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Definition of Community Development Learning

We use a range of words and phrases within this website. Here we define what we mean by community development, community work and community development learning. The community development training checklist will help you see how the definitions fit together and relate to your work.

What is community development work?
The key purpose of community development work is collectively to bring about social change and justice, by working with communities to:

• Identify their needs, opportunities, rights and responsibilities
• Plan, organise and take action
• Evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the action

all in ways which challenge oppression and tackle inequalities.

For details of underpinning values and principles, a fuller statement of community work aims and objectives and the knowledge and skills required for community work, please contact us.

The Six Key Values

Social Justice

• Respecting and valuing diversity and difference
• Challenging oppressive and discriminatory actions and attitudes
• Addressing power imbalances between individuals, within groups and society
• Committing to pursue civil and human rights for all
• Seeking and promoting policy and practices that are just and enhance equality whilst
  challenging those that are not.

Self-determination

• Valuing the concerns or issues that communities identify as their starting points
• Raising people's awareness of the range of choices open to them, providing opportunities for discussion of implications of options
• Promoting the view that communities do not have the right to oppress other communities
• Working with conflict within communities.

Working and Learning Together

• Demonstrating that collective working is effective
• Supporting and developing individuals to contribute effectively to communities
• Developing a culture of informed and accountable decision making
• Ensuring all perspectives within the community are considered
• Sharing good practice in order to learn from each other.

Sustainable Communities

• Promoting the empowerment of individuals and communities
• Supporting communities to develop their skills to take action
• Promoting the development of autonomous and accountable structures
• Learning from experiences as a basis for change
• Promoting effective collective and collaborative working
• Using resources with respect for the environment

Participation

• Promoting the participation of individuals and communities, particularly those traditionally marginalized or excluded
• Recognising and challenging barriers to full and effective participation
• Supporting communities to gain skills to engage in participation
• Developing structures that enable communities to participate effectively
• Sharing good practice in order to learn from each other.

Reflective Practice

• Promoting and supporting individual and collective learning through reflection on practice
• Changing practice in response to outcomes of reflection
• Recognising the constraints and contexts within which community development takes place
• Recognising the importance of keeping others informed and updated about the wider context.
  

Key Roles for community development practice

• Developing working relationships with communities and organisations
• Encouraging people to work with and learn from each other
• Working with people in communities to plan for change and take collective action
• Working with people in communities to develop and use frameworks for evaluation
• Developing community organisations
• Reflecting on and developing own practice and role
  
  

What is Community Development Learning?
Community Development Learning takes place when individuals and groups/organisations come together to share experience, learn from each other, and develop their skills, knowledge and self-confidence. It is a developmental process that is both a collective and individual experience, based on a commitment to equal partnership between all those involved to enable a sharing of skills, awareness, knowledge, and experience in order to bring about sustainable desired outcomes. Community Development Learning is as relevant to policy makers and local authority officials, for example, as it is to community workers and community groups.

Community Development Learning occurs in formal and informal settings, including professional qualifications as a community worker alongside exchange visits between groups or an organised training course on Community Development for local authority councillors.

In practice this means:

• The content of learning is rooted in people's experience and community development principles.
• The learning process is inclusive and participatory.
• The outcomes facilitate the transfer of community development learning into action for positive change within communities.

Community development learning checklist
Full membership is intended for groups or organisations (not individuals) whose main activity is centred on community development training and learning. This means that you should be trying to bring community development principles and values into all that you do. To help you decide whether you should apply for Full membership you can use this checklist which spells out some of the things we think are central to community development training. None of us are perfect but you should be trying to work to the following.

• You help communities to define their own training needs rather than just running pre-arranged courses. In other words, the process of training is as important as the content.
• You use the National Occupational Standards in Community Development Work as the basis for planning and delivering your community work training.
• You use participatory learning methods and acknowledge that participants have existing skills, knowledge and experience that will form an important part of the learning process.
• Your training helps develop people's community work skills - ie the role of enabler and facilitator helping local groups take collective action.
• In designing and delivering training you address issues of access, equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination.
• Your training includes looking at the social issues and experiences facing participants, including power and powerlessness, and helps people reflect on and translate their learning into collective community action.
• Your group works in a participatory, democratic and accountable way.