Working with Community
Introduction
Community
work is a planned process to mobilise communities to use their own social
structures and resources to address their own problems and achieve their own
objectives. Community work focuses on participation and fosters empowerment,
emancipation and change through collective action. Community work
is closely related to work for human rights. The
community work process is about people in communities creatin opportunities
for growth and change. ‘Community’ can be understood in
different ways, as geographical areas, interest groups, organisations or
institutions. Community work rests on a basic democratic ideal,
anti-oppressive practice, equality and solidarity with the affected
individuals. It aims to generate and communicate new insights with a view to
effecting change. As community work is an
ideological, theoretical and practical approach to social life and
the risk of social exclusion, it is ideologically sustained by a basic
trust in people’s ability to improve their life chances. Society is the
outcome of collective action and is perpetuated and/or changed by action. The term community originated from a
latin word MUNUS-CUM, which literally means “to give unto each other”. This
symbolizes the concept and idea that denotes a community and community life.
A community is essentially a collectivity of people with marked shared
elements, which construes to them a “sense of collectivity”. These shared
elements may include a territorial/ geographical space; an element of
togetherness or bonding and a sense of exclusiveness/demarcation from other
communities; a broad homogeneity in terms of social, cultural, economic,
regional/linguistic commonality; a stock of social capital for the
constituents to draw from; and a sense of identity and “we” feeling. Objectives of the program ·
To work with the community. ·
To understand the need of the
community. ·
Work to meet the needs of the
community. ·
To involve in the responsibility of
the responsibility of the community and shoulder the responsibility. ·
To help the teaching community in
the preparation of school reopening. ·
To arrange an awareness class on
COVID 19. ·
Understand the meaning and scope of community work. Relevance of the program Community services help,
'connect’ to the community. The important of community service lies in the
fact that it connects us to the community by improving it & making it a
better place for all of us to live in. It provides an opportunity to be
active members of the community. As part of the M. Ed. 2nd
semester syllabus we had to work with a community. In the present situation it was difficult
to stay with a community that is why we decided to choose the school
community for our work. 'It was the time of reopening of school after a long
time of COVID 19 pandemic. The Government ordered to prepare the school for
the students of the school and to must keep the necessary items for the prevention
of COVID 19 & also the ministry of Education declared as the first 15
days for the awareness class on COVID 19. “It is not more bigness that should be our goal. We must attempt,
rather, to bring people back to the warmth of community, to the worth of
individual effort and responsibility, and of individuals working together as
a community, to better their lives and their children’s future”. ROBERT
F. KENNEDY As per the instruction of Our
Principal Prof. Dr. K. Rema Devi, the programme was planned for 2 days, first
we contacted the Welfare Standing Committee Chairman of Chingoli Panchayat to
collect the information on the works recently held by the Panchayat at an
emergency. From him it was known that the preparation of schools for the
reopening was being done as an emergency vision. So it was decided to choose two schools for our
program. We met the HMs of the schools on 29th afternoon. The HM
of Govt. UPS Karthikappally, Mr. J. Sivadas gave the permission to be a part
of the Preparatory work of reopening of the school on 30th
October. The HM of S.N.V. U.P.S Muthukulam, Mrs. Beena.C gave the permission
to conduct an awareness class on COVID 19 on 5th November 2021 for
the students. From the talk of HMs, we
could understand that usage of sanitizer will be extreme during the school
hours and it is necessary to keep enough sanitizers for providing students
and for the usage of school. So, we decided to distribute sanitizer. For that
we approached the Ajwa shop and they were ready to give the same for the
school without taking their profit. We purchased 2 cans sanitizers where each
can contain 5 litres each and 100 pieces of small pieces of 50ml sanitizers
and 10 bottles of 250ml. Schedule of the programme Day -1 (30-10-2021)
Day -2 (30-10-2021)
Detailed Description of the program
i.
Report of day 1 The programme was scheduled for 2
days. Since the reopening of the schools in Kerala was on 1st
November 2021 after the COVID 19 Pandemic. The first day of the program was
scheduled on 30th October 2021. That day was spent for helping the
teacher community in the Preparatory Work of Reopening program
‘Praveshonotsavam’ in Govt. U. P. S Karthikappally at Chingoli Panchayat.
The school activities started with
a prayer. We met the head master of the school to understand the necessary
arrangements required for the reopening of the school. We were directed to
the senior teacher of the school. We also participate in the discussion with
other teachers too. We were allotted to prepare posters
and to decorate walls. We prepared 7 charts related to the importance of tree
plantation and on the awareness of COVID 19.
After the preparation of the
charts, we decorated the walls with the charts. Teacher Aswani showed the
places to decorate. Then, we informed the HM that we wish
to donate some sanitizers to the school. It was our pleasure the AEO of
Haripad Block Mrs. K. Geeta madam was there and the AEO received the
sanitizers for the school on the behalf of the HM and other teaching faculty.
We had the lunch with the teaching community and after that, the HM of
the school, Mr. Sivadas. J appreciated our work and expressed the gratitude
in the name all faculties in the school. Also, we have been given an
appreciation letter by the HM. The same is attached at the beginning. ii.
Report of Day 2 The
second day of the program was scheduled for the awareness class on COVID 19
in S. N. V. U. P. S, Muthukulam North at Muthukulam Panchayat. As usual the
school hours started with the morning prayer. Then we met the Headmistress
Mrs. Beena. C. The HM gave us the permission to arrange the class for the
awareness Class. The
class was sanitized and arranged the furniture as per the number of students.
Students were seated by keeping social distancing and the classes were
conducted in Bio bubble groups. The
Awareness Class was started with a prayer. The session was started after the
instruction given by the Headmistress. The awareness class divided into four
sessions. Session 1 was introduction on COVID 19 given by Mr. Jayakrishnan. The
second session, The Importance of Wearing Mask was given by Mrs. Kavitha. The
third session importance of using Sanitizer was given by Mrs. Mridula The conclusion was given by
Mrs. Parvathy. A short film COVID 19 and a video A
story of Corona Virus in Malayalam version were presented as the part of the
Awareness Class. After
the awareness class, masks and sanitizers are distributed to all students and
the teachers those who presented in the school with due permission from the
HM of the school. We had a chance to be the part of the
Mid-Day Meal in the school. The PTA President, Mr. Sudeep was there in the
school and appreciated our work. The
HM appreciated us and expressed the gratitude in the name of whole school. It's also
mentioned that our choice was right since the students are from rural areas .
We felt that, we could act at the right time for the needy. iii.
Experience The 2 days programme was really
helped us to know the preparation and necessity things needed for reopening
the school after long time. the schools were closed for almost 2 years
because of the COVID 19 pandemic. we could manage all the works with the
strength of our team. When we approached the Welfare Standing Committee
Chairman of Chingoli Panchayat, whole heartedly welcomed our idea and he suggested
that to select these two schools. The HMs of two schools supported us to
complete the programme. The teaching faculty of the two schools stretched
their cooperation and provided needful help whenever it’s needed. they give
valuable suggestions and pointed out the needs of the school. The students in
the S. N. V. U.P. S were very lovable and cooperative.
We have
understood how communities are defined as bounded by place and interest. We
have also seen the various characteristics of communities in their interactions, sense of
identity and belonging, their mutual obligations and rights and the
multifarious roles that individuals play within communities contributing to
the social and economic life and the way this life is maintained and modified
to carry within itself a sense of change as well as stability for human
beings to survive and flourish. We have also understood the various ways in
which communities are understood by social workers as social systems,
ecological systems and zones of power and conflict. We not get the awareness
about the community, their problems and issues but also, we enjoyed to work
with them. We really maintain a good relationship with them. Issues: There were no such harmful issues. Only the problem we faced on the second day
of the program was the poor network connectivity. because of the network
issues we couldn’t use the smart classroom. So, we had to take the awareness
class in normal classrooms. Conclusion Robert Bellah defines community as
“a group of people who are socially interdependent, who participate together
in discussion and decision making, and who share certain practices that both
define the community and are nurtured by it.” Community work process
helps people within a community to identify various social needs and problems
and enable them to act collectively in most effective ways of meeting these
needs with available resources. Community work helps to improve the
functioning of community services and its accessibility to those whom it is
targeted. It encompasses wide variety of activities including direct
neighbourhood work, local agency and inter-agency activities, regional and
national community work. Community based strategy involves giving central
place to the initiative of ordinary people at grass-roots level, recognizing
their voice and efforts in changing their social situation. In all these senses, we could meet
the objectives of our program. “This country will
not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place
for all of us to live in.”
-Theodore Roosevelt Reference: 1.1. Planning Your Community Service;
Purdue Extension; Michigan State University; 2007; 2021; https://extension.purdue.edu › 2.
Working With Community; WikiEducator; Regional
Institute of Education, Bhopal; March 2010; 2021;
https://wikieducator.org › |
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