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Community development activities and some social service delivery have been progressively shifting toward networked collaborative models over recent years, contributing to increasing interest in the conditions which support organizations working together effectively. One such condition is a coordinating organization acting to build relationships, ensure program cohesion, and develop shared goals. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of a collaborative model delivering programs for families and children in an area experiencing complex social issues and socioeconomic disadvantage. It illustrates how the right coordinating organization, in this case a not-for-profit with deep links to the local area; a relational approach to coordination; and a commitment to fostering a collaborative culture can support partnerships and improve outcomes for communities. The findings suggest that not-for-profits can be ideally placed to act as coordinating organizations, bridging the divide between government funders and communities and effectively acting as the "friendly" local face of collaborative activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a dimensions of power framework that integrates the theoretical work of Gaventa, Giddens, and Young, this paper unpacks the meanings of self-efficacy, solidarity, and agency in relation to different forms of power. These definitions: (1) reaffirm radical understandings of empowerment as an internal process for both individuals and groups, as well as a function of enabling institutional and societal structures, and (2) enable critical examination of the role of community development professionals in the pursuit of empowerment at these various levels of analysis. We begin with a critique of imposed, deficit-oriented approaches to community development and examine how mainstream practices have shifted intentions toward asset-oriented, participatory work within communities served, but even in the best circumstances fail to address underlying systemic barriers to empowerment and community well-being. Based on this analysis, we consider how these findings call for transformation of the role of professional community developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice is a critical and increasingly utilized frame for organizing academic endeavors. As such it is important for academic communities to have meaningful conversations about the implications of social justice activities in their praxis. While recognizing many forms, this article is focused on the juxtaposition of academic activism and community development-based work. These activities can be complimentary and offer rich options for engagement by faculty and students in social change work. Yet there remain tensions between these activities in the absence of institutional or disciplinary guidelines for best practice. This article explores the "dark side" of these tensions and their consequences for faculty and communities. This paper also presents a call to action for faculty and institutions doing this work to center communities first and foremost to mitigate the potential devastation for community partners, who are as engaged in social change work but lack the same institutional protections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prepare2Nspire (P2N) is a near-peer mentoring and tutoring program dedicated to creating dynamic mathematical experiences for urban learners. P2N's mission is multi-fold. The program acts as an extracurricular outlet for in-school mathematics learning, providing students of color with social support from adult mentors. Additionally, P2N aligns education and community development by focusing on social and institutional improvements in the host neighborhood. This paper used case study methodology to examine African American male mentoring relationships at P2N. Through a mentoring and tutoring approach, middle school participants related to adult mentors through shared lived experiences, essential norms were enforced within the learning community, and emphasis was given to team collaboration. Moving forward, P2N will continue to promote African American male mentorship to disrupt deficit-based perspectives and increase social and academic motivations of African American youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents an effort to apply a mixed-method design and instrument, the Community Diagnostics and Social Impact (CD+SI) Toolkit, to the evaluation of one rural community within a federally-funded public health project, Healthier Together Lambert (HTL). The CD+SI is an operationalization of the Community Capitals Framework which helps practitioners capture stocks of various capitals within a community throughout the development of a project. The current study examined the capitals present in the community and how the public health project impacted extant capitals within the community. The CD+SI Toolkit allowed researchers to determine the extent to which the HTL project impacted extant community capitals. Participants rated social capital the highest, followed by political, built-financial, natural, cultural, and human capitals. Conceptual and methodological implications for practice are discussed, specifically the inclusion of mixed methods to capture the uniqueness and context of rural spaces for community development practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation is experiencing increasing popularity with Western-leddiscourse hailing the worth of evidence-based practice, results based management, measurement, and value for money. While this orthodoxy of evaluation has been subjected to substantial critique, dissenting voices and local ways of doing have been over powered by the dominant paradigm, which privileges certain types of evidence over others. This paper examines the evident disconnects that occur when the evaluation orthodoxy is applied to evaluation of community development interventions. As such, the paper examines extreme ends of the continuum to illustrate deep-rooted epistemological divergences between the positivist, reductionist, top-down evaluation orthodoxy that is profoundly at odds with the constructivist, complex, experience-valuing, bottom up values of community development. This paper suggests that evaluation practice must deeply consider values and principles central to community development theory so evaluation can support and enhance, rather than hinder and contradict, the processes and outcomes that community development interventions strive to realize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this theory-to-practice paper on community engagement within education is to focus on developing a new collaborative model within a university-school partnership to address book deserts. Drawing on the historical work of previous scholars regarding equity, policy, and community engagement, this article adds to the existing research regarding long-term initiatives to eliminate book deserts. The focus of this work includes details of an ongoing community engagement initiative with a community development literacy partnership model to build school and classroom libraries in underserved communities of color. Implications for scholars, activists, and community advocates who focus on social action surrounding community development are discussed and delineated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tea farming communities in Laos are faced with COVID-19 impacts, while simultaneously having difficulties in access to Fairtrade. This paper examines community issues on how tea farmers perceived Fairtrade as an economic recovery from COVID-19. Taking a case study from five tea farming communities in the Phongsali district of Laos, this paper reveals pivotal role Fairtrade plays in supporting tea farmers' community development to enhance their income and livelihoods. It suggests communities' mixed perceptions of Fairtrade in contributing to economic recovery under the COVID-19 impacts over the long term. We argue that Fairtrade can be deployed as an ad-hoc economic recovery measure in the face of the COVID-19 impacts to sustain tea farmers' trading, income, food security, and community development in Phongsali. This paper suggests how Fairtrade would serve as a safety net for enhancing local community development while the COVID-19 pandemic remains a huge challenge to local economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on McGivney's study of adult education for marginal groups, including unemployed young adults. The young unemployed adults in Ghana are growing in numbers; hence engaging them using the community education to foster entrepreneurial mind-sets is a means of addressing the unemployment problem. The formation of learning groups helps foster self-help and enhances the contributions of diverse synergies to community development and transformation. This qualitative case-study used young adults between the ages of 18 to 35 at Chorker, Accra, as the unit of analysis. Judgmental sampling techniques were adopted to sample fourteen (14) participants to participate in the study. They consist of 8 participants for in-depth interview and 6 participants comprising three (3) male and three (3) female formed focus group discussions. Data was analyzed using descriptive narrative and interpretivist approaches. The results indicate that the participants were empowered as they engaged in group learning to acquire skills in trades. The study recommends that young adults are motivated to engage in community education to foster entrepreneurial mind-set, innovate and exploit opportunities to make their communities more vibrant and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine understandings and applications of rural community resilience. Scottish policy has shifted toward neoliberalism and community empowerment, with communities encouraged to play a proactive role in enhancing their own resilience. We argue that it is important to understand the perspectives of multiple stakeholders to identify what practical factors they believe enhance community resilience and to provide a greater understanding of the mechanisms through which community resilience can be delivered. Drawing on qualitative data collection, we question what resilience means and what factors can facilitate it in practice. We find that dual discourses of resilience emerge: the emergency which reflects the policy focus on short-term damage reduction, and the everyday which reflects the desire for more long-term adaptive capacities developing in response to gradual change in rural communities. We conclude that the discourse which stakeholders align with will affect how they understand, adopt, and practice the concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa, a dual political system is what characterizes the political landscape. Chiefs and officials of the central government collaborate to bring about development. Despite the transformation of the powers and functions of chiefs, they have constantly availed themselves to partner developmental agencies. The paper examined projects chiefs and local government authorities have initiated and the challenges that beset collaboration between the two agents of development. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select 29 participants for this study conducted in the New Juaben in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Projects of collaboration included borehole and palace construction, provision of educational and health infrastructure, and footbridges. The collaboration between the stakeholders is fraught with challenges such as chieftaincy disputes, absentee chiefs, and land litigation. The paper recommends the formalization of the rotational system for selecting chiefs and noninterference by politicians in chieftaincy matters, to promote better collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the perspectives of six professions -social workers, lawyers, nurses, physicians, psychologists and public health professionals- on ways to improve the health and social conditions of a prototypical low-income urban community. It examines how the cohort defined and deliberated on the process of involving "the community" in addressing issues facing a hypothetical neighborhood, even when the question was not part of the research guidelines. A framework for constituency participation emerged from the data and was further developed to include 5 components: "who, why, when, ways and what level." The type, level, and meaning of community was complex and multi-faceted, raising critical questions about professional-community relationships and the role of community development practitioners. Ultimately, community participation was identified as both difficult and transformative at the same time. Attention by community practitioners to the "five Ws framework for constituency participation" may maximize positive outcomes for collaboration between professionals and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce intersubjective ethics as an approach to ethical practice in community-based research. We argue for the need to think of ethics as an evolving process that is inseparable from the research endeavor, and that dwells on relationships and dialogs among researchers and community members. At the core of our approach is "intersubjectivity" and the related notions of "critical subjectivity" and "critical intersubjectivity"; concepts which are central to participatory inquiry but resonate equally with critical theory and constructivism. The paper describes and exemplifies key characteristics of intersubjective ethics and its relation with research. Furthermore, we introduce key elements that can sensitize the researcher-practitioner to the principles of intersubjective ethics and how to put it in practice in community-based research, by cultivating qualities of self-reflexivity and critical (inter)subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-help spirit which culminates into selfless services, voluntarism, and free labor by people in communities appears to be waning in Ghana. This free labor services provided by community members require revitalization. Adult educators have roles to play in revitalizing self-help spirit to build resilient communities., Questions to be addressed are: What is self-help in community development? Who are adult educators and what roles they play in reviving self-help spirit in the communities? This theoretical approach to literature review paper used a library research and adapted a critical literature review approach. It reviewed 30 out of the 60 documents on self-help, adult educators, and community development. It was observed that self-help, a strategy to improve communities, makes people learn. Through continuous learning and training, people adapt to changes and address problems in their communities. Adult educators are to build inclusiveness, networks, attitudinal change, partnership and mobilization of self-help groups to restore vitality and make communities more vibrant and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's empowerment and gender equality have been given attention by development practitioners and communities over the last two decades. Studies show, however, that in the face of the increase attention to gender equality in community development, women's advancement, and participation in both developed and developing countries are restricted. The situation of women involvement in the community development process in Ghana is abysmal. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how colonialism, patriarchy and neoliberalism serve as barriers to women within community development processes in rural Ghana. This paper is approached from transnational feminist perspective. A total of twelve (12) women from three randomly selected rural communities in Ghana were interviewed about their community development experiences. The findings implicate Western influence and structural factors in the low participation of women in community development processes in rural Ghana. This study found that Western interference in the form of the superimposition of a neoliberal capitalist agenda has had a negative consequence on the level of participation of women in their communities. This ideology has imbued in women individualistic ideals to the detriment of traditional communal life. The women were particularly disadvantaged by the reliance on level of education and fluency in English, as requirements for local government positions since English is the national business language. The existing patriarchal norms and values in rural communities such as traditional gender roles and "name calling" militate against women within the context of community development. Western interference, colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalist ideologies continue to hinder the involvement of women in the development of their communities. It is therefore important to address these issues to help better the lives of women in rural Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uniqueness of communities precludes a homogenous approach to program design, delivery, and evaluation. To account for such uniqueness, such approaches should necessitate that program managers have a thorough understanding of the targeted participants or consumers. This understanding can be achieved by determining residents' perceived personal ability, or personal agency, to act and function within the community. This paper represents an effort to operationalize the various capitals that comprise the Community Capitals Framework, focusing on the analysis and validation of an empirical instrument designed to quantify and measure perceived personal agency. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to (1) establish the factor structure of an overall personal agency scale and its capital components, (2) determine if the proposed models adequately fit the collected data, and (3) validate the scales by analyzing internal structure and consistency. The findings indicate that this personal agency scale is a valid and reliable instrument for developing community profiles based on personal agency perceptions. In addition, to account for individuals' personal agency offers a significant contribution to potentially evaluating the social impact of community development efforts longitudinally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is a government agency that seeks to integrate conservation goals with farmers' economic goals through voluntary private efforts, particularly through its Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) program. Researchers note a lack of theoretical grounding in the associated body of literature. Therefore, a comprehensive theory of change was developed to guide a study of farmer adoption of conservation practices. The theoretical model incorporates factors from the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach and Community Capitals Framework (CCF). The purpose of this paper is to explain this theoretical model and discuss how it better conceptualized and operationalized variables that influence farmer conservation practice adoption. Because later empirical findings largely supported the anticipated causal hypotheses, the use of community development theory to understand other public programs that seek to achieve policy goals through voluntary, co-productive change on the part of participants is reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the issues associated with the conceptualization and formation ofcommunityin community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). The paper is guided by qualitative research methods and is based on the context of southern African countries, with specific reference to Botswana. The results indicate that the clustering of communities to become CBNRM beneficiary groups, regardless of their geographical locations, interests, tribal relationships, historical formations, and the adoption of a single CBNRM implementation model approach fail to incorporate local variations in natural resources, culture, and socioeconomic conditions. Thus, the argument made in this paper is that most problems experienced cannot be attributed to CBNRM as a concept, but to the implementation processes, hence the call for a rethinking in the implementation of CBNRM projects. The paper provides alternative community models to overcome the issues associated with the hasty community clustering process in CBNRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an operational framework and a research base for creating sustainable community-based organizations in diverse rural communities. Special attention is given to criteria used to assess six input variables in creating sustainable community-based development organizations: (1) stimulation through knowledge, (2) responsible freedom, (3) social and psychological support, (4) focus on sustainability, (5) commitment to "the new," and (6) self-insight. In addition, the authors suggest methods used to assess seven outcome indicators of sustainable community-based development organizations: identity with the community, sense of belonging, community solidarity, community pride, sense of achievement, sense of fulfillment, and sustainable and on-going projects. These models succeeded as expected in the diverse populations of the Mississippi Delta where the majority residents are African American. The authors suggest that the models and methods used in this paper will be effective in helping to create social change by integrating previously segregated organizations in urban and rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living in an ecovillage requires that people reinvent everyday practices. It involves new forms of production, consumption, social organization, and subjective constitution, aiming toward the normative goal of achieving greater "sustainability." Based on ethnographic research in Western Switzerland, this paper focuses on uncovering the nexus of power relations, social practices, and empowerment in daily life in an ecovillage. We find that power relations and social practices are intertwined, leading to different outcomes regarding empowerment. Procedures, understandings, and forms of engagement constitute social practices; however, power relations can either cause or constrain the rearrangement of practices toward different forms of individual and community empowerment, whereby some practices "orchestrate" others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the dynamics at play in community poultry projects in Zimbabwe. We compare the performance levels of "family poultry" under three community-based development schemes: the contract-based scheme and the two community-led poultry development approaches, one supported by an NGO and the other under self-funding. Factors that influence farmers' choice of the poultry scheme are also determined. Data was collected using observations and self-administered questionnaires from 61 smallholder poultry farmers in the Goromonzi District. Results indicate that landholding and distance to the nearest urban center influence the farmers' choice of poultry scheme and that no single scheme is superior to the other. While the contract-based scheme records the highest sales and bird per cycle, it undermines the community's capabilities to act independently. Contractors control price, marketing, and genetic-type decisions. In contrast, the other approaches have lower material returns, but they build the community's broad-based capabilities for self-improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development of a Community Development Participation Scale (CDPS) to be yieldingly administered and useful to community development researchers in measuring the level of participation of people in community development activities. This instrument was administered as a development and validation study to a sample of women from rural communities in Ghana (N= 210). After the reliability and validity analysis, the attitude/interest subscale was left with eight (8) items and a Cronbach alpha level of.73. The active participation subscale was left with nine (9) items and a Cronbach alpha level of.79. Principal component analysis (PCA) with a direct oblimin rotation indicated a two-dimensional scale with a KMO value of.82 and a Bartlett's test of sphericity χ2 (136) = 846.68, p <.01. These results show that the CDPS is strong enough to recommend its use in community development settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the literature and other publications on CBOs assume that they speak the voices and pursue the interests of the communities they claim to represent. While acknowledging the transformative work of some of them, recent studies have portrayed CBOs as forces of social control and poverty management. This paper reports the findings of a study examining the trajectory of CBOs in Pilsen, a Latino community in Chicago, through a historical-genealogical approach that helps identify the interests they have advocated across time and their shift from politics of resistance and advocacy to coalition politics of cooperation to their absorption into the agenda of a neoliberal administration. Guided by insights from Gramsci and Foucault, this study argues that CBOs speak different voices and advance different interests across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the research and conceptual literature about the role of faith-based organizations in community development. For the most part, there are relatively few community development studies about faith-based community development groups. This qualitative study explores two research explorations: First, how do Christian faith-based community development organizations in Kentucky perceive and employ the concepts of solidarity and agency (capacity building) in their work. Second, how do they perceive their role in the context of a systems approach to community development as measured through the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) which includes the application of seven capitals in planning and implementation: Natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial and built capitals. While the organizations in our research initiative employ many of these major concepts we learned they do not have an explicit understanding of these approaches. This study also suggests there are also spiritual and emancipatory capitals which merit further investigation as part of a systems approach. The article includes several recommendations about strengthening the potency of faith-based community development organizations through a more explicit understanding of the concepts of solidarity and agency and the community capitals framework and potential partnerships with government and other non-governmental organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of digital parity – similar levels of connectivity, devices, and skills between groups – that can lead to more digital inclusive communities. Utilizing a household survey measuring digital inclusiveness and ANOVA analysis, findings suggest that there are different levels of digital inclusiveness between groups. Differences in internet use and benefits are larger between younger and older groups. There are also differences between urban and rural areas. A statistically modeled digital parity scenario still finds uneven levels of digital inclusiveness, though urban and rural differences disappear, implying deeper and more complex inequality issues are at play. Future research should gather nationally representative survey data and see if findings hold. Regardless and as shown by COVID-19, community development practitioners need to incorporate digital inclusion strategies to ensure their communities transition to, adapt, and prosper in a sustainable way in this unfolding digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's participation in community development projects is now essential as it helps to promote inclusive development and decentralized development planning. This paper assesses the perceived benefits and barriers to women's participation in ecotourism development and their implications for community planning at the Kakum Conservation Area (KCA). Using questionnaires, a total of 169 women from four selected communities within the KCA were sampled through a cluster sampling technique. The women were found to have perceived that the KCA project has yielded more environmental benefits than socio-cultural and economic benefits. They were uncertain as to whether the constraints inhibiting their participation were cultural or personal but were certain on operational and structural barriers. To address the situation, the Ghana Tourism Authority and the District Assemblies in the area should ensure the proper functioning of the decentralized planning structures for women to participate well and obtain the necessary benefits therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Community Capitals Framework (CCF) has become a significant part of the study of community development, and scholars have used this framework to explore numerous avenues of development. In this paper, we argue that quantification of the CCF's social assets (human, social, cultural, and political capitals) is important for initial assessment of prospective communities for economic development projects and can provide communities and policy makers with the tools to improve on these essential capitals through strategic interventions. We have refined a quantitative model of the four social assets, the Community Assets and Attributes Model (CAAM), that measures human, cultural, social, and political capitals. Through case studies involving the siting of biorefineries and energy plants, we demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of our full model and how we use it to develop strategies to help policy makers and project stakeholders engage with communities and aid in their decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychosocial responses to disasters at individual and community levels have been widely explored in the psychological and psychiatric literature. However, less attention has been drawn to the fields of positive, developmental, and community psychology. This paper focuses on conceptions of disaster, considering the extent of the impact based on disaster characteristics and consequences for the individuals and their communities. Research from positive, developmental, and community psychology is discussed, highlighting the role of personal and community resources. So far, existing literature has explored individual dimensions of trauma and outlined key mental health issues involved in exposure to disaster. Despite a variety of action-focused research, there is still need for increased awareness and acknowledgment of the interplay between community and individual resources in the outcomes of disaster response. As such, a conceptual model to understand factors related to disaster exposure and recovery is suggested, together with key recommendations for research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A community that depends on passenger vehicles powered by fossil fuels may have a variety of environmental and societal problems. Previous research has suggested that active transportation helps to alleviate issues related to obesity, pollution, traffic congestion, and social isolation and thus improves a community's livability. However, creating an active-transportation friendly environment remains a challenge to communities. This paper proposes the Integrating Bicycle Friendliness into Community Development (IBFCD) framework to better explain the relationship between livable communities and bicycle friendly environments. The framework expands The League of American Bicyclists (LAB)'s five essential elements of a bicycle-friendly community and incorporates three major community development approaches and six psychological and behavioral factors related to community development. The framework suggests that building a livable community is based on three independent multifaceted components, which when considered together are stronger than any individual component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory paper, we examine how a community in Indonesia, Kampoeng Cyber, leverages Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support its social and community development. We describe the various technology-related activities and their impact on the transformation of the community that led to improvements in the quality of life of the community members. We interviewed thirteen of the community members and made direct observations of the community, its website, and social media accounts used by the community members. Textual analysis of the data revealed that the ICTs play a significant role in helping the community members to develop themselves in terms of both economic development and social tie maintenance. Our results suggest that government policies dealing with urban development may need to have a more explicit focus related to ICT use and community empowerment. We contribute to an enhanced understanding of ICT-based initiatives that strengthen the local community through participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I explore how five competing theories of poverty shape anti-poverty strategies. Since most rural community development efforts aim to relieve causes or symptoms of poverty, it makes a difference which theory of poverty is believed to be responsible for the problem being addressed. In this paper five theories of poverty are distilled from the literature. It will be shown that these theories of poverty place its origin from (1) individual deficiencies, (2) cultural belief systems that support subcultures in poverty, (3) political-economic distortions, (4) geographical disparities, or (5) cumulative and circumstantial origins. Then, I show how each theory of poverty finds expression in common policy discussion and community development programs aimed to address the causes of poverty. Building a full understanding of each of these competing theories of poverty shows how they shape different community development approaches. Although no one theory explains all instances of poverty, this paper aims to show how community development practices that address the complex and overlapping sources of poverty more effectively reduce poverty compared to programs that address a single theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses issues in the development of collaborative efforts among stakeholders in a community housing and support system dedicated to people with serious mental illness. Whereas community development efforts directed at localities are more common, the increasing recognition of the system-level barriers facing marginalized groups requires community development efforts that are relevant to communities of stakeholders in service systems. The paper draws on work conducted by the authors to understand, to evaluate, and to support the development of a system of housing dedicated to people with serious mental illness in Ontario. Although these projects were not intended as community development, they have uncovered issues that are likely to arise in a community development effort in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family farms are central to the American agricultural economy and vital inputs to the prosperity and sustainably of rural communities. Yet, the resiliency of these farms is threatened by uncertainties associated with intergenerational leadership succession. The current study used a set of theoretical constructs from Rogers's (2003) Innovation Diffusion Model (centralization, formalization, interconnectedness, organizational slack, size) to guide a qualitative exploration of the implications of intergenerational leadership dynamics on the organizational innovativeness of six family farms in California's San Joaquin Valley. Three themes emerged across all six farms that bring nuance and complexity to the understanding of organizational innovativeness and intergenerational leadership dynamics within family farms. The themes together reveal the importance of routine ingenuity, the honoring of legacy, and conservative innovation on the longer-term resiliency of intergenerational family farms and the community systems in which they are positioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 2018 Camp Fire decimated the town of Paradise, California, a group physical activity (PA) program was developed to support the community. The PARADISEU program (Physical Activity Reduces Anxiety and Depression Increases the Stress Response and Energizes You) was based on evidence that participating in PA has the potential to positively impact mental health. The current study explored the potential of PA programs to assist in individual and community growth and (re)development efforts following a natural disaster using a qualitative case-study method. Fourteen participants in the community PA program were interviewed. From their experiences, four themes emerged: benefits of physical exercise, a sense of place, social connection, and importance of leadership in the group PA classes for creating community. A composite vignette shares participants' experiences surrounding these themes. This study provides valuable information for future community development in post-disaster recovery scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grow Free, a grassroots social initiative, emerged in South Australia in 2013. Grow Free advocates for the sharing and exchange of free seeds, seedlings, fruits, and vegetables among neighbors. The number of Grow Free participants grew to about 230 throughout South Australia as of 2022. This article explores the agri-social characteristics of Grow Free participants, drawing on 50 postal survey respondents and 17 semi-structured phone interviews. This study finds that diverse non-governmental organizations in addition to residential households are actively participating in the Grow Free network, including community gardens and community centers. Moreover, many household-type Grow Free participants are linked to an array of other grassroots social initiatives including Permaculture South Australia and Trees for Life. The study notes that Grow Free along with other alternative food networks has facilitated collaborative food production and consumption at a local scale. Through grassroots organizational mechanisms, Grow Free participants have been committed to fostering community building and resilience through food sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that feeling connected to the natural world and feeling socially connected to your community positively influence wellbeing. However, significant demographic shifts within communities may reduce the amount of social and nature-based connectedness enjoyed by residents. As one of the fastest growing states, data from within Utah provides important insights related to how population growth impacts connectedness and wellbeing. The goal of this research was to investigate how community connection and connection with nature are associated with personal wellbeing and how population growth, both in terms of actual growth rates and subjective assessments of population growth, influence connectedness and wellbeing. Results indicate that people within the Utah study communities are aware of and sensitive to changes within and beyond their communities, and these perceptions appear to be more impactful for connectedness and wellbeing than the actual growth rates their cities are experiencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work explores how social capital impacts community resilience via the community development framework, with dimensions spanning trust, cooperativism, volunteerism, reciprocity, and interpersonal relationships in mitigating climate change impacts. With flooding impacts as a case, a mixed method approach was used, purposely recruiting 24 research cooperators in one of the suburban villages in the central Philippines. Results show that key components in disaster mitigation plans include help-seeking behavior, community responses, social relations, and resource allocation within communities. Findings demonstrate that social capital has proven invaluable in mobilizing resources, building resilience, disseminating information, mediating conflict resolution, providing psychological support, and improving livelihoods within communities. By exploring the role of social capital in community development, this study sheds light on its importance for climate change mitigation and disaster risk reduction initiatives. Policymakers, development practitioners, and community leaders can frame these findings to effectively harness social capital and foster community participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of the Internet, once prosperous local newspapers are now faced with closure as the number of subscriptions decreases and advertising revenue continues to wane. The purpose of this article is to investigate how a newspaper's role is perceived by its local community. This perception is conceptualized as community capital and influences subscription/readership of the newspaper and willingness to visit local retailers that advertise in the newspaper. A midsize local market in the US was surveyed to examine the perceived importance of the newspaper as local community capital with various measurements including readership and advertising impacts. Results suggest that subscribers tend to perceive the newspaper's community capital to be higher than nonsubscribers. Also, subscribers were more likely than nonsubscribers to visit businesses that advertise in the local newspaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To articulate community perspectives on maternal, newborn, and child health issues, challenges, and preferred visions, the Mama Kwanza Socioeconomic Health Initiative (MKSHI), a Canadian-Tanzanian partnership, undertook a multimethod needs assessment using a community development approach. This paper reports on dialog with a cross-section of 12 health care providers and 15 stakeholders. The findings provided rich narratives on the health care context in the MKSHI Arusha and Ngorongoro service areas. Barriers to quality health care included complex socioeconomic needs, poor accessibility, providers requiring continuing education, inadequately staffed and resourced clinics, lack of service integration, and poor quality work life for providers. Ongoing community participation in MKSHI planning is required to attain preferred visions of equitable and accessible health services, knowledgeable and caring providers, and well-resourced programs. The assessment highlighted the importance of international development projects facilitating community consciousness-raising and dialog to create community partnerships that will enhance project effectiveness and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, I was honored to become the first British recipient of the Community Development Society's International Community Development Award. This was presented in light of my work in setting up the new International Association for Community Development (IACD) in 1999 and, in forging the close partnership between IACD and the American Community Development Society (CDS). It marked five decades of my involvement in community development. The article reflects upon those five decades, but especially upon the work of the international association since 1999 and its links with CDS over that period. IACD grew out of two predecessor international networks, the International Society for Community Development (ISCD), and the Association Internationale pour le Développement Communautaire (AICD). I was a board member of AICD and then played the lead role in establishing IACD, serving as its Secretary General and later as President [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community Development as a journal has undergone streamlining, yet much work remains to improve the journal's relations with its many stakeholders around the world and within the field of community development. Community Development, in collaboration with the Community Development Society, must respond to the calls of communities. This article conveys the voice of the Community Development editorial team relative to these critical calls. We begin by sharing the significance of honoring and reconciling our past, while carrying forward lessons learned. We then turn to many of the challenges in the field posed as questions: What are we missing? Where are we stagnating? Where are we not challenging the assumptions? Where must we build bridges between theory, practice, and education? And, how do we strive against a "dark side" future? Ultimately, our intent is to critique the journal and the field, pushing the narrative toward a more engaged and interactive CD field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, drawing on an action research project, argues for the revitalized use of two under-utilized practice frameworks for community development in the pursuit of social change. The two frameworks – Participatory Development Practice and the Spiral Model of Community Education – support a citizen-led approach to practice, one that focuses on the relational and dialogical elements of group processes. Starting with stories of citizens' lived experiences, a structural or community analysis about the root causes of oppression is enabled and supports community action that can be sustained over time. Findings from the action research showed that groups benefitted from foregrounding their own need for social sustainability and that the educational approach of Freire helped them shift from an antagonistic conflict mode to a dialogical or agonistic conflict mode which created confidence to engage in difficult conversations supporting their community development efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of community development is exponentially growing in both education and practice. Of the notable theories referenced in community development, Bhattacharyya's theory on Solidarity and Agency remains one of the most cited works among researchers. This article presents a conceptual model named The Foundational Phases for Community Development which can act as a guide for community development leadership and education across a range of community types including communities of place, interest, practice, and identity. The Foundational Phases for Community Development model accepts Bhattacharyya's concepts of solidarity and agency along with the addition of "capacity" as an essential goal within the community development process. Moreover, this model transforms these goals into three interconnected sequential phases made up of specific activities and strategies that can be replicated by various forms of community development leaders to address issues and meet the objectives of communities of varying complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature from various academic disciplines indicates that in recent decades, community resilience (CR) has evolved significantly in conceptualization and operationalization. However, the relevance and empirical inclusion of CR in social and health sciences research remain sparse and fragmented. This scoping review, therefore, aimed to assess the conceptualization of CR in social and health sciences research; determine the availability of tools measuring this construct; and identify the psychometric properties of available instruments. Findings highlight how CR has shifted from a peripheral ecological concept to a central goal in the psychosociological discourse. Though several common core elements were identified in the included literature, results indicated little consensus regarding the conceptual or operational definitions of CR. Furthermore, there is minimal evidence on robust metrics that comprehensively measure CR as a complex psychosocial construct. Review results thus highlight the importance, and provide pragmatic implications, regarding the inclusion of core elements of CR in community-based strategies and development efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s consensus-building approaches to community and economic development emphasizing local assets and social capital became dominant. These approaches have since been criticized for failing to pay sufficient attention to structural factors, particularly how variation in local institutional conditions affects implementation and outcomes. In this paper I use data collected through in-depth interviews with 73 leaders in four Mississippi Delta counties to address these shortcomings. The findings indicate that the Delta's racialized social structure systematically obstructs consensus-based efforts to construct interracial and inter-institutional relations of trust and cooperation. The paper contributes to literatures on community development, race, social capital, and persistent poverty by explaining the interaction between consensus-based approaches and the institutional structure of the Delta. It concludes with a discussion of how the findings speak to community development theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation process of Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE) VI for two developments in the Southwest and to explore its impact on the rights of dispersed residents. Drawing on the concept, “right to the city,” this paper describes the participation of residents and their right to appropriate space and the role of Community and Supportive Services (CSS) in facilitating those rights. As a measure of residents’ right to participation, this paper examines whether the residents played a significant role during the redevelopment phases. Next, it looks at the residents’ potential for place making. This paper concludes that the residents’’ right to participation and place making were not inherent in HOPE VI implementation, but that CSS could enhance both rights in future programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is a methodological exploration. It brings together three unlikely fields of knowledge: the practice field of community development, the organizational context of bureaucracy and the futures methodology known as Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). The paper begins by explaining CLA and then providing an overview of the field of community development within the organizational context of bureaucracy. It briefly describes the research process and then outlines findings at each layer of analysis. The paper concludes by reflecting upon the usefulness of CLA as a means of responding to dilemmas within the current practice of community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influential changes in global economics have posed important survival and sustainability questions for small urban communities. In response, many such communities have turned to the tourism industry as a potential economic saviour, and have thus embarked on a developmental journey that has been exhaustively examined in the tourism literature of the past thirty years. However, this literature is all but unanimous in examining the benefits and costs of community tourism after the event, when those costs and benefits have become clearly evident and significantly entrenched. In seeking to evaluate the extent to which residents of four small cities are aware of potential costs and benefits, before the advent of any significant tourism activity, this paper analyses the content of 782 responses to a written survey procedure. Results indicate a generally realistic local awareness of the economic aspects of increased tourism activity, but an over-optimistic assessment of environmental impacts, societal impacts, and the ability of local stakeholders to successfully manage the process of tourism industry development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]