1. Community

2. Community means:
 A group of people living in a certain place
together.
 A group of people who share the same
interests – jobs/religion/country/family.
 Society in general (town/village/city)

3. Communities

4. Types of Community
 Local
 National
 International
 Can you name an example of each of these
Communities?

5. Which of the following are
local/national/international?
Trocaire Choir Parish United
Nations
Europe Drama GAA Greenpeac
group e
Neighbourh Samaritans Concern Man Utd
ood
Group of Meals on Ireland K Club
friends wheels

6. Characteristics of a Good
Community
 Co-operation: people working together for the
same aims. No one tries to be better than another.
Working together is better than ignoring and being
selfish.
 Sharing: everybody has what they need. If
someone needs something they get it from others
who share with them. People are not selfish; they
understand that sharing is for the good of the
community.

8.  Roles: people use their gifts and talents
in different ways for the good of the
community. They have a ROLE. Some
are good at leading, others entertaining,
others caring etc.
 Communication: happens when
people are honest about their views and
needs. Good communication is about
people talking to each other about their
likes/dislikes, needs and wants,
problems etc.

10. Roles
Friend Organiser
Big sister Good with children
Listener Good at sports
Carer Good with money
Reader Mother
Leader Father
Talker Brother
Entertainer gardener

11. Why didn’t you hold hands
sooner?
Cooperation

12.  A little child wandered away from her house one night. It
was dark and wet and dirty and there was an open door
and she was a little toddler . She wasn't gone for more
than a few minutes when her mother noticed that she was
missing. She called her name, and received no answer;
she searched in the basement, she searched upstairs; she
searched everywhere.
The mother then ran down to the barn where the men
were finishing their day of work and they hadn't seen the
child either. As it happened, for miles in each direction,
there were huge wheat fields. A search party was
organized and it was dark, cold, dirty and wet and late.
And they searched, and searched, and searched some
more until dawn, and then extra help arrived and they
searched in every direction.
 Finally, one man called everybody together and he said,
"This is crazy, we're running in every direction without any
plan or attempt to work together. That child could be one
or two yards away from us in that tall wheat and we
wouldn’t notice her. Why don't we line up and hold hands,
move in a straight line, and just take field by field." And

13.  They held hands and walked down the first field and
after about thirty or forty yards they found her. She
had fallen into a gully and was deeply unconscious.
She had been lying there since the previous night
exposed to the cold and rain. They picked her up,
rushed her back to the house but it was too late, the
last little spark of life was extinguished.
 As they placed her in her mother's arms, and she sat
on the doorstep with the people looking on, and with
tears flowing down her cheeks, she cried out from the
depths of her being, "In God's name, why didn't you
hold hands sooner."

14. Why didn’t they hold hands sooner?
 At what point in the story was there
evidence of leadership, communication, co-
operation and sharing?
 What difference did working together make?

15. Two mules
 What do the two donkeys
have in common?
 Are they working together
to achieve this aim?
 At what point do they
become a community and
realise the importance of
cooperation, sharing and
community?
 What is the moral of the
story?

16. Community breakdown
 Community breakdown starts when all this
doesn’t happen!
 When people don’t cooperate together,
share with one and other, use their gifts and
talents to play their role, and when people
do not communicate how they are feeling.

17. Needs
 Another important aspect of
being part of a community is to
balance the needs of the
community with your own needs
– the needs of the individual
 ‘Individual’ means a person who
does their own thing.

18. Abraham Maslow
 As individual humans, we all need
specific things to be able to do our
best.
– Basic needs – food and water
– Safety needs – security, safety,
protection
– Love needs – to feel cared for, to give
and receive love
– Confidence needs – to feel worthwhile
and respected, to have self esteem and
self confidence
– To be the best person you can – develop
to your full potential

20. So for a community to work well, the needs
of each of the individuals should be looked
after. When this happens a balance has
been made between you – the individual –
and others – the community as a whole.