THE COMMUNITY

Everyone of us also, may differ in defining what a community is. Our descriptions may
be based on the various books and magazines that we read, television shows that we
watched, and finally, on how we personally perceive our community based on the
numerous experiences that weve had.
The term community was actually derived from the Latin word, communis, a noun
describing quality implying fellowship, community of relations and feelings.
Websters dictionaries, on the other hand, define a community as a body of people
living in the same place under the same laws (geographical); a body of people
having common interests (psychological).
One of the most common and simplest definitions was coined by R. M. McIver.
According to McIver, a community is:
an aggregation of families and individuals settled in a fairly compact and
contiguous geographical area, with significant elements of common life, as
shown by manners, customs, traditions and modes of speech.
According to this view, the term community was defined based on the elements that it
possesses. Other elements that a community may posses are the following:

HISTORY
o From public documents, folk history, historical roots

SPACE RELATIONS
o Internal Relation: within the community

EXTERNAL RELATION
o Relation with other communities, nation and state

RESOURCES
o Human, man-made and natural

TECHNOLOGY
o Modern or indigenous; the technical know-how of the people

KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEFS

VALUES AND SENTIMENTS
GOALS
NORMS
POSITION AND ROLES
o Elected or not elected

POWER
LEADERSHIP
INFLUENCE
SOCIAL RANK
o Standing of person in the group

REWARD AND PUNISHMENT

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
The very term Community Organization suggests that the community is central in
the use of this method usually linked to social work. 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 all throughout the years and one will be the following:
Community Organizing is a 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 capability 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]