Summary
Contents
Subject index
The Handbook of Community Practice is the first volume in this field, encompassing community development, organizing, planning, and social change, and the first community practice text that provides in-depth treatment of globalization—including its impact on communities in the United States and in international development work. The Handbook is grounded in participatory and empowerment practice including social change, social and economic development, feminist practice, community-collaboratives, and engagement in diverse communities. It utilizes the social development perspective and employs analyses of persistent poverty, policy practice, and community research approaches as well as providing strategies for advocacy and social and legislative action.
From Community Planning to Changing Communities: Fund raising and Fund Allocation for Human Services
From Community Planning to Changing Communities: Fund raising and Fund Allocation for Human Services
In the 19th edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work (Edwards, 1995), there is no entry for community planning, although there are entries for social planning, community development, and even needs assessment. Does the absence of a substantive entry mean that community planning no longer exists, or that social workers no longer value or practice it? Or have we merely adopted new names for community planning while we continue to do it? Are community development, social planning, community problem solving, and other related terms merely new wrappings for the same bundle of activities? In this chapter, I argue that community planning has become less visible and more problematic, but may still remain a viable, even essential, construct for human service provision.
I start by reviewing three earlier models of allocation of resources for human needs in the community before addressing current approaches and issues in the United States today. My assumption in this discussion is that planning in the community, or community-based social planning, must be connected with resources, and is rational in the sense of being information based (Gummer, 1995). I begin, then, with the model for such planning that emerged at the turn of the 20th century; second, I consider the dominant model promulgated by federated funding organizations and schools of social work before and after World War II; and third, I discuss changes of the 1960s and 1970s before analyzing the present paradigm and emerging critical issues of the 21st century.
Councils of Social Agencies, Associated Charities, and Community Chests: Early Models
From the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th, nongovernmental, voluntary associations proliferated throughout the United States (Axinn & Stern, 2000; Skocpol, 1999). Although Skocpol (1999) has argued that many voluntary associations in this period existed at several levels—local, state, and national—most social service agencies, such as the YMCA or family-serving agencies, were squarely local, and place and identity had a definite primacy for their service function. Such organizations occupied particular physical spaces, served people in the community, and solicited financial support for their activities at the local level. Thus, businesses and community leaders in localities containing large numbers of social agencies received a constant clamoring of appeals for support. In an effort to eliminate such duplicative requests, a group of “associated charities” came together in 1887 for a unified fundraising campaign in Denver, Colorado (Watson, 1922). Although the Denver federation later encountered difficulties, a new direction had been signaled. In these years, groups of associated charities took several forms. The first was the Charity Organization Society (COS) model, which was concerned with efficient provision of service for the urban poor (Axinn & Stern, 2000; Lubove, 1969); many of these organizations evolved into today's family service agencies. But parallel efforts also existed, which developed into community-based financial federations (related to the Denver concept) or grew into councils of social agencies with broader approaches to meeting community welfare needs.
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