Community Building - Definitions and Websites

Community building is about people from the community, government and business taking the steps to find solutions to issues within their communities.

What is Community Building?

The above definition of community building comes from the communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au website.

The communitybuilders.nsw website is an interactive online clearing house for everyone involved in all aspects of community building and development – social, economic, environmental and cultural. The site includes information, practical resources, stories, research papers, discussions and events.

Other definitions

There are other definitions of Community Building that are more comprehensive and specific, for example the following that come from postings to the National Community Building Network (USA):

1. "An ongoing process where members of a community share skills, talents, knowledge and experiences that strengthen or develop themselves and the community."

2. "Continuous, self-renewing efforts by residents, community leaders and professionals engaged in collective action aimed at problem solving and enrichment that results in improved lives and greater equity and produces new or strengthened institutions, organizations, relationships, and new standards and expectations for life in community."

A more detailed definition (part of a longer definition proposed by Xavier de Souza Briggs for inclusion in the Encyclopaedia of Community, SAGE Publications 2003) is:

3. "Community building has come to refer to a variety of intentional efforts to (a) organize and strengthen social connections or (b) build common values that promote collective goals (or both).

Literally, community building means building more community (an interim goal) as a way of achieving some set of desired outcomes (safer neighborhoods, healthier children and families, better-preserved cultural traditions, more profitable businesses, and so forth).

While specific meanings vary widely depending on context, community building emphasizes the beneficial aspects of key processes (actions) that shape relationships, values, psychological attachment, and other aspects of community.

As such, community building bears important connections to community organizing and community development.

One popular form of community building is civic action to improve quality of life or promote social justice. Another form involves the commercial use of the power of human community, as in building community around a product or market concept, often to promote customer loyalty. Both imply the use of social capital, that is, networks, trust, or other features of community life that can serve as important resources for action."

Community Development

The Community Development Handbook from Canada makes a distinction between Community capacity building and community development.

They argue that although there is an obvious relationship between the two, you could have community development without community building if  the community was not an active participant determining the development.

They define effective community development as development that involves community building:

“Community development requires and helps to build community capacity to address issues and to take advantage of opportunities, to find common ground and to balance competing interests. It does not just happen – it requires both a conscious and a conscientious effort to do something (or many things) to improve the community.”

“The primary outcome of community development is improved quality of life. Effective community development results in mutual benefit and shared responsibility among community members and recognizes:

• the connection between social, cultural, environmental and economic matters;
• the diversity of interests within a community; and
• its relationship to building capacity.”

From the Community Development Handbook by Flo Frank and Anne Smith for Labour Market and Human Development Unit, Human Resources Development Canada.

Follow this link for more information on the Community Development Handbook

Participation

One of the essentials for sustainable community building and development is wise leadership and the participation of community members in the processes .

The following ancient comment by Lao Tsu (China 700 BC) sums up the nature of this leadership and community participation:

Go to the People
Live with them
Learn from them,
Love them.

Start with what they know,
Build with what they have.

. . . But with the best leaders
When the work is done
And the task accomplished,
The people will say,
‘We have done it ourselves.’

Follow this link for more information on Community Participation

Human Development

The United Nations Human Development Program (UNDP) in its Human Development Reports has consistently defined human development as the process of widening people’s choices. This definition can be applied to community building and community development as well as to individual development.

Previous Human Development Reports have focused on expanding social, political and economic opportunities to widen these choices.

They have explored ways that policies of equitable growth, expansion of social opportunities and deepening of democracy can enhance choices for all people.

A further dimension of human and community development, culture, which is difficult to measure and even to define, is the focus of the “2004 Human Development Report: Cultural Liberty in Today’s Diverse World”

Follow this link for the more information on the UNDP Human Development Reports

Some community building web sites

The following links will open in new browser windows

The Canadian Community Economic Development Network
Useful links to resources, including The Community Development Handbook A tool to build community capacity (see below in Community Toolkits)
http://ccednet-rcdec.ca/en/pages/links_1.asp

Community Building - Communities Growing Together (Victorian Government)
Aims to inform and connect people involved in community building projects across Victoria, and to assist those who want to find out more about community building approaches.
http://www.communitybuilding.vic.gov.au/

Community Building Resource Exchange (USA)
Provides a broad array of resources and information about innovative community building efforts to revitalize poor neighbourhoods and improve the life circumstances of residents and their families
http://www.commbuild.org/

Community.gov.au (Australia)
A community portal that helps Australian communities and community groups find relevant, up-to-date information.
http://www.community.gov.au/

Community Net Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Aims to help all New Zealand community organisations by providing access to relevant, quality information; raising the profile of the community sector; encouraging information sharing between organisations.
http://www.community.net.nz/

Communities Online (UK)
Aims to address issues of sustainability, regeneration, social inclusion and healthier economies by focusing on the use of new communications technologies in communities and neighbourhoods.
http://www.communities.org.uk/

Department for Victorian Communities (Victorian Government)
The Department for Victorian Communities (DVC) works with local people throughout Victoria with the mutual goal of strengthening communities. The website includes useful information on building stronger communities, grants and funding (Victoria) and research and publications.
http://www.dvc.vic.gov.au

Get Involved (Queensland Government)
a source of reference for community engagement practitioners in the private and public sectors containing: resources, toolkits, research, evaluation information, a training and development calendar, case studies, newsletters and more.
http://www.getinvolved.qld.gov.au/share_your_knowledge/index.html

Our Community (Australia)
A one-stop-gateway for practical resources, support and linkages between community networks and the general public, business and government - building capacity to strengthen the community in every Australian State and Territory.
http://www.ourcommunity.com.au