What is community development?
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offering services. This approach is embodied in the strengths-based model of community development, sometimes known as ‘asset-based community development’, or ‘ABCD’ (Kretzmann and McKnight, 1993; Russell, 2015).1
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Community development’s core values Community development is commonly described as a long-term value-based process. Its overarching purpose is to promote social justice and it is therefore essentially political (albeit with a small ‘p’). However, social justice is a tricky term to define, tending to mean whatever its proponents want. Within community development, it is usually understood as the development of a fair and inclusive society, with wealth, opportunities and power more equitably distributed across the population. Equality Equality is a core value for community development, and practitioners are expected to demonstrate an awareness of structural inequalities and incorporate anti-discriminatory measures into all aspects of their work – the most prevalent dimensions of discrimination being generally associated with class, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and age. Addressing these means tackling barriers, promoting opportunities and adapting arrangements to take into account the needs and preferences of diverse participants or target communities. Empowerment Community development places great emphasis on collective leadership, inclusive participation and empowerment, so that community members can contribute directly to decision-making about what happens in their areas or spheres of interest. The term ‘empowerment’ can be problematic for community development. There is a persuasive argument that people can only empower
