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Home / Get to Know the Community You Work in?

Get to Know the Community You Work in?

Examine the community and record your findings in a community description or overview for credibility and awareness.

  • What is a community?

  • What do we mean past understanding and describing the community?

  • Why make the effort to sympathise and describe your community?

  • Whom should you contact to assemble information?

  • How do you become virtually understanding and describing the community?

Photo of cartoon houses

For those of us who work in community health and evolution, it's important to understand community -- what a community is, and the specific nature of the communities we piece of work in. Anything nosotros do in a community requires us to be familiar with its people, its issues, and its history. Carrying out an intervention or building a coalition are far more likely to be successful if they are informed past the culture of the community and an understanding of the relationships amid individuals and groups within it.

Taking the time and effort to understand your community well before embarking on a community endeavour will pay off in the long term. A good way to attain that is to create a community description -- a record of your exploration and findings. It'due south a good fashion to gain a comprehensive overview of the community -- what it is now, what information technology's been in the by, and what it could be in the future. In this section, nosotros'll discuss how yous might approach examining the community in some particular and setting downwardly your findings in a community description.

What is a customs?

While nosotros traditionally think of a community every bit the people in a given geographical location, the word can really refer to any group sharing something in common. This may refer to smaller geographic areas -- a neighborhood, a housing projection or development, a rural surface area -- or to a number of other possible communities within a larger, geographically-defined customs.

These are ofttimes defined by race or ethnicity, professional or economic ties, faith, civilization, or shared groundwork or interest:

  • The Catholic community (or faith customs, a term used to refer to i or more congregations of a specific faith).
  • The arts community
  • The African American community
  • The education community
  • The concern community
  • The homeless community
  • The gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community
  • The medical community
  • The Haitian community
  • The elderly community

These diverse communities often overlap. An African American art instructor, for instance, might see herself (or be seen by others) as a member of the African American, arts, and/or education communities, equally well as of a particular faith community. An Italian woman may become an intensely involved member of the indigenous and cultural community of her Nigerian married man. Whichever customs defines your piece of work, you will want to get to know information technology well.

What do we mean past agreement and describing the customs?

Agreement the customs entails understanding it in a number of ways. Whether or not the customs is defined geographically, it nonetheless has a geographic context -- a setting that information technology exists in. Getting a clear sense of this setting may exist key to a full agreement of it. At the same fourth dimension, it's important to understand the specific community you're concerned with. You take to become to know its people -- their civilisation, their concerns, and relationships -- and to develop your own relationships with them as well.

  • Physical aspects. Every community has a physical presence of some sort, even if simply one building. Most accept a geographic area or areas they are either defined past or attached to. Information technology'due south important to know the community'southward size and the look and feel of its buildings, its topography (the lay of the land -- the hills, valleys, rivers, roads, and other features you lot'd find on a map), and each of its neighborhoods. Also important are how various areas of the customs differ from one another, and whether your impression is one of clean, well-maintained houses and streets, or one of shabbiness, dirt, and neglect.

    If the community is ane defined by its population, then its physical backdrop are also defined by the population: where they live, where they gather, the places that are of import to them. The characteristics of those places can tell you a neat deal well-nigh the people who make upward the community. Their self-image, many of their attitudes, and their aspirations are ofttimes reflected in the places where they choose -- or are forced past circumstance or discrimination -- to live, work, gather, and play.

  • Infrastructure. Roads, bridges, transportation (local public transportation, airports, railroad train lines), electricity, state line and mobile telephone service, broadband service, and similar "nuts" make upwards the infrastructure of the customs, without which it couldn't function.
  • Patterns of settlement, commerce, and industry. Where are those physical spaces we've been discussing? Communities reveal their character past where and how they create living and working spaces. Where there are true slums --  substandard housing in areas with few or no services that are the only options for depression-income people -- the value the larger customs places on those residents seems clear. Are heavy industries located adjacent to residential neighborhoods? If so, who lives in those neighborhoods? Are some parts of the community dangerous, either because of high crime and violence or considering of unsafe conditions in the built or natural environment?
  • Demographics.  It's vital to understand who makes upwards the community.  Age, gender, race and ethnicity, marital status, educational activity, number of people in household, offset language -- these and other statistics make up the demographic profile of the population. When you put them together (e.g.,  the education level of blackness women ages 18-24), information technology gives you a articulate picture of who community residents are.
  • History. The long-term history of the community can tell you virtually community traditions, what the customs is, or has been, proud of, and what residents would prefer not to talk nearly. Contempo history tin can afford valuable information about conflicts and factions within the customs, of import issues, past and current relationships among cardinal people and groups -- many of the factors that tin trip up any try before it starts if you don't know about and accost them.
  • Community leaders, formal and informal. Some community leaders are elected or appointed -- mayors, city councilors, directors of public works. Others are considered leaders considering of their activities or their positions in the community -- customs activists, corporate CEO's, college presidents, doctors, clergy.  Still others are recognized equally leaders because, they are trusted for their proven integrity, courage, and/or care for others and the good of the community.
  • Community culture, formal and breezy. This covers the spoken and unspoken rules and traditions past which the community lives. It tin can include everything from community events and slogans -- the approval of the fishing fleet, the "Artichoke Majuscule of the World" -- to norms of behavior -- turning a bullheaded eye to alcohol abuse or domestic violence -- to patterns of bigotry and practise of ability. Understanding the culture and how it adult can be crucial, especially if that's what you're attempting to modify.
  • Existing groups.  Nigh communities accept an array of groups and organizations of different kinds -- service clubs (Lions, Rotary, etc.), faith groups, youth organizations, sports teams and clubs, groups formed around shared interests, the boards of customs-wide organizations (the YMCA, the symphony, United Manner), besides as groups devoted to self-help, advocacy, and activism.  Knowing of the existence and importance of each of these groups can pave the fashion for alliances or for understanding opposition.
  • Existing institutions. Every community has institutions that are important to it, and that have more or less brownie with residents. Colleges and universities, libraries, religious institutions, hospitals -- all of these and many others can occupy of import places in the customs. It's of import to know what they are, who represents them, and what influence they wield.
  • Economic science.  Who are the major employers in the community?  What, if any, business organization or industry is the community'southward base? Who, if anyone, exercises economic power? How is wealth distributed? Would y'all characterize the community equally poor, working, grade, centre class, or affluent?  What are the economic prospects of the population in general and/or the population yous're concerned with?
  • Government/Politics. Agreement the structure of community government is obviously important. Some communities may have strong mayors and weak urban center councils, others the opposite. Still other communities may have no mayor at all, but only a town director, or may take a dissimilar class of government entirely.  Any the government structure, where does political power lie? Understanding where the real power is can exist the difference betwixt a successful effort and a vain one.
  • Social structure. Many aspects of social structure are integrated into other areas -- relationships, politics, economics -- but there are also the questions of how people in the customs chronicle to one another on a daily basis, how problems are (or aren't) resolved, who socializes or does business with whom, etc. This area also includes perceptions and symbols of condition and respect, and whether status carries entitlement or responsibility (or both).
  • Attitudes and values. Over again, much of this expanse may be covered past investigation into others, specially culture. What does the community care about, and what does it ignore? What are residents' assumptions nigh the proper way to carry, to dress, to do business concern, to treat others? Is in that location widely accepted discrimination against one or more groups by the majority or by those in power? What are the norms for interaction amid those who with different opinions or unlike backgrounds?

We'll discuss all of these aspects of community in greater detail later in the section.

There are obviously many more aspects of community that can be explored, such as health or education.  The assumption here is that as part of an cess, you'll aim for a general understanding of the customs, as described in this department, and also assess, with a narrower focus, the specific aspects yous're interested in.

Once you've explored the relevant areas of the community, y'all'll have the data to create a community description. Depending on your needs and data, this description might exist annihilation from a two-or three-page outline to an in-depth portrait of the community that extends to tens of pages and includes charts, graphs, photographs, and other elements. The indicate of doing it is to have a picture of the community at a particular point in fourth dimension that you can use to provide a context for your customs assessment and to see the results of whatever actions you lot take to bring about change.

A customs description can be every bit creative as you're capable of making information technology.  It tin can be written equally a story, can contain photos and commentary from customs residents (see Photovoice), can be done online and include audio and video, etc. The more than interesting the description is, the more people are likely to actually read information technology.

Why make the effort to empathise and describe your community?

You may at this signal be thinking, "Tin can't I piece of work effectively within this community without gathering all this information?" Possibly, if it'south a community you lot're already familiar with, and really know information technology well. If yous're new to the community, or an outsider, nonetheless, it'south a different story. Not having the proper background data on your customs may non seem similar a big deal until you unintentionally notice yourself on one side of a bitter carve up, or become involved in an issue without knowing about its long and tangled history.

Some advantages to taking the time to understand the community and create a community clarification include:

  • Gaining a general idea, even before an assessment, of the community's strengths and the challenges it faces.
  • Capturing unspoken, influential rules and norms. For example, if people are divided and angry most a particular outcome, your information might prove y'all an event in the customs'due south history that explains their strong emotions on that subject.
  • Getting a feel for the attitudes and opinions of the community when y'all're starting piece of work on an initiative.
  • Ensuring the security of your organization's staff and participants.  There may be neighborhoods where staff members or participants should be accompanied by others in guild to exist rubber, at least at nighttime. Knowing the character of various areas and the invisible borders that exist amidst various groups and neighborhoods can be extremely important for the concrete safety of those working and living in the community.
  • Having enough familiarity with the community to allow you to converse intelligently with residents most community issues, personalities and geography. Knowing that yous've taken the time and effort to go to know them and their environment can help yous to constitute trust with community members.  That can brand both a community cess and any deportment and activities that result from information technology easier to conduct.
  • Beingness able to talk convincingly with the media about the community.
  • Being able to share information with other organizations or coalitions that piece of work in the community so that you can collaborate or so that everyone'due south work tin can do good.
  • Providing background and justification for grant proposals.
  • Knowing the context of the community then that you lot can tailor interventions and programs to its norms and culture, and increase your chances of success.

When should you brand an effort to understand and describe the customs?

  • When you lot're nigh to launch a community cess.  The first stride is to become a clear sense of the community, before more than specifically assessing the surface area(s) you lot're interested in.
  • When you're new to a community and want to exist well informed before beginning your piece of work. If yous've just started working in a community -- even if it's work you lot've been doing for years -- y'all will probably observe that taking the time to write a customs description enriches your work.
  • When you've been working in a community for any length of fourth dimension and want to take stock. Communities are circuitous, constantly-changing entities. Past periodically stopping to write a detailed description of your community, y'all tin assess what approaches have worked and what oasis't; new needs that have developed over time and old concerns that no longer crave your effort and free energy; and other information to assistance you lot better do your work.
  • When yous're feeling like you're stuck in a heat and need a fresh perspective. Organizations have to remain dynamic in order to keep moving forrad. Reexamining the community -- or perhaps examining it carefully for the outset fourth dimension -- tin infuse an organisation with new ideas and new purpose.
  • When y'all're because introducing a new initiative or program and desire to assess its possible success.Bated from when you first come up to a community, this is probably the about vital time to practice a community clarification.
  • When a funder asks you to, ofttimes every bit office of a funding proposal.

While researching and writing a community description can take time, your work can almost ever do good from the information you gather.

Whom should yous contact to gather data?

Much of your all-time and well-nigh interesting information may come from community members with no particular credentials except that they're part of the community. Information technology's especially important to become the perspective of those who often don't have a voice in community decisions and politics -- low-income people, immigrants, and others who are often kept out of the community discussion. In improver, yet, there are some specific people that it might be of import to talk to. They're the individuals in central positions, or those who are trusted by a large part of the community or by a particular population. In a typical customs, they might include:

  • Elected officials
  • Community planners and development officers
  • Chiefs of constabulary
  • School superintendents, principals, and teachers
  • Directors or staff of health and human service organizations
  • Health professionals
  • Clergy
  • Community activists
  • Housing advocates
  • Presidents or chairs of civic or service clubs -- Bedroom of Commerce, veterans' organizations, Lions, Rotary, etc.
  • People without titles, just identified by others as "community leaders"
  • Owners or CEO's of big businesses (these may be local or may be big corporations with local branches)

How do you go about understanding and describing the community?

General Guidelines

To begin, let's expect at some basic principles to keep in mind.

  • Be prepared to learn from the community. Assume that you take a lot to larn, and arroyo the process with an open mind. Listen to what people have to say. Discover carefully. Take notes -- yous can utilise them later to generate new questions or to help reply old ones.
  • Be enlightened that people's speech, thoughts, and deportment are not always rational. Their attitudes and behavior  are often best understood in the context of their history, social relations, and civilization. Race relations in the U.S., for case, tin can't be understood without knowing some of the historical context -- the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the work of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement.
  • Don't assume that the information people give yous is necessarily accurate. At that place are a number of reasons why informants may tell y'all things that are inaccurate. People's perceptions don't always reverberate reality, but are colored instead by what they think or what they think they know.  In add-on, some may intentionally exaggerate or downplay particular conditions or issues for their own purposes or for what they see as the greater good. (The Bedroom of Commerce or local government officials might try to make economic conditions await improve than they are in the hopes of attracting new business concern to the community, for instance.)  Others may merely be mistaken about what they tell you  -- the geographical boundaries of a item neighborhood, for example, or the year of an important event. Get information, particularly on issues, weather, and relationships from many sources if y'all can. As time goes on, you'll learn who the always-reliable sources are.
  • Beware of activities that may alter people'south behavior. It'southward well known that people (and animals too) can change their normal behavior as a result of knowing they're being studied.  Neighborhood residents may clean upwardly their yards if they're aware that someone is taking the measure out of the neighborhood. Customs members may try to appear as they wish to be seen, rather than as they really are, if they know you're watching. To the extent that you can, effort not to do anything that volition change the way people become about their daily business or express themselves. That unremarkably means being as unobtrusive as possible -- not being obvious about taking pictures or making notes, for example. In some circumstances, it could mean trying to gain trust and insight through participant observation.

Participant observation is a technique that anthropologists employ.  It entails becoming part of another civilisation, both to continue people in it from existence influenced by your presence and to sympathize information technology from the inside.  Some researchers believe it addresses the problem of irresolute the civilisation by studying it, and others believe that information technology makes the problem worse.

  • Have reward of the information and facilities that help shape the world of those who accept lived in the customs for a long time. Read the local newspaper (and the alternative paper, likewise, if at that place is one), mind to local radio, watch local TV, mind to conversation in cafes and bars, in barbershops and beauty shops.  You can learn a great bargain about a community by immersing yourself in its internal advice. The Bedchamber of Commerce will commonly have a list of expanse businesses and organizations, along with their contact people, which should give yous both points of contact and a sense of who the people are that yous might want to get in impact with. Get to the library -- local librarians are frequently treasure troves of data, and their professional goal is to spread it around. Check out bulletin boards at supermarkets and laundromats.  Even graffiti can be a valuable source of information about customs issues.
  • Network, network, network.  Every contact you make in the customs has the potential to lead you to more contacts. Whether you lot're talking to official or unofficial community leaders or to people you just met on the street, e'er inquire who else they would recommend that you talk to and whether you lot can use their names when you contact those people. Establishing relationships with a variety of community members is probably the virtually important thing you tin can do to ensure that you'll exist able to get the information yous need, and that you'll have support for working in the customs when you end your assessment and begin your endeavor.

Gathering data

To observe out nearly various aspects of the community, you'll demand a number of different methods of gathering data. Nosotros've already discussed some of them, and many of the remaining sections of this affiliate deal with them, considering they're the same methods you'll use in doing a total community assessment. Hither, we'll but listing them, with short explanations and links to sections where you lot tin get more than information about each.

  • Public records and archives. These include local, state, and federal government statistics and records, newspaper athenaeum, and the records of other organizations that they're willing to share. Many of the public documents are available at public and/or academy libraries and on line at authorities websites. Most communities have their own websites, which often comprise valuable information likewise.
  • Individual and group interviews. Interviews can range from casual conversations in a cafe to structured formal interviews in which the interviewer asks the aforementioned specific questions of a number of carefully chosen central informants. They tin can exist conducted with individuals or groups, in all kinds of different places and circumstances. They're ofttimes the all-time sources of information, only they're besides time-consuming and involve finding the right people and convincing them to consent to be interviewed, also as finding (and sometimes preparation) adept interviewers.

Interviews may include enlisting equally sources of information others who've spent time learning near the community.  University researchers, staff and administrators of health and human service organizations, and activists may all have done considerable piece of work to understand the character and inner workings of the community.  Take reward of their findings if you tin can.  It may save y'all many hours of endeavor.

  • Surveys. At that place are various types of surveys. They can be written or oral, conducted with a selected small group -- ordinarily a randomized sample that represents a larger population -- or with as many community members every bit possible. They can be sent through the mail, administered over the phone or in person, or given to specific groups (schoolhouse classes, faith congregations, the Rotary Club). They're often fairly brusk, and ask for answers that are either yes-no, or that rate the survey-taker'southward opinion of a number of possibilities (typically on a calibration that represents "concord strongly" to "disagree strongly" or "very favorable" to "very unfavorable.")  Surveys can, nonetheless, be much more comprehensive, with many questions, and can ask for more complex answers.
  • Direct or participant ascertainment.  Often the best style to observe out about the community is simply to observe. You tin observe concrete features, conditions in various areas, the interactions of people in different neighborhoods and circumstances, the amount of traffic, commercial activity, how people utilise various facilities and spaces, or the evidence of previous events or decisions. Participant ascertainment means becoming part of the grouping or scene y'all're observing, so that you tin can run across it from the inside.

Observation can take many forms.  In addition to but going to a place and taking notes on what you see, you might use other techniques -- Photovoice, video, sound, elementary photographs, drawings, etc.  Don't limit the ways in which you tin can record your observations and impressions.

Understanding the Community

At present let's consider what y'all might examine to understand and describe the community. You won't necessarily look for this information in the social club given here, although it's a good idea to starting time with the starting time 2.

The community'south physical characteristics.

Go a map of the community and bulldoze and/or walk effectually. (If the community isn't defined by geography, notation and observe the areas where its members live, piece of work, and gather.) Observe both the built and the natural environs. In the built environment, some things to pay attention to are:

  • The age, compages, and condition of housing and other buildings. Some shabby or poorly-maintained housing may occupy good buildings that could exist fixed up, for example -- that'south of import to know. Is in that location substandard housing in the community? Expect for new construction, and new developments, and take note of where they are, and whether they're replacing existing housing or businesses or adding to it. (You might want to find out more than near these. Are they controversial? Was there opposition to them, and how was information technology resolved? Does the community offer incentives to developers, and, if and so, for what?)  Is housing separated past income or other factors, so that all low-income residents, for case, or all North African immigrants seem to live in one area away from others? Are buildings generally in adept condition, or are they dingy and run-down? Are in that location buildings that look similar they might accept historic significance, and are they kept up? Are most buildings attainable to people with disabilities?
  • Commercial areas.  Are at that place stores and other businesses in walking altitude of residential areas or of public transportation for most members of the community? Practice commercial buildings present windows and displays or blank walls to pedestrians? Is there human foot traffic and action in commercial areas, or do they seem deserted? Is there a good mix of local businesses, or nothing just concatenation stores? Are at that place theaters, places to hear music, a variety of restaurants, and other types of amusement? Do many buildings include public spaces -- indoor or outdoor plazas where people can sit, for case? In full general, are commercial areas and buildings attractive and well-maintained?
  • The types and location of industrial facilities. What kind of industry exists in the community? Does it seem to have a lot of environmental impact -- noise, air or water pollution, smells, heavy traffic? Is it located shut to residential areas, and, if and then, who lives in that location? Is in that location some attempt to brand industrial facilities attractive -- landscaping, murals or imaginative color schemes on the outside, etc?
  • Infrastructure.  What condition are streets in?  Do most streets, at to the lowest degree in residential and commercial areas, have sidewalks? Bicycle lanes? Are pedestrians shielded from traffic by trees, grass strips, and/or plantings? Are roads adequate for the traffic they conduct? Are at that place foot bridges across busy highways and railroad tracks, or do they separate areas of the community and pose dangers for pedestrians? Is there adequate public transportation, with facilities for people with physical disabilities? Does information technology reach all areas of the community? Can well-nigh people gain admission to the Internet if they have the equipment (i.east., computers or properly equipped cell phones)?

This is a topic that is ripe for examination. In many rural areas, specially in developing countries, only often in the adult globe as well, there is very piddling infrastructure.  Roads and bridges may be impassable at certain (or near) times of year, phone service and Goggle box reception nonexistent, Internet access a distant dream. Public transportation in many places, if information technology exists at all, may take the form of a pickup truck or xx-year-old van that takes every bit many passengers every bit tin squeeze into or onto the bed, passenger compartment, and roof. Is any of this on the government's or anyone else's radar as a situation that needs to be addressed? What is the general policy about services to rural and/or poor populations?  Answers to these and like questions may both explain the situation (and the attitudes of the local population) and highlight a number of possible courses of action.

In the category of natural features, we can include both areas that have been largely left to nature, and "natural" spaces created by homo intervention.

  • Topography. An area's topography is the shape of its mural. Is the community largely hilly, largely flat, or does information technology incorporate areas of both? Is water -- rivers, creeks, lakes and ponds, canals, seashore -- a noticeable or important part of the concrete character of the community? Who lives in what areas of the community?
  • Open space and greenery. Is there open space scattered throughout the community, or is it limited to i or a few areas? How much open space is in that location? Is it generally man-made (parks, commons, campuses, sports fields), or is there wilderness or semi-wilderness? Does the community give the impression  of being green and leafy, with lots of trees and grass, or is it mostly concrete or dirt?
  • Air and water. Is the air reasonably clear and clean, or is at that place a blanket of smog? Does the air generally odour fresh, or are at that place industrial or other unpleasant odors? Do rivers, lakes, or other bodies of water appear clean? Do they seem to be used for recreation (canoeing, pond, fishing)?

There is an overlap between the community's physical and social characteristics. Does the lay of the land make it difficult to get from one role of the community to another? (Biking, or in some cases fifty-fifty walking, is difficult in San Francisco, for instance, because of the length and steepness of the hills.)  Are at that place clear social divisions that mirror the landscape -- all the fancy houses in the hills, all the depression-income housing in the flats, for instance?

Studying the physical layout of the community will serve you lot non only as information, but as a guide for finding your mode effectually, knowing what people are talking about when they refer to diverse areas and neighborhoods, and gaining a sense of the living weather of whatever populations you're concerned with.

Community demographics.

Demographics are the facts well-nigh the population that you can notice from census data and other similar statistical information. Some things you might like to know, besides the number of people in the community:

  • Gender
  • Racial and ethnic background
  • Age.  Numbers and percentages of the population in various age groups
  • Marital condition
  • Family unit size
  • Education
  • Income
  • Employment - Both the numbers of people employed full and role-time, and the numbers of people in diverse types of work
  • Location - Knowing which groups live in which neighborhoods or areas tin help to recruit participants in a potential effort or to decide where to target activities

In the U.S., most of this and other demographic information is bachelor from the U.South. Census, from state and local authorities websites, or from other government agencies.  Depending on what issues and countries you're concerned with, some sources of data might be the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Health and Man Services, similar websites in other countries, and the diverse agencies of the Un.

On many of these websites, notably the U.S. Census, diverse categories can be combined, and then that you can, for example, find out the income levels in your community for African American women anile 25-34 with a high school education. If the website won't do it for you, it'southward fairly easy to trace the patterns yourself, thus giving you a much clearer picture of who community residents are and what their lives might exist like.

Some other extremely useful resource is County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, which provides rankings for nearly every canton in the nation. The County Health Rankings model includes iv types of health factors: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economical, and the physical environment. The Canton Health Rankings illustrate what nosotros know when it comes to what'south making people sick or good for you, and the new County Health Roadmaps prove what nosotros can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work and play. These reports can help community leaders run into that our environment influences how healthy we are and how long we live, and even what parts of our environment are most influential.

Customs history.

This can be a complex topic. The "standard" history -- when the customs was founded and by whom, how long it has existed, how people lived at that place in the past, its major sources of work, etc. -- can oft be found in the local library or newspaper archives, or fifty-fifty in books or articles written for a larger audience. The less comfortable parts of that history, especially recent history -- discrimination, conflict, economic and/or political domination by a small group -- are may non be included, and are more than likely to be constitute by talking to activists, journalists, and others who are concerned with those problems. You might besides gain data by reading between the lines of old paper manufactures and tracking down people who were part of past conflicts or events.

If this all sounds a lot similar investigative reporting, that's because it is.  You may not have the time or skills to do much of it, simply talking to activists and journalists about recent history tin can be crucial.  Stepping into a community with an intervention or initiative without agreement the dynamics of customs history tin exist a recipe for failure.

Community government and politics.

Thither are a number of means to larn about the structure and operation of local government:

  • Go to open up meetings of the metropolis council, town boards, board of selectmen, or other bodies, equally well equally to public forums on proposed deportment, laws, and regulations.  Such meetings will exist announced in the local paper.

In well-nigh of the U.Southward., these meetings are public by state police force, and must be announced in specific ways at least ii days alee.

  • Community bylaws and regulations are ofttimes available at the public library.
  • Make an appointment to talk to i or more local government officials.  Many hold regular office hours, and might actually take pleasure in explaining the workings of the local government.
  • Talk to community activists for a view of how the regime actually operates, as opposed to how it's supposed to operate.
  • Read the local paper every solar day.

Reading the paper every 24-hour interval is a good idea in full general if you're trying to acquire nigh the customs.  It will non only have stories well-nigh how the customs operates, but will requite y'all a sense of what's important to its readers, what kinds of activities the community engages in and views every bit significant, what the police practise -- a motion picture of a large office of customs life. Real estate ads volition tell y'all virtually holding values and the demand for housing, ads for services tin help you place the major businesses in town, and the ages and education levels of the people in the marriage and nascency announcements can speak volumes nearly community values.  Newspaper athenaeum can also reveal the stories that help you empathise the emotions however surrounding events and issues that don't seem current.  The newspaper is an enormous reservoir of both direct and between-the-lines information.

As we all know, authorities isn't simply about the rules and structures that hold information technology together. It's about people and their interactions...politics, in other words. The political climate, culture, and assumptions in a item community often depend more on who elected and appointed officials are than on the limits or duties of their offices.

The politics of many communities embody the ideal of authorities working for the public practiced. In other communities, politics takes a back seat to economics, and politicians listen largely to those with economical ability -- the CEO'due south, owners, and directors of large businesses and institutions.  In however others, the accent is on power itself, so that political decisions are made specifically to go on a particular party, group, or individual in control.

Apparently, only in the first case is the public well served. In the other situations, fairness and equity tend to get out the window and decisions favor the powerful. Understanding the politics of the community -- who has ability, who the power brokers are, who actually influences the setting of policy, how decisions are made and past whom, how much difference public opinion makes -- is fundamental to an understanding of the community as a whole.

In that location's no formal way to get this data. Government officials may take very different interpretations of the political scene than activists or other community members. Y'all'll have to talk to a variety of people, take a good look at recent political controversies and decisions (here's where newspaper athenaeum tin come in handy), and juggle some contradicting stories to get at the reality.

Institutions.

Customs institutions, unless they are dysfunctional, can by and large be viewed as assets. Finding them should be easy: every bit mentioned to a higher place, the Chamber of Commerce will probably have a list of them, the library will probably accept one also, the local paper will often list them, and they'll be in the phone volume.

They cover the spectrum of community life, including:

  • Offices of local, state, and federal government agencies (Welfare, Dept. of Agronomics, Office of Clearing, etc.)
  • Public libraries.
  • Religious institutions. Churches, synagogues, mosques.
  • Cultural institutions.  Museums, theaters, concert halls, etc. and the companies they support.  These may also encompass community theater and music companies run and staffed by customs volunteer boards and performers.
  • Community centers.  Community centers may provide athletic, cultural, social, and other (yoga, support groups) activities for a variety of ages.
  • YMCA's and similar institutions.
  • Senior centers.
  • Hospitals and public health services.
  • Colleges and universities.
  • Public and individual schools.
  • Public sports facilities. These might exist both facilities for the direct use of the public -- community pools and able-bodied fields, for example -- or stadiums and arena where school, higher, or professional teams play as entertainment.

Groups and organizations.

The groups and organizations that exist in the customs, and their relative prestige and importance in community life, tin can convey valuable clues to the community's assumptions and attitudes. To some extent, yous tin can find them in the same ways that you can discover institutions, only the less formal ones yous may be more likely to learn about through interviews and conversations.

These groups tin can fall into a number of categories:

  • Wellness and human service organizations.  Known on the world stage as NGO'southward (Not-Governmental Organizations), these are the organizations that work largely with low-income people and populations at risk. They embrace free or sliding-scale health clinics, family unit planning programs, mental wellness centers, nutrient pantries, homeless shelters, teen parent programs, youth outreach organizations, violence prevention programs, etc.
  • Advocacy organizations. These may besides provide services, only by and large in the form of legal help or advancement with agencies to protect the rights of specific groups or to button for the provision of specific services. Past and large, they advocate for recognition and services for populations with particular characteristics, or for more attention to be paid to particular issues.
  • Service clubs. Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, Elks, Masons, etc.
  • Veterans' organizations. In the U.S., the American Legion and the Veterans of Strange Wars are the major veterans' organizations, only many communities may have others too.
  • Chamber of Commerce and other concern organizations. Some of these may be oriented toward specific types of businesses, while others, similar the Chamber, are more general.
  • Groups connected to institutions. Church youth or Bible written report groups, school clubs, university student groups (due east.k., Foreign Students' Association, community service groups).
  • Merchandise unions. These may be local, or branches of national or international unions.
  • Sports clubs or leagues. Enthusiasts of many sports organize local leagues that hold regular competitions, and that may compete equally well with teams from other communities. In many rural areas, Fish and Game clubs may function as breezy customs centers.
  • Informal groups. Volume clubs, garden clubs, parents' groups, etc.

Economics/employment.

Some of the data about economic bug can be constitute in public records, just some will come from interviews or conversations with business organisation people, government officials, and activists, and some from observation. It'south adequately easy to detect if 1 huge industrial plant dominates a community, for instance, or if every third building appears to be a construction company. In that location are a number of questions you might inquire yourself and others to help yous understand the customs'south economic base and state of affairs: What is the anchor of the community's tax base of operations? Who are the major employers? Does the community have a particular business or business concern/industry category that underlies most of the jobs? Are at that place lots of locally-owned businesses and industries, or are most parts of larger corporations headquartered elsewhere?  Are there corporate headquarters in the community? Is there a proficient deal of role infinite, and is it empty or occupied?  Is there new development, and is the community attracting new business concern? What is the unemployment rate?

Social construction.

This may be the most difficult aspect of the community to understand, since information technology incorporates most of the others we've discussed, and is usually unspoken. People'southward answers to questions about it may ignore important points, either considering they seem obvious to those who've lived with them for all or almost of their lives, or considering those things "but aren't talked about." Distrust or actual discrimination aimed at particular groups -- based on race, class, economic science, or all iii -- may be glossed over or never mentioned. The question of who wields the existent power in the community is another that may rarely be answered, or at least not answered in the same way by a majority of community members. It's likely that it will take a number of conversations, some conscientious observation and some intuition as well to gain a real sense of the community's social structure.

Describing the Community

Once you've gathered the information you demand, the adjacent step is describing the community. This is not really separate from understanding the customs: in the procedure of organizing and writing down your information, you'll be able to see better how it fits together, and can proceeds greater agreement.

There are many ways y'all can create a description of the customs. The nearly obvious is simply to organize, record, and comment on your information by category:  physical description, government, institutions, etc. You lot can comment about what has changed in the community over fourth dimension, what has stayed the same, and where you retrieve the community might exist going. You might also include an analysis of how the various categories interact, and how that all comes together to form the community that exists. That will requite you and anyone else interested a reasonably articulate and objective description of the community, also as a sense of how you see it.

For a fuller picture, you lot could add photographs of some of the locations, people, conditions, or interactions you describe (peradventure as a Photovoice project), as well every bit charts or graphs of demographic or statistical data. For fifty-fifty more detail, y'all might compose a portrait in words of the community, using quotes from interviews and stories of customs history to bring the description to life.

Given the availability of applied science, you lot don't accept to limit yourself to any specific format. Computers allow you to easily combine various media -- photos, graphics, animation, text, and sound, for case. The clarification could  add in or take the form of a video that includes a tour of the customs, statements from and/or interviews with various customs members (with their permission, of form), an sound voice-over, maps, etc.  A video or a more text-based clarification -- or both -- could and so exist posted to a website where it would exist available to anyone interested.

Once you accept a description put together, you might want to show information technology to some of the community members y'all talked to in the grade of exploring the community. They can suggest other things you might include, correct errors of fact, and react to what they consider the accurateness or inaccuracy of your portrait and analysis of their community. With this feedback, you can then create a final version to use and to evidence to anyone interested. The point is to get as informative and accurate a picture of the community as possible that will serve as a footing for community assessment and whatsoever effort that grows out of information technology.

The last word here is that this shouldn't be the last customs description you'll ever do. Communities reinvent themselves constantly, as new buildings and developments are put upwards and old ones torn down, as businesses move in and out, as populations shift -- both within the community and equally people and groups move in and out -- and as economic, social, and political weather condition change. You have to keep up with those changes, and that means updating your community description regularly.  Every bit with most of the rest of the customs building work described in the Community Tool Box, the work of agreement and describing the customs is ongoing, for equally long as you remain committed to the community itself.

In Summary

Understanding a customs is crucial to being able to piece of work in information technology. Failing to understand it will deny you brownie and make it difficult for yous both to connect with community members and to negotiate the twists and turns of starting and implementing a community initiative or intervention. An extremely important part of any customs cess, therefore, is to start by finding out as much well-nigh the community as you tin -- its concrete and geographical characteristics, its civilization, its regime, and its assumptions. By combing through existing data, observing, and learning from customs members, you lot can gain an overview of the community that will serve you well. Recording your findings and your assay of them in a customs description that you lot can refer to and update as needed will keep your understanding fresh and help others in your organization or with whom yous interact.

Online Resources

Acommunity description of Nashua, New Hampshire.

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. Ranking the health of nearly every canton in the nation, the County Health Rankings assist us see how where nosotros live, learn, work, and play influences how healthy we are and how long we live. The Rankings & Roadmaps bear witness us what is making residents sick, where we need to improve, and what steps communities are taking to solve their problems. The health of a community depends on many different factors – ranging from individual health behaviors, instruction and jobs, to quality of health care, to the environment, therefore we all have a stake in creating a healthier community. Using the Canton Health Rankings & Roadmaps, leaders and advocates from public health and health care, business, teaching, government, and the community tin can work together to create programs and policies to improve people's health, reduce wellness care costs, and increment productivity.

Describing the Community, from a WHO (World Health Organization) manual: Emergency Preparedness: A Manual for Managers and Policy Makers.  WHO, 1999.

The Distressed Communities Index (DCI) is a customized dataset created by EIG examining economic distress throughout the country and made up of interactive maps, infographics, and a written report. It captures data from more than than 25,000 zip codes (those with populations over 500 people). In all, it covers 99 percent — 312 one thousand thousand — of Americans.

Ericae.internet is a clearinghouse for data on evaluation, assessment, and research data.

ThisHomo Development Index Map is a valuable tool fromMeasure of America: A Project of the Social Scientific discipline Inquiry Council. It combines indicators in three fundamental areas - health, knowledge, and standard of living - into a single number that falls on a scale from 0 to 10, and is presented on an piece of cake-to-navigate interactive map of the The states.

The Institute of Medicine advances scientific knowledge to improve health and provides data and advice concerning wellness policy.

TheNational Found for Literacy provides data about inquiry and initiatives to aggrandize the community of literacy practitioners, students, and policymakers.

Sustainable Measures provides a searchable database of indicators by broad topics (health, housing) and keywords (AIDS, admission to intendance, nascency weight, etc.) for communities, organizations and authorities agencies at all levels.

U.Due south. Department of Wellness and Human Services, the principal agency for protecting the health of U.S. citizens, is comprised of 12 agencies that provide information on their specific domains, such equally theAdministration on Aging. Others cantankerous health boundaries, such as theCenters for Disease Control, which maintains national health statistics. The "WONDER" organization is an admission point to a wide diversity of CDC reports, guidelines, and public health information to assist in enquiry, conclusion-making, priority setting, and resources allocation.

TheU.S. National Found of Mental Health provides statistics and educational information for the public as well every bit information for researchers.

Print Resources

Jones, B. (1979). Defining your neighborhood. In Neighborhood Planning: A Guide for Citizens and Planners. Chicago, IL: Planners Press, pp. eight-11.

Scheie, D. (1991). Baronial-September). Tools for taking stock. The Neighborhood Works. Chicago, IL: Heart for Neighborhood Technology, pp. 16-17.

Spradley, J. P. (1980). Locating a social situation. In Participant Ascertainment. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Caryatid Jovanovich, pp. 45-52.

Warren, R.B., Warren, D.I. (1977). The Neighborhood Organizer'south Handbook. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, pp.167-196.

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Source: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/describe-the-community/main