Essay Sample on Community Practice Definition and Brief History

Community

A community from a sociologist perspective refers to a group of people interacting with each other while sharing common norms, religion, identity or values. According to Zastrow (2016), a community involves the collection of people within a specific geographical area and the people in such a situation depend on each other. Therefore, communities are mental constructs comprising of people who share common interests, beliefs and norms within a specific geographical boundary.

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Community Practice

Community practice refers to activities within a locality that involves social action and planning to provide solutions to social problems. Zastrow (2016) noted that a community practice is a community-based intervention which is solution centered and involve power and resources distribution. Community practice is focused within a specific geographical area where there is a community with unique social problems such as domestic violence, poverty, and health issues.

Brief History of Community Practice

Community practice traces its history after the age of industrialization which led to the development of different social groups. According to Zastrow (2016), the industrial development led to the rise of a community marred by social inequality which raised the need for community interventions that will improve the wellbeing of the people. Community practice today features well developed and funded structures and systems that help to alleviate issues of concerns within communities and involves competent professionals.

Models of Community Practice

Locality-Development Model

Zastrow (2016) held that the locality development model involves a community-based orientation with the focus being on community building by establishing common interests within the community. According to Zastrow (2016), the locality development model consists of the creation of goals that promote greater cooperation of the community within a locality based on the local needs.

Social Planning Model

The social planning model of community practice involves the creation of technical processes of problem-solving which are deliberated and rationally planned to deal with social problems (Zastrow, 2016). Zastrow (2016) established that the community participation in this model varies and deals with building capacity and systems that can be instrumental in social change.

Social-Action Model

The social action model refers to the organization and awareness of a segment of the community to seek benefits from the extended community. According to Zastrow (2016), the social action model is applicable where there are two or more groups of people with different capacities, power, social treatment and resource endowment. The model is applicable in the call for improved treatment of a section of the society through social justice, redistribution of power or decision making (Zastrow, 2016). For instance, in a diverse community where there is an unequal allocation of resources a community which is disadvantaged can use the model to seek a greater share of community resources.

Community Practice Skills

Evaluating Outcomes

Outcomes evaluation is the assessment of community work results to determine whether the program strategy achieved the intended purpose. Zastrow (2016) pointed out that outcomes evaluation is a significant activity in social work because it helps to validate the actions taken and also to sanction for a new strategy in the cases where the ideal goal was not achieved.

Fund Raising

Fundraising is the process of soliciting for monetary resources that are used in community work to meet the community needs such as education for the poor and health. According to Zastrow (2016), the community practice resources are raised through collective community participation and well-wishers such as businesses within the society. Therefore, fundraising is critical in achieving the set society goals because resources are required to acquire products and compensate service providers.

Budgeting

Budgeting is the process of creating a plan on how the funds raised for community practice will be used to meet the social needs identified within a community. Zastrow (2016) viewed budgeting as an essential instrument in social work because it helps community work organizers to be aware of the capital requirement for a community work program which is crucial in planning the overall financial goals during fundraising and also ensuring accountability in community work projects.

Working With the Media

The media refers to the forms of communication such as radio, television, and newspapers and are critical in social work because the community work organizations can make their cause of their purpose and needs through the media instruments. According to Zastrow (2016), media has an instrumental role in social work because it is used in advocacy for certain social issues such as inequality which helps to lobby authorities and individuals for the support of community work.

Conducting a Needs Assessment

Community work should be objective and goal oriented which seek to meet certain social needs within a particular geographical area and people. Zastrow (2016) noted that needs assessment is the process of identifying critical social needs within a community that needs to be solved to understand their scope, resource need, and the stakeholders involved. Needs assessment helps to establish social work goals and objectives that promote accountability.

Critical Thinking Perspective

Significant New Knowledge

Reading the article, I was able to identify two new knowledge that was proved to be a fact which previously I held as an assumption. According to Chima (2014), the African Americans in the United States were denied the ability to read and write to be able to control them and maintain control on them with the aim of promoting servitude. This denotes that the Europeans deliberately withheld education from the Africans during the slave era to be able to use them as slaves. Secondly, Chima (2014) added that the vital role played by the Arabs in the slave trade by facilitating the capture and transportation of Africans from their villages to America where there was a demand for Agricultural labor. The article also notes that European slaves were working in plantations which have been ignored in most historical accounts on slavery which focuses only on African slaves.

Role of Religion in Slavery

According to Chima (2014), Christianity was a means used by the Europeans and American farmers to make them obedient and compliant. Religion was used as a justification for slavery by the Europeans in America who viewed the slave trade mostly run by Arabs was an opportunity to civilize the Africans by bringing them to American and introducing them to Christianity (Chima, 2014). This shows that religion was used as an excuse to justify slavery which was conducted by also believers.

Knowledge About the Earliest Africans in America Challenged in the Article

The article challenges the European perception that Africans were not civilized. The article seeks to correct the commonly held belief that Africans were uncivilized which made it necessary to colonize their lands and use them as labor in plantations. Chima (2014) noted that African regions such as West Africa had well developed political arrangements in the form of Kingdoms, states, and cities that were destroyed by the European.

Present Day Misconceptions About the History of African Americans

The modern history of African Americans points out that the African continent was undeveloped and did not have any political structures. However, Chima (2014) pointed out that people in the African continent had developed products that were traded with Europeans and Arabs before the time of slavery and the conflict between Muslims and Christians contributed largely to conflicts which led to the capturing of Africans by both sides and eventually developed into slave trade. This eliminates the present day misconception that slavery was only an European affair because of the involvement of Arabs and also African agents who captured slaves in the African villages and shipped to America where the demand for agriculture labor was high.

References

Chima, F, O. (2014). African Americans. In Levine, Timothy R. & Golson, J. Geoffrey, (Eds.). Encyclopedia of deception. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Zastrow, C. (2016). Generalist social work practice: A worktext. Chicago, Illinois: Lyceum Books, Inc.