Community Building

I see 'Community Building' as a partnership between the community leaders and the community members themselves, in an effort to strengthen the social fabric of the community. This could be accomplished in many ways. Community building at a social level could be the organization of special events such as farmers markets, summer concerts, fall festivals, art and craft exhibits. At a more structural or intervention level it can include senior citizen outreach programs, unemployment seminars and job fairs, after school programs for children whose parents work, community education organizations and neighborhood watch groups.

An example of a more intensive intervention of a community organization whose goal is to restore versus maintain the stability of a community is a Chicago community organization that is currently partnering in community building, and that is the Pilsen Alliance; a grassroots organization working for quality public education, affordable housing, government accountability's and healthy communities. Their goal is to promote community education by facilitating the "reflection and development of social consciousness in order to develop a critical analysis of the political, social and cultural realities" that affect the Pilsen community. The Pilsen Alliance also organizes community members in building community power to create social change. So, the spectrum of community building can range from maintaining simple social interactions to the more intense interventions of trying to reconstruct or resurrect a community in decline.