Last Updated on January 22, 2023 by Team TSW

Community organization is when the community itself takes initiative in solving their problems and meeting their needs. Usually within the community either the interested people or the people who are affected by a problem take up the lead in addressing the problem. But the process is not as simple as it sounds, someone has to take the lead. When the outcome is not on expected line, an external agent or an outsider or a community organizer steps in and works with the community. The community organizer, depending on the setting, situation and the problems, applies specific skills of community organization. The organizer equipped with required skills does wonders in the community organization process.

Skills of Community Organizer

Apart from common social work skills, the organizer is expected to possess skills specific to community organization. Following are the main skills specific to community organizer:-

Problem Identification

Every community has its own set of problems. Often communities in the absence of expert guidance, fail to recognize the real problem. Communities keep on working on subproblems, which yields nothing or very little. To get to the root of problem communities need expert advice and help. Community organizer is one such expert with sound knowledge and experience in the field. 

Very first task of the community organizer is to look for the real issues of the community. The organizer should have skills like listening, observation, collecting data, open and unbiased attitude, data analysis and good knowledge of human behaviour. Once the real problem is identified, the organizer needs to make people aware about the real reason for their plight. Problem identification is the first and most important task towards a solution. Community and the organizer sit together to find a possible solution to the problem.

Resource Mobilization

Every solution needs resources. The resources may be in terms of manpower, money, material and time. Often the required resources are available with the community but because of ignorance they fail to make any use of it. The organizer identifies the locally available resources and also guides people how to use them. Though some of the resources are available locally, the organizer also has to take help from his contacts to arrange other required resources. Locally available resources may be community buildings, man power, play grounds and material resources. Look at the following table, it explains the type of resources we need and how organizers can mobilize these resources.

S.No.	Type of Resources	Mobilization
1	Material resources like Furnitures, Rooms etc.	Locally available or the organizer arranges permission of concerned authority
2	Community Buildings	Locally available or the organizer arranges permission of concerned authority
3	Man power	The organizer encourages locals to provide helping hands.
4	Grounds	Locally available or the organizer arranges permission of concerned authority
5	Documents	The organizer takes help from agency for providing related work documents, so that best practices can be implemented.
6	Expert opinions	Organizer with his network avail opinion of subject matter expert.
7	Money	Part of the solution may require money and for that the organizer can take help from NGOs or persons involved in charity works. The organizer may ask the community itself to fund the spendings.

Conflict Resolution

To resolve the conflict within the community it’s important to check the kinds of conflict a community may face. Let’s look at following example to understand conflict:-

Problem:- Various diseases are spreading in the locality due to water clogging.

Community Compositions :-  This community is composed of multiple ethnicities, faith and religions.

Solution:- Ultimate solution is to wipe out recurrent diseases. But here issues are more than just water clogging. First organizer will have to address the inter-community issues caused due to different faiths. Solution to water clogging will follow.

This is just an example and different communities may be different in numerous ways. Some of the most common reasons of conflicts in communities are:

• Domination of a particular religion.
• Lack of communication between people of different groups.
• Prejudice towards certain faiths or religions.
• Leadership crisis within the community.
• Historical events causing tension.
• Trust deficiency between sub groups.
• Feeling of superiority in some groups.

First step for conflict resolution is identification of conflict. The organizer with attentive observation, listening and other communication skills may get to the conflicts present in the community.
The organizer may employ multiple techniques to solve the conflicts. Techniques like skits, role plays, street theater, group games, outing and audio-visual shows help in removing conflicts. Once the conflict is resolved and people of different faiths have trust and confidence in each other, the organizer can plan for the solution of real problems.

Meetings

Lack of communication between sub groups is one of the main reasons for conflict. So the communication within the community and between the community and the organizer is vital for the success of the community organization method. The organizer should make sure that communication takes place and people remain in touch with each other. Regular conversation among the community members develops trust. The organizer plans the formal and informal meetings. In these meeting information is shared and sharing of information enables sharing of responsibility and decision making. 

Events Recording

Carefully maintained records are a great aid to the evaluation process. Records are integral to the process but are most useful at the point of evaluation. Among other things, it helps the worker understand which strategies worked and which did not. According to Trecker, “it is doubtful whether evaluation of the program, individual growth or worker performance can be satisfactorily made without records.” 

Record keeping not only help the organizer in the evaluation but also in other community organization work. Agency can keep the document for further reference and best practices of one process can be implemented in other work as well. Careful recording can be useful in the research process as well to make the community organization method more powerful and successful.

Social Justice

Justice is of immense social significance. It gives rise to a sense of duty and concern for others. Social justice creates and sustains trust and confidence among people. It preserves law and order. Social Justice fosters understanding and thereby promotes harmony and integration.

Social justice strengthens unity and solidarity. It generates an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. It underscores the principle of live and let others live or peaceful coexistence. Social justice accelerates socio-economic development, and ultimately optimizes personal and social functioning.

Social workers raise their voices on behalf of the oppressed, the marginalized, and anyone who needs their voice heard. They often focus on issues such as poverty, homelessness, discrimination, harassment, and other forms of injustice. Social workers provide information, guidance, help, and other resources to people seeking equality, and they educate people who may not directly experience discrimination about the struggles of others who may not have the same level of privileges in our society.

Social workers’ efforts to address injustices include examining their own biases and encouraging others to do the same. They work to create more equitable support systems and identify structural conditions that contribute to disparities in the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

Networking

A successful community organization process requires participation from the people of the concerned community. Self imposed changes tend to work longer than the ones imposed by the outer world. So, it’s necessary for the organizer to take the community along while finalizing the community organization process. At times people don’t easily connect with the organizer and it takes help from a person having influence over said community. The organizer with his connection takes help from the people who hold influence over the concerned community. Under the influence, people start to listen to the organizer and develop much needed trust. It’s important that the organizer has contact with people of diverse fields. A good network helps a lot in successful community organization work.

Read common social work skills in detail.

How to acquire skills

Some of the skills are innate and easy to acquire Let’s discuss how a social worker can attain skills :-

• Keenly observing democratic leadership styles.
• Reading relevant material from libraries, authenticated websites, journals, reports etc will keep you updated on the latest in the field.
• Maintaining a dairy of everyday gives a written documentation for reference.
• Interacting with social work fraternity and with co-workers in professional forums such as workshops, seminars, conferences, training programs etc. basically facilitates interchange of ideas and experiences.
• Gain hands on training.
• lending a hand to others to acquire social work skills, one can constantly check and reinvent oneself about the skills needed.