Community development models allow communities to improve their surroundings and vary based on factors like community needs, available funds, and economic situations. There are three main types of models: needs-based which focus on addressing specific community needs; goal-oriented which set goals to improve long-term development; and asset-based which utilize existing community resources. Common community development approaches include technical assistance using experts, self-help engaging community members, conflict management, and strategies address issues like food security, health care, water/sanitation, education, and microenterprise.

1. Models,Approachesand
Strategiesof
CommunityDevelopment
Reporter: Maridel V. Viloria

2. Community development models
What is Community Development Models?
allow individuals living in a certain area to improve their immediate
surroundings. Models vary widely based on many factors, a few of which
include individuals, available funds, community needs, and current
economic situations.

3. Community development models
Types of Community Development Models
Asset based
Needs based
Goal-oriented

4. Needs-based community development models
Models of Community Development
• Focus on the specific needs of individuals or groups in a given area.
• For example, needs may arise for more schools, police services, or fire
departments as the community’s population increases. Other times,
infrastructure — such as roads and communal buildings — may create a need
for community improvements.
• Community managers and other local officials may need to hold meetings
with the local community members when using this model. The meeting’s
purpose is to define the greatest needs among the community and then spend
funds on rectifying the issues through development projects.
Needs-based community development models

5. Goal- oriented models
Models of Community Development
• The goals may be set in order to improve long-term development. Goals can be
wide ranging and may not exactly meet the needs of a community. In short,
goals are necessary to create a stable business environment, attract new
companies, and increase the livelihoods of those living in the surrounding areas.

6. Asset-based community development models
Models of Community Development
• Depend on the items a community may have at its immediate disposal. For
example, communities with large coffers of available cash can spend the
resource on many different types of projects, employees, or building
improvements.

7. Models of Community Development
Principles that guide ABCD include:
 Everyone has gifts: Each person in a community has something to contribute.
 Relationships build a community: People must be connected in order for
sustainable community development to take place.
 Citizens at the center: Citizens should be viewed as actors—not recipients—in
development.
 Leaders involve others: Community development is strongest when it involves
a broad base of community action.
 People care: Challenge notions of "apathy" by listening to people's interests.
 Listen: Decisions should come from conversations where people are heard.

8. Approaches of Community Development
Approaches of
CommunityDevelopment

9. Technical Assistance Approach
Approaches of Community Development
• is a community development approach that relies mostly on experts to assist the
community during a planning phase, implementation phase, evaluation phase, or
all three of these.
• This approach is intended to help communities define their problems, needs, and
potential solutions through specific services or programs. It strengthens a
community’s problem-solving capacity.
• It is usually top-down
• This approach also assumes situations can be analyzed objectively and that the
scientific method is applicable.

10. Self- help Approach
Approaches of Community Development
 This process consists of engaging residents to identify assets—individual,
organizational, and institutional resources and capacities—rather than needs.
 The main objective of the self-help approach is to strengthen the community’s
capacity to solve problems in the long run.
 This approach is not perfect, and several issues are worth discussing. First, it
assumes residents possess the potential to improve the quality of life and that
they are interested and motivated to participate in these efforts. Second, self-
help is typically a lengthy process. Funding organizations may not have the
patience to wait until the process is mature and achieving expected objectives.

11. Conflict Approach
Approaches of Community Development
 It is an expression of incompatible actions in multiple arenas that range from cognitive
to emotional to behavioral (Robinson and Green, 2010).
 in a community development context, conflict should be seen as a process, not an
outcome.
 Sources of conflict can include differences in values and interests, and lack of or poor
communication, among others.
 A community benefits from conflict because it can force people to address problems
and take action, strengthen social networks, establish better long-term relationships,
and stimulate creativity.

12. Approaches of Community Development
• This specific approach assumes that conflict can be managed through an effective
and unbiased mediator or negotiator. This conflict manager is crucial for the
process to result in community development.
• It also assumes that the positive outcomes of the process will outweigh the
negative.
• It is possible that the process will further alienate different groups or individuals
in the community. Useful to keep in mind is that conflicts are usually fed by basic
human needs.

13. Strategies of Community Development
Strategies of Community Development
Food Security
Health Care
Water and Sanitation
Education and Literacy
Microenterprice/Microfinance

14. Food Security
Strategies of Community Development
• This could be agriculture-related projects that help people produce
food, store food, use food more economically, or grow/produce
marketable products. These generate income that can be applied to
purchasing food. Food security could also be job skills training or
small business startups to help increase overall individual and family
income.

15. Health Care
Strategies of Community Development
• We mainly use health care in the form of health care education, health
extension work, and development of local health care capacities. A
community development framework is utilized to gather and engage
communities and individuals in topics and issues of health care
particular to their situation. Examples are mother/child health classes,
nutrition education, community level first aid, or wellness/sickness
recognition programs.

16. Water and Sanitation
Strategies of Community Development
• A common development-oriented project is helping people with clean water. This can
be done through the development of local sources such as gravity-fed spring systems,
well drilling, rainwater harvesting, etc. It is also commonly accomplished through
community-based filtration/purification systems. However, water development
projects can manifest themselves in other types of projects such as water for
agricultural use (irrigation/food production) or sanitation/hygiene needs (hand
washing stations, water sealed sanitary toilets, etc.).

17. Education and Literacy
Strategies of Community Development
• For children and youth, education can include child sponsorship projects,
accrual of necessary materials for attending school (books, supplies,
uniforms, etc.), or even simple things such as healthy school lunches. For
adults, this is often seen in adult literacy and training programs. An
interesting side note is that there seems globally to be a positive
correlation between adult female literacy and the overall development and
health of a community.

18. Microenterprice/Microfinance
Strategies of Community Development
• This is a growing strategy for many development organizations,
seen by some as the “silver bullet” to all the development issues
of a community. It isn’t. However, projects that utilize good
community development principles and work mainly from the
resources generating in the local community do have great
potential for helping groups overcome poverty.