Community Work (or Community Building, Community Development) consists of a set of methods, used to:
- involve and activate local people,
- cooperate with local people in analyzing the community’s needs and support change,
- support the local community in establishing contacts with, and cooperate with, stakeholders.
There is a wide range of situations and locations in which community work is the most effective way to involve local citizens create sustainable change on local level:
- People want to improve the public space in their neighbourhood
- An NGO wants to work together with local people in a remote settlement to improve their living situation,
- A municipality would like to involve citizens in communal planning
- An ecological organisation want to involve local people in achieving sustainable changes in the environment.
- A Regional Development Agency is initiating a large regional development project, and is looking for ways how to involve the people who live there, to achieve sustainable changes.
- A consultancy firm has the lead in an EU funded development project and would like to use knowledge and skills “from below” to make the project to a success.