INT 904 Midterm: Community Empowerment
20 Jun 2018
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Community Empowerment
• refers to the process of enabling communities to increase control over their lives.
"Communities" are groups of people that may or may not be spatially connected, but who
share common interests, concerns or identities.
• Community Empowerment was established by Iowa state legislation during the 1998
session in an effort to create a partnership between communities and state government
with an emphasis to improve the well-being of families with young children
The elimination of extreme poverty will be driven not by governments, international
institutions, corporations, or donors. It will happen at the local level, powered by the
communities themselves.
• There is an existing and collective understanding of what ‘empowerment’ means
• Individual empowerment is the same as community empowerment
• ‘Empowerment’ is a task rather than an integral part of how we work (in empowering
ways) and what happens as a result (empowerment)
• If communities cooperate with public agencies, then public sector demands, and
targets will be met
• Communities are homogeneous and that anything to do with ‘community’ is
inherently good
• Community empowerment is a threat to representative democracy
Research indicates that a lack of empowering approaches in the past may have left a legacy of
people, and communities, feeling: disillusioned, cynical, ‘apathetic’, disinterested, angry,
confrontational and over-consulted.
Staff working in both public and voluntary sectors often face this reality – and, whilst focusing
on priorities around community empowerment, it can be helpful to remember how easy it is for
people to feel disempowered and how engagement can take place in ways which are ‘more
empowering’ than others
Our perspective on community empowerment
Four key points:
1. Community empowerment should be seen as involving far more than just shaping and
choosing services and ‘empowered’ individuals do not necessarily mean that we have
empowered communities
2. Community empowerment should be happening in a collective, rather than only
personal, setting
Document Summary
Community empowerment refers to the process of enabling communities to increase control over their lives. The elimination of extreme poverty will be driven not by governments, international institutions, corporations, or donors. It will happen at the local level, powered by the communities themselves: there is an existing and collective understanding of what empowerment" means. Individual empowerment is the same as community empowerment. Empowerment" is a task rather than an integral part of how we work (in empowering ways) and what happens as a result (empowerment) If communities cooperate with public agencies, then public sector demands, and targets will be met: communities are homogeneous and that anything to do with community" is inherently good, community empowerment is a threat to representative democracy. Research indicates that a lack of empowering approaches in the past may have left a legacy of people, and communities, feeling: disillusioned, cynical, apathetic", disinterested, angry, confrontational and over-consulted.
