Community Services for Brighter Futures


Overview

Irrespective of how we define community, working with and for communities in development demands a robust recognition of social inclusion in a shared locality and identification of socio ecological characterisatics of all individuals that make up the community group. It is necessary to recognise this if community development is to take place in any form.



There are two recognised paths to take in attempting to develop communities. The first is a more traditional path and appears to be more of a needs driven "road to nowhere", that focusses on communities' needs, deficiencies and problems. This path invariably involves top down decision making and heavy financial and human resources involvement.



The alternative is a capacity focussed development, working with the premise that the process of a community that can grow into a healthy community, is one that is organised in a way that people can be invited to contribute their gift.



Shaping Success shares the belief that developing stronger and brighter communties hinges on two acknowledged principles and building blocks. These are namely individual giftedness, and the implementation of participatory processes using those gifts.



Every single person in any community has a gift and there should be no label that blinds us to that fact. If we can remove the label, we can remove the limiting belief of incapabability or incapacity. This way it is possible to concentrate on the problem solving capacities of communities which is essential for obtaining any degree of success in participatory work.



Community Capacity is not an easy issue. Creating and building capacity is about developing processes of changing decision making from top down to bottom up and this demands huge effort especially from community members themselves.



Shaping Success has built up experience of community development particularly in building community capacity and empowering communities and individuals to improving their lives and living conditions. We want to assist and support a wide range of communities to build the inner confidence and knowledge to compete on equal terms with the rest of us.



We invite you to use the available expertise at Shaping Success. Please feel free to contact us to discuss any issue around community development that we may be able to assist you with.



This part of the service can be customised to meet your individual needs including: