LESSON 15:

COMMUNITY
IMMERSION
“EXPERIENCE IS
THE BEST
TEACHER”
 Going through the immersion
process and conducting community
services activities/projects will
enable the trainees to:
• understand how the people feel,
think, and say and behave as
dedicated by their conditions and
situation in life
• make feel and realize that
they are more fortunate
than many others
• and that the students can
do something to improve
the lives of the marginalized
and underserved.
“To whom much
is given, much
is required”
 COMMUNITY IMMERSION
• Is an essential strategy in
community concerns,
process, dynamics and
lifestyle through exposure
and engaging in different
activities.
• Is different from the
actual organizing work.
Thus, it is just one of the
strategies in plugging into
community organization.
• Venture undertaken may be
integrated or specialized
activities which entail
entering, familiarizing and
involvement of the self in the
conduct of the activities for
community development.
 Generally, Community
immersion is a strategy that
goes beyond acquainting us
with community concerns
but make possible our
participation in their
(re)solution.
NSTP COMMUNITY IMMERSION
• Is devised as a strategy in
molding and ‘conscientizing
students just so they may
be socially aware and
responsible to their
communities.
• Such manner of
transformation is bent on
training the youth to
becoming civic conscious
and defense prepared
individuals.
• The nature of immersion effort than is along
the dimension of, but not limited to:
 Education
 Health
 Safety education
 Sports and recreation
 Environmental services
 Entrepreneurship
 Moral citizenry
 and other social welfare concerns
PRECEPT GUIDES IN IMMERSION:
Trainees should immerse in actual
community life to get to know the social,
political and economic situation of the
people.
Trainees may also undergo certain
changes like increase in knowledge about
the social realities, development of good
values, empathy towards other people,
improvement of social skills, among
others.
Trainees should identify the
community people’s interest and
aspirations.
Trainees must recognize
people’s resiliency and does not
rob them of their rob to have
community participation and
determination of appropriate
courses of action.
Trainees should be aware of the gain-
negotiated sanction – the acceptance
derived from community relation coupled
with the right to conduct immersion
activities.
Trainees must reflect on how their social
analysis of the current situation is
concretized in community people’s lives.
The analysis should have as much
meaning for the trainees as for the
community.
 FORMS OF INTEGRATION IN
COMMUNITY IMMERSION:
Home visits
Living with selected families
preferably with key informants
Informal discussions with
individuals or groups
Sharing in household and
community activities (cooking
with the community host, clean-
up drive)
Attendance in social gatherings
(fiestas, weddings, etc.)
Assistance in production work
(selling, farming, etc.)
 Whom do you immerse with
in the community?
When one goes to
community, he associates with
the people whom he intends
to work with as his partners or
allies in the community.
 This practice of enjoining
people's support is
adherent to Confucious’
philosophy of “give man a
fish and he will live for a
day; teach him to fish and
he will live for a lifetime”
 What conditions may qualify to go
into community immersion?
Those who intend or task to
undergo community immersion is
desired to:
Have a full understanding of the
concepts and theories behind the
dynamics of groups and community.
Knowing the very process of
immersion is a primordial condition.
Training wise. Community
developers/organizers and social workers
are most qualified because it is assumed
that they have more or less formal
background on carrying out these kinds of
understanding.
Volunteers in social organizations and
movements also undertake immersions.
They undergo professional training in
development work. Such immersion
typically proceeds to organization work.
Students enrolled in NSTP-CWTS
are mandated to undergo
community immersion for a
period covering a minimum of 54
hours to a maximum of 90 hours
as cited from CHED-prescribed
Program of Instruction (POI),
2007 Edition.