This assessment task requires the completion of a3,000-word case study analysing the group work and community work activity undertaken in class. This essay is to be completed in two parts, which are approximately1,500words each. Please refer to the details provided below for each part.
Write a critical reflection of your small group work interactions and processes in tutorials, and the skills you used when you facilitated one of these groups. You are required to reflect on group facilitation skills and incorporateone of the conceptsrelated to group work that was discussed in tutorials, including:
Write an essay about the community development aspects of the proposed redevelopment plan for the Richmond Neighborhood Centre as discussed in tutorials throughout the semester. You are required to critically analyses the potential benefits of the redevelopment, such as improved facilities, increased accessibility, and opportunities for community engagement, demonstrating an understanding of the critical role that community centres play in fostering vibrant and inclusive neighborhoods.Applyat least two community work conceptsthat were discussed in the tutorials including:
Please use 10 references or more for this assignment and use APA7 referencing style.
RUBRIC
CRITERIA 1; The essay demonstrates an understanding of groupwork concepts and facilitation skills accurately and critically applies these concepts of group work and facilitation process to class group work and facilitation process.
CRITERIA 2; The essay demonstrates an understanding of community work concepts and accurately applies these concepts to selected aspect of Richmond Neighbourhood Centre plan developed in class.
CRITERIA 3; The essay critically utilises subject readings along with independent research.
CRITERIA 4; The analysis is very well written with succinct, error-free expression and clarity of meaning
CRITERIA 5: The essay is appropriately referenced using APA7 style
MODULE 3 AND 4
In planning a community development process the first step is to get to know the community. This then leads on to the more formal needs assessment process. Communities are complex and when stepping in as a social worker and outsider it takes time to get to know a community.
Four important features of community are: community structure, community power, strong and weak ties, and community narratives structures (Taylor, 2015).
Wilkinson (1998) introduces the concept of asocial fieldand acommunity field. A social field is a social interaction directed at a specific outcome. For example, a social field may exist within the child and family space that aims to improve access to childcare for low income earners. Acommunity fieldis directed to more general purposes and has a focus on linking and structure. This is expressed through how social fields are linked, how actions are coordinated, and the processes that exist to buttress commonality within special interest fields. While people and groups within acommunity fieldmay have specific interests and agendas thecommunity fieldis about working together as a whole, rather than the sum of its parts. Community development is a “process of developing the community field” (Wilkinson, 1981, p.87).
Several structural trends can be seen to illustrate how these linkages and actions exist within thecommunity field.Here Wilkinson (1998) presents four types ofcommunity structuresthat may exist within the community field:
Integrated– In this kind of community field social fields are well linked and there is coordinated community activities across all social fields or interest sectors.
Case example: The town of Sailors Falls that we considered in Module One is an example of an integrated community field. They have numerous social fields: the football club, the netball club, the Country Womens Association, several churches and these fields are well connected with each other. They regularly come together to solve collective problems, such as the rising unemployment rate due to the decommissioned coal mine.
Segmented–In this community structure social fields are well linked and coordinated but there few links between social fields or sectors.
Case Example: The town of Amys Rest is a similar size town as Sailors Falls with similar sports clubs, two churches, and a mosque. The social fields of the sports clubs are well connected but they are not well connected with the churches. The churches operate a social field and collectively work together but they do not link to the social field of the mosque. Here the social fields can work towards specific objectives but there less capacity for the community as a whole to address collective problems.
Factionalised–This kind of community field is characterised by divisions among groups of people along the lines of class, ethnicity, religion, age, or political persuasion.
Case Example: The suburb of Prahran is populated by differing socio-economic classes. There are people with high levels of income and personal wealth who own property in the suburb and there are people from lower socio-economic backgrounds living in housing commission flats. These social fields are not connected and represent very different perspectives on how communal land in the suburb should be utilised.
Amorphous–In this kind of community there is limited structure at all. This usually occurs in emerging or dissolving communities
Case example: A new suburb of Dight is being established in the outer west of Melbourne. Most of the housing stock is still being built and there are only a handful of residents living there. They are all commuting into the city and do not have connections with each other.
Sharp (2001) refines the concept of community structures to incorporate the notion ofcommunity power networks.The typology of community power networks developed by Sharp aims to capture how power is distributed amongst members of a community.
Apyramidal structureconcentrates power in a single cohesive group with other groups linking back to that single group. Sharp argues that a pyramidal structure can be useful for a community field in that it allows for clear communication of information, the ability to mobilise resources, and the ability to direct local action for the greater community good. This hierarchical structure could, however, serve to exclude some social fields or could be manipulated to serve purposes that are not in the community interest.
Thecoalitional structurehas power that is decentralized among groups who are working together in a fluid coalition. Sharp argues that such a structure can benefit the community as there is greater scope for linkages across diverse social fields in a way that is more inclusive than within apyramidal structure. The ability for a community to quickly coordinate resources and information may be inhibited due to a lack of clear structures to coordinate the different social fields.
Afactional structurecontains social fields that are connected to two or more networks with the networks holding their own power over decisions and resources. These social fields may be at odds with each other and unwilling to share information or resources.
Anamorphous structurehas very few power coalitions as there are not many groups, organisations or coalitions. This occurs in communities with a high population turnover or industrial expansion or decline.
Sharp argues that factional and amorphous structures are unlikely to support a community field and it would be difficult to bring community members together to address collective concerns.
The notion ofstrong and weak ties(or relationships) within communities are important to consider. They are characterised by levels of intimacy, reciprocity, time, and emotional intensity (Granovetter, 1983).
Strong ties are important as they build cohesion and can support community members to rally around a shared goal. However, a community dominated by strong ties can be hostile to outsiders and newcomers may feel excluded. Examples of strong ties are familial relationships, long term connections within communities, and close friendship networks.
Weak ties can be the basis forbridgingandlinkingsocial capital as they can bring in outside resources or knowledge into a community. If the community is dominated by weak ties, then much more energy is needed to bring the community together around a shared goal. Examples of weak ties include people who are new to a community, transient people, people who or are prevented from building relationships in some way. Weak ties are important as they can be the basis of new relationships and can bring in diverse resources into a community.
Successful place-based community work rests on a balance between strong and weak ties (Taylor, 2015).
The stories of communities are important for identity and heritage.Community narrative structuresare told within a community and help in understanding the nature of the community of place or of interest. The stories reflect dominant community traditions, values and attitudes and help distinguish them from other communities. Examples of community narrative structures can often be found on about us or history sections of websites. Taylor (2015) highlights the following features of community narratives:
Case example: LGBTQIA+ communities around the world share collective stories about the history of persecution, fights against criminalisation, acts of resistance against heteronormative culture, the grief and trauma of the AIDS epidemic, and pride in their diverse identities. The dominant narratives have focused largely on the fight to legitimise gay and lesbian relationships but there have been secondary and sometimes latent narratives that tell the story of bisexual experiences as well as the fight for transgender rights. Moving into the 2020s there are emerging narratives that are being told about the experiences of being non-binary, or the complex realities of being LGBTQIA+ within cultures that continue to police and criminalise diverse sexualities and genders. These narratives are shared informally through community networks but also within the popular culture such as Ru Pauls Drag Race, or within historical documentation such as those held within the Australian Queer Archives. This article in The Age highlights a project capturing 100 places and objects that tell the stories of LGBTQIA+ history in Victoria.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/one-hundred-icons-of-queer-history-mapped-to-mark-40-years-since-law-change-20210228-p576hx.htmlLinks to an external site.
Think of a community you are involved in, it could be a local political party, an online forum, volunteering at a local organisation, a cycling group, or a parents and friends school committee. In relation to the concepts just outlined, answer the following questions and bring your notes to your tutorial for further discussion.
|
Need |
Definition |
Example |
|
Normative need |
Need which is defined by measurable standards, research, or expert opinion. They are not absolute and these standards, or norms, can vary depending on the expert. |
Student needs in relation to curriculum delivery based on evidence of what the average student needs. Improved local public housing based on a drop below the established state-wide authority standards for public housing. |
|
Felt need |
Needs defined by what people state their needs to be or say they want. |
Residents in bushfire affected areas asking of people to visit their towns to stimulate business rather than sending material donations. Young people may feel the need to receive more comprehensive information about sex education. |
|
Expressed need |
Needs that people have acted on a need translated into action. A felt need becomes an expressed need when people act on their needs. |
A collection of international students collectively lodging complaints to the university regarding poor teaching and learning support services. Significant numbers of people attending a safe injecting room in the local community shows an expressed need for this type of service. |
|
Comparative need |
Needs that emerge in comparison with others. |
Coastal towns in Papua New Guinea do not the same level of resourcing for climate change adaptation when compared with coastal towns of Fiji. Number of children aged between 10 and 17 years old who accessed a homeless refuge in the Melbourne CBD compared to Bendigo. |
3.13 Understanding Capacity
Needs assessments can be overly deficit focussed and it is important to consider what assets and resources exist within a community. The asset-based community development approach (Taylor 2015) focuses on working with community strengths and enhancing these by working from within the community or working from the inside-out. Community strengths or assets can be:
Community capacity can be defined as community effort, time, resources, leadership and commitment directed towards community identified goals and change (Verity & Health, 2021). Building community capacity is generally the remit of a community development worker in partnership with the community.
Community capacity building is a process and one which takes time, in close collaboration with a local community. The aim of community capacity building is for local communities to develop their capacity to take responsibility for their development.
When building community capacity, the Community Capitals Framework provides a useful measure for developing assets across the breadth of community capital. Capacity building can be linked back to thinking about how to develop skills, leadership and development across the range of capitals:
Read the core reading for this week to get an example of how the Community Capitals Framework can be used to understand how decline in one form of capital can flow on to other capitals, and conversely how investment in strategies to build capital in one type of capital can positively flow on to other capitals.
Emery, M., & Flora, C. (2006). Spiraling-Up: Mapping Community Transformation with Community Capitals Framework.Community Development,37(1), 1935. https://doi.org/10.1080/15575330609490152
Take some time to watch the second part of the interview with Jasmine Stanic where she outlines the approach the City of Melbourne takes to assessing community need as well as how they engage with stakeholders and communities.
3.2 Community work skills: Needs Assessments
Smart (2019, p. 1) defines a needs assessment as a systematic approach that provides information about social needs or issues in a place or population group and determines which issues should be prioritised for action.
Evidence based practice suggests that a needs assessment is a crucial first step in any community development or service development process. A needs assessment is a process that is planned, formal and has a clear purpose. It also addresses the typology of needs as set out by Bradshaw normative need, felt need, expressed need and comparative need.
Smart (2019) provides a generic and clear stepped plan for a needs assessment.
A map of a needs analysis including the process such as:1 Scope the Needs Assessment, 2 Determine Assessment Criteria, 3 Plan for Data Collection, 4 Collect, Analyse, and Present Data, 5 Apply the Criteria and Prioritise Needs, 6 Identify Next Steps and Report Back
Using the data sources along with your own research, identify two or more key findings about the North Melbourne community for EACH of the following features: DEMOGRAPHICS, HEALTH, HOUSING, ECONOMIC, OPEN SPACE, DEVELOPMENT, and LAND USE.
Add your findings to your tutorial group Padlet under the relevant column (as per the above features).
Demographics:What do the demographics on Richmond Community tell you about who lives there? Think about age, gender, race and ethnicity, employment status, and family size. Are there any features that appear unique to North Melbourne?
Health:Are there any specific health concerns within the Richmond community? Are they similar or different to the broader Australian community?
Housing:What is the housing mix in Richmond ? What level of public or social housing exists within the community? What is the proportion of renters to owners?
Economic:Who is working in Richmond? What businesses and industries exist within the suburb? What is the unemployment rate in Richmond ?
Open space, development, and land use:How much open space is available for residents in Richmond ? What kinds of open spaces exist? Are there zoning laws that guide development in the suburb?
3.3 Group Work Skills: Facilitation
The Facilitation Skills you need –What Skills Do You Need To Be A FacilitatorLinks to an external site.
Developing good facilitation skills is based on a thorough understanding of group dynamics. This is true for the facilitation of different types of groups from therapeutic through to peer support or social action groups. Understanding and managing group dynamics is foundational to ensuring a group provides safety for members and achieves its purpose.
Understanding communication is a key first step. Communication can be verbal and non-verbal and both are critically important. In group work that is conducted without face-to-face contact, it should be noted that non-verbal communication is interrupted, and this can pose challenges for developing group trust and the group work process.
Toseland and Rivas (2009) outline the transmission of messages common to every communication, noting that selective perception can occur to receive a message that is congruent with ones belief system. Facilitators need to be aware that communication is not always clearly understood between the sender and receiver.
Each group member has their perception of the world, shaped by their own experiences and this is brought into the group context. The following factors can impact how communication is transmitted and received amongst group members:
Life position that results from experiences in early childhood. This could involve family of origin dynamics, experiences in schooling, or experiences of bullying or abuse. These early experiences may shape how group members perceive others as potential threats, competitors, or allies.
Stereotypes-Group members may have attitudes or beliefs that are based on stereotypes of others. For example, group members may have stereotypical attitudes about race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. These stereotypes will shape how a group member will express and perceive communication.
The status of the person who is the communicator– The status of the communicator can impact how they express themselves or how they understand what is being said to them. If they are in a position of power they may feel more confident communicating their thoughts than others in the group with less power.
Previous experiences in groups-Previous experiences in groups will shape current experiences in a group in relation to communication.
Assumptions and values Cultural and personal assumptions and values can fundamentally shape how communication is understood (Napier & Gershenfeld, 1993). In a reading in the bookTheorizing Communicationentitled ‘The sociocultural tradition: Communication as the (re)production of social order’, Craig and Muller highlight how our day-to-day interactions with people “depend heavily on preexisting, shared cultural patterns and social structures” (2007, p. 84)
3.31 Managing dynamics
In understanding and managing group dynamics the facilitator must be acutely aware of communication between group members and alert to how to shift the dynamics as necessary. For group facilitators, the following are some key considerations in managing group dynamics:
It is important to pay close attention to how communication is occurring within a group. This requires looking at what is being said but also looking at the body language of participants. When conducting an online group, it is important to look at how group members are sitting, whether they are looking at the camera or distracted, or whether there are other non-verbal cues such as nodding or smiling. Some processes to consider when you are observing communication:
As facilitators, it is also important to listen carefully and to listen beyond the content of what is being spoken about. Some ideas to consider when you are listening to speakers:
When speaking as a facilitator there is a need to speak purposively. As a facilitator, your words can hold significant power and influence in a group, so it is important to use them wisely. Below are a few tips on how to use speech well in groups:
At times it may be important for a facilitator to shift communication patterns in a group that may be impacting negatively on group members or group process. Some approaches to shifting communication patterns include:
In the tutorials this week, we will reflect on the group dynamics of your tutorial. In the activity section at the end of this module, you will be asked some questions to start you thinking about what you are noticing as your group is developing
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