community organizing

1. Overview of Community Organizing
Process

2. LEARNING ACTIVITIES: (45 minutes)
 Group yourselves into 5 (10 members per group) by
animal sound. Distribute metacards containing the
CO process per group.
Color Animal name
pink cat
blue dog
red rooster
orange bird
yellow lion

3.  Find your group by your animal sound (5 minutes)
 arrange each card according to the CO phases that
you had conducted or experienced.
 assign one member per group to read ONLY their
arranged cards.

4. PROCESS QUESTIONS:
 Based on the reports per group, are there
similarities/differences in the CO phases?
 Why are there differences in the CO phases as
presented?
 What were the challenges that you had encountered
in CO activities?

5. Check your Answers (COPAR Phases)
Pre Entry
Formulate plan for institutionalizing COPAR.
Formulate criteria and guidelines for site selection.
Conduct preliminary social investigation.
Do ocular survey of short-listed communities.
Choose sites/community for the immersion program.
Coordinate with local government/NGOs for assistance.
Develop survey tools.
Develop community profiles for secondary data.
Pay courtesy call to community leaders.
Choose foster families based on guidelines.

6. Entry Phase
Arrival in the community
Integrate with community residents through immersion
Immersion phase.
Conduct deepening social investigation.
Disseminate information to community residents regarding
COPAR.
Conduct community assembly.
Spot potential leaders and core group members.

7. Organization building Phase
Form the Core group
Define the roles / functions of the
core group
Conduct team-building, self-
awareness and leadership training
among leaders.
Informal education of core group
members.
Train community researchers.
Consult community to organize
community organization.
Elect CO (community organization)
officers.
Organize/Train community
workers and social liners.
Conduct PAR (Participatory Action
Research).
Consolidate community diagnosis and
PAR results.
Formulate community plan.
Organize working committees
Link with LGUs/NGOs for financial and
technical assistance.
Implement/Monitor/Evaluate health
projects.

8. Sustenance & Strengthening
Develop financial and management systems like functional
committees and implementation of livelihood projects.
Assess/ re-plan community programs.
Institutionalize linkages/referral points and networking.
Hold continuing needs-based education/training of community
workers.
Formulate/Ratify Constitution and By-laws.
Apply for S.E.C. registration/LGU accreditation.
Negotiate for absorption of community health workers by LGU.

9. Phase Out
CO leave the community to STAND-ALONE; should be
stated as early as the entry phase.
The real evaluation will be done by the residents
themselves.
Leaving the immersion site
Documentation.

10. What is Community organizing?
 Is a social development methodology to form self-
reliant, self-determined communities to sustain
development activities (Castro, 2012).
 CO is a means of empowering people; its primary
aim is to transform a situation of societal injustice,
inequality and poverty.

11. Def. Cont.
 A collective, participatory, transformative, liberative,
sustained and systematic process of building people’s
organizations by mobilizing and enhancing the capabilities
and resources of the people for the resolution of their issues
and concerns towards effecting change in their existing
oppressive and exploitative conditions (1994 National
Rural Conference).

12. Goals Of CO
 continuous and sustained process of educating the
people to understand and develop their critical
awareness of their existing condition,
 working with the people collectively and efficiently
on their immediate and long-term problems,
 mobilizing them to develop their capability and
readiness to respond and take action on their
immediate needs towards solving their long-term
problems (Castro, 2012; CO: A manual of experience,
PCPD).

13.  Integration
 Social Investigation
 Tentative program planning
 Groundwork
 Meeting
 Role Play
 Mobilization or action
 Evaluation
 Reflection
 Organization
The 10 CO Steps (Tagisan,1985)

14. Phases of COPAR (HRDP-COPAR
Model, Casro, 2012)
 Pre-Entry Phase
 Entry Phase
 Organization-building phase, and
 Sustenance and strengthening phase
 Phase Out

15. 1. Pre-Entry Phase
 Preparation of the Institution
 Site Selection
 Criteria for Initial Site Selection
 Identifying Potential Municipalities
 Identifying Potential Community
 Choosing Final Community
 Identifying Host Family

16. 2. Entry Phase
 Social preparation phase.
 Is crucial in determining which strategies for
organizing would suit the chosen community.
 Success of the activities depend on how much the
community organizers has integrated with the
community.

17.  Integration. Establishing rapport with the people
in continuing effort to imbibe community life.
Deepening social investigation/community study
 Core Group Formation

18. 3. Organization-building Phase
 Entails the formation of more formal structure and
the inclusion of more formal procedure of planning,
implementing, and evaluating community-wise
activities.
 It is at this phase where the organized leaders or
groups are being given training (formal, informal,
OJT) to develop their style in managing their own
concerns/programs.

19. 4. Sustenance and Strengthening
Phase
 community organization has already been
established
 community members are already actively
participating in community-wide undertakings.
 different committees setup in the organization-
building phase are already expected to be
functioning by way of planning, implementing and
evaluating their own programs, with the overall
guidance from the community-wide organization.

20. 5. Phase Out
 CO leave the community to STAND-ALONE; should
be stated as early as the entry phase.
 The real evaluation will be done by the residents
themselves.
 Leaving the immersion site.
 Documentation.

21.  Start slowly.
 Be guided too by the knowledge that development
means CHANGE and you do not just go about
introducing new ideas without considering the
risks and opportunities they involve.
 Get to know them
 Develop rapport
SOME ADVICE TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT WORKERS

22.  Win and keep the respect of local leaders.
 Be passionate
 You are the change agent, an advocate, a counsellor
 Be cool and have a sense of humor
 Avoid romantic involvement with anyone in your
coverage.