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Section 8. Some Lessons Learned on Community Organization and Change

You understand that success in community organization comes through experience with:

___Understanding (and affecting) community context

Practitioners must be able to both understand and create the conditions under which community organization efforts have the best chance for success.

___Community planning

Community planners need to help people agree on common goals and means for addressing them.

___Community action and mobilization

Community leaders and members must commit to act with and learn from each other in this hard work.

___Understanding (and addressing) opposition and resistance

To be effective, community activists must be able to defeat and counteract the efforts of those with different interests.

___Intervention and maintenance of efforts

Community practitioners must be able to implement multiple strategies and sustain local efforts.

___Promoting community change

Community leaders and members must be able to change programs, policies, and practices related to shared goals.

___Influencing systems (or broader) change

To enhance chances of success, community practitioners try to change the conditions under which local communities seek improvement.

___Achieving community-level improvements

To make broader indicators of success, community members must build leadership and affect change that is large enough and long enough to make a difference.

You know the characteristics that can define a "community"

___Shared geographic location

___Similar experiences

___Shared goal

You know the types of community organizations that can work together

___Neighborhoods

___Union Workers

___Farmers

___Religious Groups

___Ethnic Groups

___Elderly

___Disabled

You know the key points for community organization

___Plan

___Set goals and objectives

___Get assistance from within the community

___Take action

___Always follow-up and maintain

Contributor 
Stephen B. Fawcett