Community rights and
responsibilities
Contents
An empowered community:
An empowered community has the ability to
effectively
respond
to the
needs of its members.
This is NOT ...
... a sense of
independence or
dependence on other communities that it is a part of, or are a part of
it - communities complement each other and need to work together in
fulfilling the needs of their members.
... dictating to community members what they should or should not be
doing - there needs to be a sense of shared ownership and
responsibility within the community.
... dictating to other communities what they should or should not be
doing - there needs to be a sense of shared ownership and
responsibility within society.
... using skills and resources to the detriment of other communities -
skills and resources don't get used responsibly or effectively.
... growing or expanding - is
not an end, but a means to an end.
Empowered communities ...
... have shared goals,
beliefs, values,
cultures, institutions etc
... have ownership of their members
... provide valued roles for their members
... communicate effectively with their members
... can depend on their own resources
... balance their own needs
... can share and draw on skills/resources where needed
(See
Understanding
communities,
Dysfunctional
communities)
Having said that, communities are not perfect places. They are
arrogant, dynamic,
protective, stubborn,
irrational,
ungainly, bureaucratic, self centred,
hypercritical, subjective ,,, and the list goes on and on. While
communities may have some of these
features,
you can't really blame the
community. Just as a chain is as strong as the weakest link,
communities are only as strong as its leadership.
Strong leadership
... determines the direction of the
community
... provides a valued role for the community and its members
...
provides
a set of outcomes which are measurable
Community rights and responsibilities:
Communities also have rights and responsibilities, both to the members
of the community and other communities that they are a part of. An
empowered community understands these relationships and how these
relationships impact on the community, and other communities that are a
part of it.
Rights:
... the right to its own
identity
... the right to set its own agenda, constitution and institutions
... the right to participate within the wider community
... the right to access skills and resources within the wider community
... the right to support its members within the wider community
... the right to protect its members from influences that disadvantage
its members
... the right to refuse entry to members that do not fit into the
community
... the right to evict members that do not accept the agenda,
constitution and institutions of
the community
... the right to refuse skills and resources to the wider community,
where its members are disadvantaged
... the right to determine its own destiny
Responsibilities:
... to ensure the agenda,
constitution
and institutions of the
community, protect and support its members, as well as
other communities and their members
... to provide a safe, secure environment for its members, as well as
other communities and their members
... to facilitate the development of valued roles and relationships for
the community,
its members, as well as other communities and their members
... to ensure that the community communicates with its members as well
as other communities and their members
... to ensure the community does not disadvantage other communities or
their members
... to responsibility use, and share, skills and resources to the
advantage of its members, as well as other communities and their members
... to respect, protect and promote the rights, cultures and
institutions of other communities and their members
... to engage with other communities in an interdependent relationship
We know from our own experience that the above rarely, if ever,
happens. Most communities are reactive, rather than proactive. Its only
when something happens that has an impact on all members of the
community that anyone is inclined to do anything. Small issues can go
on for years without being a threat to the community. It is only
through some form of social activity that draws the attention of the
community to the issue, that solutions can be found. There is also the
problem that any solution is generally not representative of the
community as a whole.
Issues such as ...
... poor leadership - lack
of
direction, lack of focus, power plays within different groups, lack of
communication and negotiation
.... the institutions of the community - while important to the
stability of the community, they often act as the breaks, where the
community is not accepting new ideas or innovations that allow the
community to effectively
respond
to the
needs of its members. Cultures, class divisions, set ways of thinking,
patterns of behaviours and expectations all determine the way the
community treats its members.
... ineffective management
of
skills and resources - lack on coordination, uneven distribution, shortages,
trying to do to much, or doing to little, competition of existing
skills and resources
... ineffective planning - growing to big to fast
... competition with other communities - communities generally view
other communities and groups with suspicion, or as threats, rather than
allies and assets.
All impact on the ability of the community to provide for its own
needs, the needs of its members, as well as the needs of other
communities and their members.
Growth and
expansion:
Is not a goal or ideal that a community should aspire towards, but as a
way to provide for the needs of a community. Growth and expansion is
not an end, but a means to an end. As the
member’s
needs
increase,
the
community needs to find new ways to meet those needs. It may need more
space, skills and resources. Often growth and expansion works to the
disadvantage of a community, where its existing resources are
stretched
to
the limit. The community becomes unfocused and uncoordinated.
Community growth and expansion is dependent on existing skills and
resources that are within the community as well as the communities that
it is a part of. As a result programs are substandard, or do not get
finished. Communication breaks down. The community may become fractured
where needs are not being met. Different groups compete for leadership
which creates social unrest, and even the social dislocation of some
groups within the community.
Community
relationships:
Community
roles
determine the relationships with other communities, and the way we
interact with others within those communties.
Interdependent relationships are mutually inclusive, where
we share skills and resources to
benefit
all
members. Rather than interdependent relationships with other
communities, we see
codependent, independent and dependent relationships evolving.
Communities that are codependent, independent or dependent are often
inefficient and ineffective in providing for their own needs. You may
say that independence and
empowerment
are
the same things, Nothing
could be further from the truth. No one is truly independent.
Independent
relationships
are mutually exclusive, where we do not share with others. Codependent
and dependent relationships are about being dependent on each other or
one person in a relationship. Communities are no different.
Competition:
Competition encourages people and communities to aspire to greater
things. Competition also unites members toward a goal. It inspires
members to achieve things that they would not do normally. Communities
also have the opportunity to learn from the
achievements,
and also the failures. How could things have been done better? There is
also a sense of frustration in the community not achieving its goal.
How the community deals with the
frustration
is
determined by its
social
construction. Competition can also destroy
communities. Where the goal becomes more important than the means of
the community to achieve the goal, the community can fall apart very
easily.
