Funding & Grants: Family Resource Centre Programme: FAQ
What does 'working from an equality perspective' mean?
Fairness - recognising that everyone, no matter what their age, gender, religion or ethnicity, is entitled to the same rights.
What do we mean by community development?
Community development is about people working together for social change which will improve the quality of their lives, the communities in which they live and/or the society of which they are a part. It stresses the importance of how change is achieved as well as what is achieved. It helps people identify their needs, gives them the confidence to speak-out and influence decision-making and structures that affect their lives.
Community development works for change at three levels:
- Personal –increases self confidence
- Community – supports people to work for change in their own communities
- Public Policy- helps communities to influence government policy at local and national level
What do we mean 'working from community development principles'
Community development is guided by principles. These include:
- Promoting the empowerment of people through working together (collective action)
- Emphasising the importance of process as well as task (in other words how things are done as well as what is done)
- Promoting an integrated approach to development which recognises the interdependence of economic, social and cultural issues
- Promoting creativity in the way we work
- Promoting equality, challenging discrimination
- Promoting participation, openness and inclusion (as opposed to competition and exclusion)
What does an anti-poverty focus mean?
This means being aware and understanding that the community work being done is focused on vulnerable communities and vulnerable families and that the work is undertaken in a respectful and supportive way.
