1(a) Getting to know a community and its problems

Figure 1. Getting to know a community starts with contact (Faustus909, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

What is a community?

A community is a group of people who are connected by social relations, who take part in joint activities and share common views, ideas or values. According to the United Nations, the process of community development is where “community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems” (“Community”). In order to be able to identify and understand the problems within a community, we need to have a clear picture of our role in it.

Practice Activity

On a piece of paper, in pencil (so you can edit) write your name in the middle.

Then write down all the communities you are part of and what your specific role in each one is (ex: group = family, role = daughter). Arrange the communities / roles on the paper in such a way that the closest to your name in the center is the community you play the most active role in and that you know best. You can draw concentric circles, arrows or other symbols to note any connections between your communities.

Discussion: Are any of these communities connected? In what way? Do any of these communities conflict? How?

Getting to know your community

Depending on your involvement in a specific community or your prior knowledge, you may have already identified a problem and have a head start with your project. However, it is not unusual to be a part of a community, but not be aware of the problems or needs that exist within it.

Consider this mental exercise: do you have even a rough idea of how much of the waste you generate at home is biodegradable? Do you know what portion of fellow students are using a bicycle as a means of transport to school? If you are a daily user of public transport, do you know whether all the subway stations in your neighbourhood are barrier-free for the disabled?

You may have a rough idea or a hunch about the answers to these questions, but the only way to be certain about it is through investigation. You can do this by actively observing, listening, engaging in conversations with members of the community and, very importantly, documenting what you see. The benefit of already being familiar with a community is that you can often be less formal in your communication. For example, if you want to learn about the busiest periods of your neighborhood bakery, you can keep track of the number of customers in different parts of the day over a week, but you can also just casually talk to the employees while buying bread.

Getting to know a community you are not familiar with

Many of you have grandparents who may need support in some activities, or perhaps would enjoy more social interaction. Maybe you have a friend who has a brother with Down syndrome who lives in an assisted living facility. Based on some limited experiences that you’ve had, you might want to do a project that involves communities that you are not so familiar with, for example the elderly or people with learning disabilities. So where do you start?

First contact. While it is possible to approach an unfamiliar group directly, it is usually easier to use an inside contact as a link. This could be a person who is already involved with this community, or a person in an organisation that provides services to the members of the community you are targeting. This inside contact can bring you into the organisation, introduce you, and help you and the group get to know each other. The benefit of using an inside contact is that you get easier access, background information, and a less formal introduction to the community you are interested in. This is sometimes called a ‘warm handshake’.

Figure 2. A warm handshake can help you get to know an unfamiliar community more easily (keycmndr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

However, if you do not personally know anyone involved in the community, you will need to learn about it and get in touch with the members formally. This could be done by sending them a formal email indicating your interest or by calling them. You can learn more about how to do this with the Cold Calls / Cold Emails tool listed in the Tools section below.

Another strategy is to search for open events that an organisation or community hosts. Or you can visit a display or stand that an organisation or community has at fairs or community events put on by the local council. This would enable you to start communication more naturally and get to know the people in person.

Figure 3. Making a phone call can establish contact with a community (Nova, CC BY-NC 2.0)

Establishing rapport

Once you are ‘in’, the next step is establishing rapport, which means developing trust and building a friendly relationship with the members of the community. This is especially important if you want to get honest responses to your questions and constructive feedback.

Doing some background research helps to start a conversation, so make sure you learn something about the community you are planning to contact. You can browse through their website, their social media page or ask your inside contact some questions in advance. You can find some ideas for Conversation starters / Introduction tips in the Tools below.

A powerful ice-breaker is to introduce yourself by mentioning something that the members of the community can relate to. For example, if you learned that the local centre for the elderly organises regular chess games for members, you can mention that you recently joined a chess-club. And be ready for their questions! Communication is a two-way process and if you want to learn more about people, and gain their trust, you can expect that they might be curious about you too.

Finally, when the members of the community start sharing their experiences, you need to demonstrate that you are interested in what they are saying. Active listening is a key skill to earn the trust of others and help you understand their situation. It allows you to ask questions and understand what is being said. This will help you to understand problems and collaborate to develop solutions. Here are some tips on being an active listener:

Make eye contact! You should aim to be making eye contact 60-70% of the time you are listening. Pay attention to your posture, lean towards the person, nod your head occasionally and avoid behaviors like crossing your arms.

Instead of offering opinions or advice, paraphrase what you have heard. “So what you are saying is……….”

Do not interrupt whilst the other person is speaking. Do not pre-prepare your answer. The last thing the person says could change the whole meaning of what they just said.

In addition to listening to what is being said, pay attention to body language and non verbal behaviour, things like facial expression and tone of voice - these may tell you more than words alone.

Show interest by asking questions, make sure the questions are open and not questions that require a yes or no answer.

Do not change the subject, this will give the impression you are not interested in what the person was saying.

As you are listening, be open, avoid judgement and stereotypes.

Figure 3. Active listening is an important part of connecting with others (Pixabay, CC0)

Once you have made the initial contact and are familiar with the community, the foundation for the next step - identifying behaviour patterns - will be paved. This will help you figure out what the key problems and needs of the community are.

Practice Activity - Active listening exercise

Note: this activity is best done with a group, organised by a teacher, mentor or other third person.

Ask the participants in the activity to find a partner or pair them up yourself.

Ask a volunteer from each pair to follow you outside or to a different room where you cannot be heard. Instruct the volunteers to tell their partners three different stories or anecdotes. Instruct the storyteller that whatever happens, they have to continue talking; they can’t stop telling their story. Give the participants five minutes to think about the stories they would like to tell.

Whilst the volunteers are thinking about their stories, go back to the pair-partners. Explain what the volunteers are doing and that the exercise is split into three rounds for the three different stores. In each round, the non-story-tellers have to react to the stories in the following ways:

Story 1 / Round 1: Completely ignore the person talking. Don’t give them any attention. Look at your phone, turn your back to them, avoid eye contact, or even talk to someone else.

Story 2 / Round 2: Steal the other person's story. Anytime you can talk about yourself, interrupt them and take over the story. “Oh, that’s just like me, I...”

Story 3 / Round 3: Pay attention, listen, maintain eye-contact, ask open-ended questions, acknowledge and paraphrase what your partner is saying.

Get the pairs back together and conduct the rounds of story-telling. Three minutes per round should be enough time so people get the point without wanting to strangle each other.

Debrief after each round with questions such as

What happened?
What did you see/hear?
How did you feel?
What did you do?

Examples in different contexts

Reducing plastic in the household

For this project, the student had learned about the problem of plastic waste in school. The student could see that her family purchased / used / disposed of many pieces of plastic packaging every week and was contributing to the environmental problem.
In this case, the student already knew the community (the family) and could see from experience in the family that plastic waste is a problem. Therefore, the student was ready to dive into a deeper investigation.

Mitigating CO2 emissions in the school

For this project, the students (group) had learned about the role of greenhouse gas emissions in climate change in their education. They recognised that their school, like other organisations, contributes CO2 emissions and decided to focus on investigating the problem within this community.
In this case, the students already knew the community (the school) and could see from experience that the community is contributing to the problem. Therefore, the students were ready to dive into a deeper investigation.

Informing people with Down syndrome about social distancing during a pandemic

For this project, one of the students had direct links to a specific community, through the sibling who has Down syndrome. Some of the stakeholders in the project were already acquaintances and others were members of a Down syndrome organisation, which was relatively easy to get access to.
This also helped more easily identify the problem that was going to be the main focus of the project - that at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a lack of information about hygiene safety measures and social distancing targeted at this group.

Tools

Documentation for exhibitions and reports

Don’t forget to document your work. To learn more about documenting your project, see Module 1(e).

Ideas for documenting at this stage of the project:

Photographs of a community / organisation
Observations notes or notes from observing members of a community / organisation
Website links or screenshots from a community’s / organisation’s website
Brochures, and materials from a community / organisation
News articles about a community / organisation

Works cited

“Community Development.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 July 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_development#cite_ref-unterm_1-0.

Faustus909. “Husbands.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 29 May 2011, https://tinyurl.com/ya7kbaj3

keycmndr. “Introductions.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 5 Nov. 2019, https://tinyurl.com/ybg4mxj8.

Nova, Nicolas. “Phones.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 24 Oct. 2010, https://tinyurl.com/y9nyqs3m.

Images for examples in different contexts source information:

Samoilov, Yuri. “Coronavirus.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 20 Mar. 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ya2ngksd. CC BY 2.0

Webster, Tony. “Plastic Bottles - Waste.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 16 Sept. 2012, www.flickr.com/photos/87296837@N00/7992944072. CC BY 2.0

XoMEoX. “Tree.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 28 May 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y8bw46ns. CC BY 2.0

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