Essentially, community development workers help communities to help themselves. This profession is all about working alongside members of troubled communities, inspiring them, supporting them, and offering them guidance and opportunities for initiating social change and making improvements to their own community.
Community development workers act as a bridge between marginalised communities and government authorities at local, regional and national levels. They also provide vital assistance in the distribution of funding, the implementation of community projects and monitoring the progress of the communities in their jurisdiction.
Basically, these guys help community members, young and old, to build better lives. If you break into this line of work, you’ll firstly be responsible for understanding the issues affecting deprived areas, assessing the situation and devising ways for counteracting the evident social decline.
Before you implement new community programmes and initiatives, you’ll be evaluating existing schemes, identifying their flaws and highlighting where there’s room for improvement.
Then it’s all about discussing how and where these communities’ needs and aspirations can be met, devising strategies, considering budgetary restrictions and then working with a range of different organisations to prepare and implement projects.
In order for these projects to be successful, you’ll need to build relationships with government organisations, community groups and local businesses that are willing to invest time and money into their local communities.
Once you’ve successfully put your plans into action, it’s all about promoting community schemes to the public and generally getting people involved.
Some community development workers specialise in addressing niche social problems, such as drug abuse, homelessness or unemployment, while others tackle community problems from a generalist perspective.
Whatever kind of community development work you choose to get involved with, you will have a wealth of responsibility and be challenged at every turn.
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