Part I.

Understanding Community Organizing

Defining Community Organizing

Community organizing is not just physically gathering and organizing people so that they can collectively participate in
solving problems. CO is more a process of community-based decision-making involving the intervention of a change
agent particularly regarding the exploitation of community-based resources.

Several definitions of community organizing:

1. It is the process of bringing about and maintaining adjustment between the social welfare needs and resources in a
geographical area or special field of service.

2. According to the Philippines Business for Social Progress (PBSP), “CO is a systematic, planned and liberating
change process of transforming a complacent, deprived malfunctioning community into conscious, empowered,
self-reliant and just humane entity and institution”. This means, the community as a social unit, needs to learn so
that they become empowered to address problems confronting them.

3. CO is a process forged along people’s empowerment and the eventual formation of a self-reliant organization that
will facilitate development in a sustainable manner.

Concept of Community Organizing

1. Of Means and Ends (Process and Result)

As a process, CO is a series of interrelated activities with the aim of unifying the people into an organization process,
characterized by people’s participation in all aspect or stages of the organizing process. It is a process which ultimately
influences the patterns of relationships in the community through the development and maintenance of a normative
system.

As a result of the organizing process, CO refers to the resulting entity, which is the legitimate and real organization of the
people. It becomes the real manifestations of the people’s collective wills to be able to participate, voice out and be heard
and also to act and decide as unified body (group).

2. Of Power

People’s empowerment is making the people more assertive and advocative to face and fight human rights violations and
exploitations. It is a process involving the recognizing and building upon innate capacity.

3. Of Conflict (And Controversy)

Change is part of human life and conflict (or friction) indispensable in social change. To live is to change. Change and
conflict are fraternal twins in societal change.

4. Of Praxis (Theory and Practice/Reflection and Action)

Theory and practices should be so inter-woven and complementary, each testing and strengthening the other.

5. Of Conscientization (Critical Awakening)

Conscientization refers to the process in which men (humans) are not recipients, but as knowing subjects, achieve
deepening awareness both of the socio-cultural reality which shapes their lives and their capacity to transform that reality
(Paulo Freire; 1972).
Goals of Community Organizing
Community organizing aims at achieving the following broad goals:

1. People’s Empowerment
CO helps the community to become better equipped with appropriate skills, ethics to assert and advocate for their rights,
towards social equity, fairness and human dignity.

2. Building Organization
The organizing process brings into being relatively permanent structures that can better serve the needs and aspirations of
the community.

3. Building Alliances
Community organizing aims to give the people, skills in intra and inter organizational management and processes through
group linkages and networking among the various groups in the community.

4. Popular Democracy
Popular democracy entails such attributes as consensus-building in decision-making, planning and participation in
community projects. It gives rise to “one man one vote” system, freedom of speech and freedom of religion, among
others.

5. Social Transformation
CO seeks to change the life of a community and the whole society into a democratic, nationalistic, self-reliant and self-
governing entity. An entity to address the needs of individual members as well as community-based concerns such as
environmental degradation.

6. Development of Local Leaders

It aims to identify local leaders and equip them with the necessary skills to better serve their people.

Part II. Volunteerism: The Call to Service

Volunteerism is a cross-cutting social phenomenon that involves all groups in society and all aspects of human activity.
Volunteer action directly contributes to economic growth, social welfare and protecting the environment.

Volunteerism opens wide doors of opportunities for other things. Serving others can lead an individual to new avenues
which he can gain valuable experiences in life. Through volunteer work, one can expand his horizon and learn how to
live with other people and can even gain new friends.