Building Community Capacity

This book focuses on a gap in current social work practice theory: community change This book focuses on a gap in current social work practice theory: community change. Much work in this area of macro practice, particularly around "grassroots" community organizing, has a somewhat dated feel to it, is highly ideological in orientation, or suffers from superficiality, particularly in the area of theory and practical application. Set against the context of an often narrowly constructed "clinical" emphasis on practice education, coupled with social work's own current rendering of "scientific management," community practice often takes second or third billing in many professional curricula despite its deep roots in the overall field of social welfare.Drawing on extensive case study data from three significant community-building initiatives, program data from numerous other community capacity-building efforts, key informant interviews, and an excellent literature review, Chaskin and his colleagues draw implications for crafting community change strategies as well as for creating and sustaining the organizational infrastructure necessary to support them. The authors bring to bear the perspectives of a variety of professional disciplines including sociology, urban planning, psychology, and social work.Building Community Capacity takes a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to a subject of wide and current concern: the role of neighborhood and community structures in the delivery of human services or, as the authors put it, "a place where programs and problems can be fitted together." Social work scholars and students of community practice seeking new conceptual frameworks and insights from research to inform novel community interventions will find much of value in Building Community Capacity.

For all of our advances in health care and achievements in public health that have contributed to an increased life expectancy, there still remain persistent problems in one's community that are public health in origin. These persistent public health problems are well-studied from an academic standpoint, yet they evade a solution that is practical, economical, and socially just. These are complex, community-based, public health problems that disproportionally impact minority and immigrant populations. This book explores this topic in greater detail. Specifically, what have we, as public health academicians and practitioners learned when partnering with minority and immigrant community members to help them address persistent public health issues that affect them and their families on a daily basis? These are lessons that need to be shared so disadvantaged populations can build their capacity to address and solve persistent public health problems in their communities.