Distinguish between community organization and community development.

b) Distinguish between community organization and community development.

There is a common philosophical base between community organization and community development. Both aim to enable people to live a happy and fully developed life. Both have basic faith in the common man and his right to self-determination in the framework of society. Both give equal emphasis to selfhelp, and help the people to help themselves to solve their own problems. The community organizer and the community development worker both work as agents to achieve these goals. In spite of these similarities, community development and community organization should not be considered as synonymous. They do overlap. Community development is considered with promotion of all aspects of life including social, economical and cultural, in rural as well as urban areas; while community organization is concerned with adjustment of social welfare needs and resources in cities, states, and nation as well as in villages.

Differences

Community organization as practiced in the United States is mostly done on a voluntary basis. While community development in most of the under-developed countries is a government-sponsored programme.

Community organization is essentially a product of urbanization and industrialization. In a highly industrialized society

Community organization is largely concerned with the problems of population mobility, problems of the family, problems of the aged, problems of juvenile delinquency, of unemployment and provision of social security. In contrast to these, Community development in the under-developed countries is largely concerned with how to induce people to meet basic human needs, like food, shelter and clothing and bring about change in their outlook.

Community organization is mostly concerned with starting or developing new social welfare agencies or institutions to meet the problems of an urban society. Community development on the other hand is more concerned with inducing social changes; and as such becomes a powerful tool to bring about social change in traditional societies.

Community organization tends to be process-oriented while community development as practiced in India tends to be target oriented and often neglects the process of involving the people in the project and determining their felt needs in the anxiety of the administrators to achieve the targets in a given time.

Importance of Community Work

Social work has developed special knowledge and skills to deal with individuals, groups and the community, which could with advantage be applied, to community development. Charles I. Scotland in his paper, “Community Development : A Challenge to the social Worker’, has emphasized that social worker has a unique contribution make to the process of community development. He emphasizes the fact that the concern of social workers for people is quite different from that of all other professions. The concern of social worker is based on an understanding of the dynamics of human behaviour. The social worker takes pain to identify causes, The social worker possess special skills in motivating people to use their capacities in working towards desirable goals which they themselves have identified. 

His knowledge and skill specially in the community organization process form an integral part of his skill in working with individuals and groups .He has developed a technique of solving multitudinous human needs and problems affecting the individual by means of specific skills enabling the individual to utilize both his own and community resources to the maximum advantage. Further, social work skills essential in group work and recreation can also make a notable contribution to Community development. These skills would help to enlist the co-operation of women and youth to assist them find satisfaction in group activity as a step in undertaking some community responsibility