Fostering community self-help in deprived neighbourhoods

2005

Attempts to nurture community self-help in deprived urban neighborhoods currently follow the “third sector” route of developing existing community-based groups. Here, the implications and legitimacy of pursuing this public policy approach in relation to British deprived urban neighborhoods are evaluated critically.

2003

This paper evaluates critically the third-sector approach that encourages involvement in groups in order to foster community participation in deprived neighbourhoods. Analysing recent government surveys of community participation in the UK, it reveals that a culture of engagement in groups is relatively alien to most people in deprived areas, unlike one-to-one aid that is extensively used.

2002

Attempts to harness community self-help currently tend to follow the'third sector'route of developing existing community-based groups. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically this approach. Drawing upon case study evidence from rural England, existing community-based groups are displayed to be primarily sociability vehicles for higher-income populations.

2000

Abstract This paper evaluates self-help and mutual aid as tools for tackling social exclusion and promoting social cohesion in deprived urban neighbourhoods.

2011

Abstract Previous studies have suggested that community self-help in affluent populations revolves around engagement in formal community-based groups, whilst the participatory culture of deprived populations is more orientated towards informal (one-to-one) community participation.

2000

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is draw out some policy lessons from a study of selfhelp activity amongst 200 households in deprived urban neighbourhoods of Southampton. Commencing with a critique of the popular prejudice that promoting self-help should be opposed in case it leads to a demise of formal welfare provision, the paper then interrogates the empirical evidence to understand and explain the nature and extent of such work in deprived neighbourhoods.

2017

Recent policies on self-care and personalisation have a strong focus on the value of peers as a means through which understanding and knowledge can be conveyed. This opens up new opportunities for community practitioners to work with groups run for and by peers who share the same health or social situation. Selected findings are presented from a three year Big Lottery funded project 'ESTEEM' (2010-13) conducted in two locations in England, focusing on the ways in which community practitioners can best support the ethos and practice of peer led self-help groups in the community. The study involved a sample of 21 self-help groups (SHGs) and 26 practitioners who contributed to semi-structured interviews, group interviews and workshops which shaped online national resources and subsequent training programmes. The findings explore the types of relationships and core activities that practitioners have with SHGs; suggesting a nuanced picture of practitioner support to groups in three main areas of activity: organisational development, nurturing members and processes and enhancing and sharing expertise. Building on the findings the discussion considers how practitioners can best support SHGs, whilst crucially respecting the autonomy and integrity of the groups. Five roles that practitioners can adopt as a 'Self-help Supporter' are identified.

2010

The proliferation of self-help groups is an indication of effectives, because groups without value cease to exist overtime. That is why; this paper examined the role and approaches of these groups in Goni-Gora with a view to its sustenance's. The study is empirical research involved collection of data of both primary and secondary data. The primary data were the information obtained through administration of questionnaires', oral interview and photographs of the group's activities. this was done by identifying the means of interaction/participation in community development process, income generation for projects/programs, campaign organizers' for community projects and the perception of community members on the level of development, as well as impact of project executed and its cost estimates. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistic inform of tables frequency distribution and percentage. The study revealed sixteen different self-help groups, interacting and participating in community development process through community meetings and generates income from sons and daughters of the community through donations levy as well as government support for projects. The campaign organizer of projects is the association of the groups under the auspices of the local authority leadership. And the general perception of community members on executed projects indicated that they are all functional serving the purposes of the community. The impressive/encouraging contribution of these groups is an essential element in the process of community development or transformation. Therefore for the sustenance of these projects, it is recommended government must enlists and maintain the willing support of the groups in the planning, execution and management of these projects that affects them. This will bridge communication gaps. Introduction The emergence of self-help group from the global perspective is seen as a response to industrialization, the breakdown of kingship system, and decline of the community (Katz and Bender, 1976). While (Riessman, 1992), see it as reflection of an ineffective, inefficient and dehumanizing formal system of care. In Nigeria, However, the evolution of the practice of self-help development activities has the following periodic dimension; the pre-colonial, the colonial up to 1939, the period from 1940 to the Nigerian civil war, the civil war years and the post-civil war years to the present democratic settings (Akpomuvie, 2010) with a view of employing communal efforts as a mechanism for mobilizing community resources to provide physical improvement and functional facilities in the social, political and economic aspects of their lives. Also, Idode, (1989) observed, the scope of operation of this groups, include building of schools, market stalls, pipe-born water, roads, dispensaries and so on. The self-help groups continued growing at unprecedented speed worldwide (Ben-Ari and Azaiza, 1995) and in spite of the rapid growth their potentials remain untapped, in the sense that little is known about how helpful the groups are to their societies, however in the Nigerian context, since government took over the Provision of Basic Infrastructure and Amenities as its statutory responsibility, its inability to effectively and efficiently provide brought changes in innovation, approaches, techniques and strategies through which self-help groups learn to provide for themselves to better their chances of success. The enduring and flourishing heritages of this indigenous mechanism and techniques in providing developmental projects and programs continued to flourish where groups, communities and associations continued to pool resources together and provide both functional and physical facilities to their own societies, e.g. schools, town hall, worship centers etc. Self-help group is a self-governed, peer-controlled small and informal association of the poor, usually from socioeconomically homogeneous background organized to pull string together. This brings about sets of benefits of collective perception, collective decision making and collective implementation of programs for their common benefit. Community Development is used as a synonym for growth, however Cook, (1994) argued that it is associated with improvement and it is a certain type of change in a positive direction. Though, he said the consequence of efforts to bring about development might not be positive are times, but the objective is always positive. He added that the distinguishing characteristic is that, it focuses on a unit called " community " and induced non-reversible structural change while Green and Haines, (2002), defines it as " asset Building ". The concept of community development Centered on the ability of people to work together, organize them and mobilize resources to solve problems of common interest often outside the reach of the formal system (Chandrakirana, 1999). He continued that, their voices are always heard and their demand met than communities with little or no organization. Williams, (1978) identified elements in the process of community development; (a)

2016

The practice of engaging the ‘community’ has established presence in public health efforts to target inequalities. However, there remains a lack of critical consideration of how ‘community’ is conceptualised in delivering and evaluating participatory health interventions. This may contribute to the lack of conclusive evidence of the impact of 'community' engagement on health inequalities in the UK and elsewhere. This thesis explored how ‘community’ was enacted through an area-based, ‘community’ empowerment initiative in the UK, to contribute to approaches for evaluating the impacts of such interventions. Drawing on post-humanist, ontological perspectives and actor-network theory, I examined how ‘community’ was enacted through the delivery of the ‘community’ initiative in two areas. I conducted an ethnographic case study over 13 months between 2014 and 2015, and employed multiple qualitative methods to identify practices and conceptualisations constituting enactments of ‘comm...