Integration rather than immersion”

Immersion: “Complete involvement”

Integration: “Acceptance into a community”

When you perform the tasks of an organizer, you do not go to the

community and just make yourself “felt” by merely “showing-up”.

Integrating with the locals is also one of the best strategies one
organizer can practice in order to catch-up with the current situation of the
community. Joining a small “umpukan” of housewives, or some of the
local youths at their “tambayan”, can, one way or another help you gather
pertinent information on the community. Attentively watch the community‘s
“pamumuhay” or way of living.

PHASE THREE: ANALYSIS

The community organizers during this stage assist the community in

identifying, analyzing and prioritizing current community needs and issues.

A. Community Profile
The community profile is a summary of the history and present
conditions of a community. It provides a detailed demographic,
economic and cultural information of the community.

The Community Profile includes:

 1. Narrative text that describes community characteristics, such
as population demographics, economic and social history of the
communities, the importance of various facilities.
2. Tables or graphics that summarize important data or
conclusions, such as population demographics or employment
trends.
3. A visual map or maps that depict physical characteristics,
such as neighborhood boundaries, land uses, public facilities, and
commercial centers.

Community Characteristics
The following are examples of the types of data to collect and
incorporate into a community profile.

1. Population and Demographic Characteristics

2. Socio-Economic History / Characteristics
3. Physical Characteristics
4. Health Status
5. Access to Service
6. Community Organizations

B. Tools for Analysis

To provide direction to any community activities, community
organizers analyze the community situation through the use of
analyzing techniques. These tools give a picture of what the
community’s challenges, areas of improvement, and resources.

PHASE FOUR: COURSE OF ACTION

“People’s participation is the essence of community organizing”

After the problems and issues of the community have been identified, a
systematic course of action may now be determined. organizers must also
ensure of the community’s participation and commitment on the produced
plan.
PHASE FIVE: IMPLEMENTATION

1. Implementation
The plan that was initially formulated with the community
is now put into action.

2. Monitoring
All the activities that was put into motion must be
constantly looked at and supervised if they are being done
accordingly.

3. Evaluation
In some inevitable cases when problems during the
implementation may arise, the community organizer, again, as a
facilitator, may assists the community in examining what
happened, what went well, what has been learned and what
should happen next.

PHASE SIX: PHASE OUT

After the goals of the community have been met, and its members are
empowered, the community organizer can now pull out from the
community. Remember that prior to this, the worker must prepare the
community before phasing-out.

METHODS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

The following are several methods of community organizing:

1. Social Preparation
- This is related to community readiness. It has four (4)
stages:
 a. General Assembly
b. Formation of Committees
c. Survey of Needs and Prioritization of Projects
d. Preparation of Trainings

2. Education and Training

– Community organizing is essentially a learning process
and central to it is the development of awareness through
experiential learning (Apuan 1988).

3. Value orientation
– Since the desired ends of community organizing are
people empowerment, self-reliance, and participation, there is a
need to transform the negative value of the people from selfish
individualism to one that is socially oriented.

4. Mobilization
– This refers to the “process whereby a group of people
has transcended their differences to meet on equal terms in
order to facilitate a participatory decision-making process”.
Mobilization arises from a number of factors:
(1) the presence of expertise amongst the community
members;
(2) the willingness of the community as a whole to
give up individual interests to form a broader cooperative;
and
(3) the presence of available resources to facilitate
the mobilization process (Ben-Ali & Carvalho 1996).

THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

ROLE OF A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
 1. A Facilitator - Facilitates the community process through listening
and questioning and by giving continuous encouragement and support to
the local strivings.

2. An Animator – Stimulates the people to think critically when

identifying problems and finding new solutions.

3. An Enabler – Consistently directed at freeing the community

(through key persons like leaders) to realize their strengths and potentials
in cooperative work.

4. A Catalyst – Hastens the process of transformation/change

IDEAL PERSONAL QUALITIES OF A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

● Integrity
● Creativity
● Courage
● Flexibility
● Objectivity
● Self-discipline

The Community Organizer is a vital person in facilitating the whole

community organizing process. A community organizer should have:
● An understanding of development theories and concepts and
processing of community organizing
● Good social and community relation skills to promote social
integration in the community
● An ability to work with other teams of professionals
● Knowledge and skills to enable communities to access
specialized technical assistance in instances when this is
needed
● Sensitivity to the local culture
● Gender-sensitivity