Section 2. Community (Locality) Development

Suppose the quality of life in your community is declining. The major employer has packed up and moved to a place where labor and utilities are cheaper. Without steady paychecks, many people in town don't have the money to keep up their houses and yards, or to support charitable organizations. Many people have found other jobs, but have to commute long distances to get to them. In some of the most difficult situations, individuals and families are experiencing homelessness and are living in shelters or in their cars. Violence and substance use may also be increasing as economic stress, reduced community resources, limited opportunities for young people, and other difficult circumstances affect the community. Community morale has declined, and many community members feel powerless to do anything about it. How can you change this situation so that people start to take action to improve their lives?

One answer is to help people recognize that they can make a difference and get them to work together in thinking out what they can do, and then doing it. But what if there are serious divisions in the community, or what if many people don't see themselves as able to change anything? Perhaps some groups are shut out of the political process or discriminated against economically or socially. Perhaps the many diverse groups in the community have little contact with or knowledge of one another. Before you can get people working together, you have to help create opportunities for them to make contact with and begin to trust one another.

This is a situation where locality development may be especially important. If community members can learn to communicate across class, ethnic, and racial lines, and to set up organizations, systems, and policies to take advantage of their resources and address their problems, they can make life better for everyone. In this section (and the two that follow) we'll discuss three different but overlapping approaches to community organization and community change. In this section, we'll discuss how to lay the groundwork and create a foundation for such a community-wide cooperative effort.

What is locality development?

As we stated in the first section of this chapter, community or locality development is community building through improving the process by which things get done. This can be an end in itself, but it can also be seen as the beginning of a larger process.

While locality development can be defined as improving process, it, like all community organizing, must be focused on action and results. You can't get people involved in a process, or in creating a process, unless there's some goal at the end, whether that's persuading the city to install a new traffic light or reducing poverty. That's why, when we discuss how to engage in and use locality development, we include choosing issues that speak to felt community needs. Only by focusing on taking action to achieve outcomes that address those issues are you likely to get community members involved.

The four types of community organizing:

1. Locality development creates an infrastructure for community activism and action.
2. Social planning and policy change uses the political and other systems to create policies that work toward improving the quality of life for all community members.
3. Social action and systems advocacy engage community members in understanding and building power, and using it to advocate and negotiate for the interests of the community.
4. Coalition building constructs community-wide groups of organizations and individuals, either to work on specific issues or to address more general community needs.

These four aspects of community organization are usually viewed as separate, but it might be more useful to consider them as overlapping parts of a whole. If you do a good job at locality development, you'll have a secure base of people with the capacity to act in any of several ways. Effective community organization works to create a community that's prepared to respond to challenges and opportunities. Locality development is the building of an inclusive, community-based infrastructure that can then respond in whatever way is necessary to meet challenges, take advantage of resources, and create positive social change.

Earlier conceptions of the separation of the field into three models - locality development, social planning, and social action - have given way to a more comprehensive view that defines the three as interrelated and overlapping.

The Community Tool Box accepts and extends this latter view. It defines the three models as a continuum -- one where the distinctions among models are not always clear -- best served by an inclusive, participatory stance that involves many sectors of the locality or community. Any of the three can be a base for community capacity, participation, and learning, but each is oriented toward a different kind of situation and result.

• Locality development serves as a base for other organizing, and, in itself, is often aimed at community-wide issues that affect everyone: economic development, public health, etc. Its goal is the building of community capacity to deal with whatever needs or issues arise. It also shows itself in smaller community projects -- neighborhood clean-ups, the building of a community playground, etc. -- that help to define and build a sense of community among diverse residents of a locality.
• Social planning and policy change is oriented toward policy solutions -- changing or passing laws or regulations to address problems or conditions -- particularly those initiated by officials or other leaders from inside or outside the community. These policies should be determined through a participatory process that involves those they benefit or otherwise affect. This model often involves people with technical or professional expertise from outside the community working with community members on strategy and planning.
• Social action is based on the assumption that there is strength in numbers. By banding together and taking action, community members can increase their political or economic influence and ability to create change. Social action is often necessary -- and often used -- where serious inequity exists and those with decision-making power have been unwilling or unable to correct it. Groups affected by these conditions can use collective action to build and exercise power and advocate for a more equitable distribution of attention, opportunity, and resources.

Common to our interpretation of all of these models is the assumption that the community has, or can develop, substantial capacity to address its own problems and to help determine the direction that health and community development should take. That means that it has -- or can strengthen, with resources, support, and experience -- the people, the institutions, the knowledge, the intelligence, and the political and economic know-how to tackle the issues it faces.

The terms "community development" and "locality development" are sometimes used interchangeably, but a community and a locality are not the same, and working with each may require its own approach. (For convenience, in this section we'll use the term locality development to refer to working in a particular way with both localities and self-defined communities.)

A locality is a place -- a town, a city neighborhood, a housing project, a rural area -- and locality development looks on that place as a community.

The word "community" is commonly used to refer to a locality where people live, as well as to all the people who live there. A community can also refer to a group of people that identifies itself as a community because of shared experiences, backgrounds, values, religion, or culture. The mayor of a city may call the town a community, but most cities have a number of self-defined communities within them -- an Italian-American community, an LGBTQ+ community, a Jewish community, a Black community, a business community, etc. While not all members of these communities share the same points of view or act in the same ways, they may see themselves as having something important in common with fellow community members.

The difference here comes in attempting to organize a locality that isn't already a self-defined community, but instead includes people who may simply happen to live in the same place. Members of a self-defined community may begin with some trust in one another and with the assumption of at least one major shared idea, experience, or value. Residents of a locality may feel that they have very little in common with one another, or even that their interests conflict. Thus, development in a self-defined community may be able to start relatively easily once community members have accepted the fact that it's a good idea. In a locality, little may be able to happen until residents make connections, identify common interests, and start to see themselves as part of a community. . . and that may take a long time.

A locality can be a community in the same way. Many small towns, especially those largely populated by families that have lived there for generations, have strong community identities.

The small New England town that the writer lives in has its conflicts and divisions, but when a dairy farmer's barn burned down, townspeople of all stripes donated money, materials, and labor to rebuild it. The same had been true in prior years for a lumber mill and a timber framer's workshop, even though the timber framer was a "new person," someone who had only moved to the town in recent decades. The fact that he lived in and participated in the life of the town made him a member of the community, even though native-born residents hadn't known his grandparents.

So what does locality development actually consist of? What kind of infrastructure does it refer to? In brief -- we'll go into more detail later when we discuss how to engage in locality development -- it's a matter of creating inclusive and participatory systems and processes that bring people throughout the community together to work on common problems or toward common goals. It also entails encouraging leadership from within the community, developing communication networks that span sectors, and establishing the process as an accepted part of community life.

Locality development -- often, but not always, in contrast to social action -- emphasizes cooperative action across a community rather than beginning with the assumption that conflict is necessary. The purpose might be to gain economic stability, to improve social and/or political conditions, to protect the community against a threat -- the demolition of a neighborhood to make way for a highway or for expensive housing -- or to preserve its historic, cultural, or environmental character.

Whatever form it takes, the process is meant to build the community and make it stronger, to help its members see the value of working together toward common purposes, and to create ways to make that happen.

Social action, more fully explained in Section 4 of this chapter, is generally aimed at organizing with community members who are experiencing systemic barriers, exclusion, discrimination, or unfair treatment. Its purpose is often to build power and use that power to address inequities and change unfair or damaging policies and practices. Depending on the circumstances, it may involve an adversarial process based on building and exercising political or economic power.

Locality development is a cooperative process that includes many sectors of the community and is based on finding common ground and defining and pursuing a common vision. (It can, in fact, overlap with social action when a whole community is disadvantaged or discriminated against and must gain the power to negotiate with the state or with other communities.)

Both of these are necessary aspects of community organizing, depending on the circumstances in a particular community. The deeper the divides and the greater the inequity, the more likely that social action -- what is often seen as classic community organizing -- may be an appropriate course to take. As relationships, influence, and opportunities for meaningful participation change, social action may develop into more collaborative forms of locality development. Likewise, if collaborative methods repeatedly fail to address serious inequities, locality development may lead to social action.

Why engage in locality development?

• Locality development can break down barriers within the community by encouraging and improving communication among diverse individuals and groups in the population. When community members from many sectors of the community work together to assess assets and needs, they get to know one another as individuals, rather than only as broad categories (e.g., "youth," "people experiencing poverty," "business people"). This interaction not only makes it possible for people from different backgrounds and circumstances to work together, but also fosters mutual respect and empathy.
• Locality development can bring together people who normally have little contact, and define the community as including all of them. Just as it breaks down barriers, locality development can strengthen connections among community members and help people recognize that the community functions best when all its members have opportunities to thrive.
• Locality development can lay a solid foundation for community support of activism around issues of importance. When a community has a process through which people can participate meaningfully in discussions about how to deal with issues, the resulting action plans are more likely to reflect community priorities. When community members feel ownership of the plans, they may be more willing to help carry them out.
• Locality development can help individuals and groups acquire new skills and knowledge.
  • Leadership and administrative skills.
  • A better understanding of, and ability to communicate with, people from a variety of backgrounds.
  • Interpersonal skills.
  • Facilitation skills.
  • Analytical skills.
  • An overview of how systems interact to influence the life of the community.
  • An understanding of how economics, on both the large and small scales, affects people's lives.
• Locality development can help identify and strengthen emerging leaders from within the community. This happens both naturally, as people take on greater responsibility through the locality development process, and through encouragement and support from current leaders.
• Locality development can encourage the community to identify its own resources and understand its own strengths. Once people have a clear sense of what they have available and what they themselves can do, they can use their resources to their best advantage.
• Locality development can strengthen the community's capacity to identify and address its own problems. The advantages of being in this position include:
  • Increased community confidence and a stronger sense of collective ability, motivating community members to tackle difficult problems.
  • Greater ability to work with outside resources and expertise on the community's own terms, rather than having outsiders determine what is best for the community.
  • An increase in the speed with which the community can respond to problems and mobilize resources.
  • A greater likelihood that the problems being addressed reflect the concerns and priorities of community members.
• Locality development can create meaningful opportunities for people throughout the community to participate and can make participatory democracy a normal method of community decision-making. Building an inclusive, participatory infrastructure helps ensure that a wide range of opinions and needs can be heard and considered, and can lead to community systems that involve all sectors.
• Locality development can build a foundation for real community and equity, leading to a healthy community and long-term, positive social change. When people work together as a community, it becomes harder to overlook particular groups or ignore their needs, and easier to envision and work toward a community in which the necessary underpinnings of health are available to everyone.

When and where should you engage in locality development?

In most sections of the Community Tool Box, the answer to the "when?" question begins with a sentence similar to "While this activity is almost always appropriate, there are certain times when it's especially useful." Locality development can be useful in many communities, particularly where there are inequities in the social system, where the quality of life for some community members is unacceptable, where systems or resources are inadequate to meet community needs, or where the community is threatened from within or without. It's also appropriate when things are going well, since this may be a good time to make positive changes that would be harder in difficult times (improvements in environmental conditions, for instance, or a push for pedestrian-friendly areas).

In some communities, the need may be immediately obvious: major employers have left, housing stock is deteriorating, Main Street storefronts are empty and decaying, violence is on the rise or already at frightening levels, etc. There may be racial or ethnic tensions, large numbers of people experiencing homelessness, or major problems relating to the public schools, the environment, or corruption in local government. Whatever the situation, it may be apparent that the community needs to take action before conditions become worse.

In many cases, however, problems are hidden or unacknowledged. Widespread alcohol use disorders or domestic violence may be treated as simply part of community life, for instance. Community members may overlook or be unaware of hunger and poverty that exist in isolated pockets, or simply not realize that many of their neighbors have limited access to health care. Until there's a crisis, communities may have difficulty recognizing the full extent of problems they face. It may take a disaster -- as in the case of the flooding and devastation of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 -- to bring longstanding inequities and vulnerabilities into broader public view.

An ongoing locality development process can not only contribute to a healthier community, but can also help a community weather difficult times, prepare for emergencies, and take advantage of good times to make things even better. For that reason, locality development can be valuable in many communities and under many different conditions.

Who should be involved in locality development?

To be most effective, a locality development process should be inclusive and participatory. That means it should include people from all sectors of the community and provide meaningful opportunities for them to participate. Their role should not be limited to acting as advisors or consultants, but should include full participation in the phases of identifying community issues, making decisions, taking action, and working toward a better quality of life.

It's important not to think about self-identified communities as all of a piece. The "Black community" in any U.S. city is not made up of people who all think alike, or who are all of the same income or education level. It may have leaders, but they don't necessarily speak for all members of that community, any more than any other individual does. It may have institutions or organizations that occupy important places in the community, but they don't represent everyone. Diversity refers to more than skin color or background: it encompasses opinions, political stances, income, attitudes, and a multitude of other factors, and as many of those perspectives as possible should be included when you're recruiting people to take part in locality development.

Some of the factors that a locality development effort might consider in putting together a grassroots group are:

• Interest in the effort
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Sexual orientation
• Geography. This may mean including people from a variety of neighborhoods, from several rural areas, or even from different city blocks. Geography is especially important when people from different areas have different interests because of differences in outlook, income, culture, etc.
• Income. This is an economic measure.
• Class identification. Class identification may or may not be tied directly to income. Some industrial workers may have higher incomes than some middle managers, but still identify themselves as working class rather than middle class. Those middle managers, as well as teachers and other professionals and "white collar" workers with similar incomes, on the other hand, may be more likely to think of themselves as middle class. People with similar incomes may also understand their class position very differently depending on education, occupation, family background, and life experience. Class identification can therefore involve more than income alone.
• Age
• Religion
• Culture. This may be linked to ethnic or racial background (the factors that usually come to mind when culture is mentioned), age, religion, etc. Adolescents may have their own language, norms, and styles, for instance, as do many immigrant groups and faith communities. These different cultural experiences and perspectives need to be considered when engaging in locality development.
• Language
• Organizations and institutions. Service clubs, fraternal organizations, community-based organizations, hospitals, universities, libraries, and other bodies need to be involved. They can bring valuable resources and constituencies with them.
• Local government and government agencies. Not only elected and appointed officials, but police and firefighters, public assistance workers, and others in similar positions should be drawn in. As policies and systems change, they'll often have important roles in carrying them out and should share in ownership of the development process from the beginning.

How do you engage in locality development?

The "Iron Rule" of community organizing is to never do for people what they can do for themselves. In practice, this means supporting people in developing and exercising their own leadership, knowledge, and decision-making power rather than taking over work that community members are able and willing to lead. Thus, the process is participatory by definition.

The participatory nature of organizing is crucial, regardless of the type of organizing it is. The inclusive process we've been describing may ultimately depend on direct action and the exercise of political power for success, but it may also depend on collaboration. Locality development can also be an exercise in bringing together all the sectors of a community -- including those that hold substantial institutional or political power -- in an effort to improve conditions and the quality of life for everyone.

Who is included in the definition of "community" depends on the situation that exists to begin with. If the purpose of organizing is to gain equal footing or fair treatment for a group that has had neither, then that group is the community in question. If the aim is to revive a town whose economy has all but died, or to improve health conditions across the board, then all community members are the constituency.

The ideal situation is one in which people throughout the locality can work together and in which everyone's interests and needs are considered. In reality, full agreement may be rare, but meaningful participation and respectful engagement are worth striving for. Building a community and developing an infrastructure that makes it possible for people to work together are important regardless of the aim of organizing.

There are a number of basic steps to locality development that we'll discuss, more or less in the order in which they should be taken. "More or less" because each community and situation is unique. In some cases, you may need to work on several things at once, or to take a particular step out of order, or even skip it entirely. It's important to respond to the circumstances that exist.

Get to know the community. The term "get to know" really means three things here:

• Learn about the history, relationships, issues, factions, and other aspects of the community or locality you're working with before you start.
• Get acquainted with the people in the community. Develop relationships, so that they know who you are, what you're doing there, and why they might choose to talk to and trust you.
• Understand how people in the community view themselves and others.

We'll briefly examine what each of these means in practice.

Community history
Knowing community history is extremely important. If you don't understand the alliances, rivalries, conflicts, and successes of the community, particularly those of the recent past, you're more likely to make mistakes that damage relationships or undermine the effort. The time spent understanding the context beforehand can save much more time later.

To learn community history, you have to talk to those who've experienced it or heard about it directly from people involved. Conversations with older community members or long-time residents can yield a great deal of information, although individual memories and interpretations will differ. If you make contact with a broad range of people, you can compare perspectives and identify where accounts agree or disagree. Research in newspaper archives or on the Web could also be helpful here.

Getting acquainted and building trust
In many communities -- whether defined by geography or by class, ethnicity, or some other criterion -- it can take time for an outsider to build relationships. Especially if you're unfamiliar to community members or come from a noticeably different background, people may understandably be cautious about spending time with you or listening to what you have to say. Even if you're already a member of the community, or come from a background or culture similar to that of the community with which you're working, you won't automatically gain trust. You'll have to build it by demonstrating honesty, consistency, respect, and commitment over time.

You have to spend time in the community and meet people where they are -- in the streets, at community events, in stores and restaurants, in people's homes when invited, and in other places where community life takes place. There's a reason that the Peace Corps and similar organizations emphasize becoming part of the communities in which volunteers work. Familiarity helps build relationships. If community members actually know you and have had conversations with you about your family, your interests, your values, and your reasons for being involved, they're more likely to understand who you are when you ask them to join in a development effort.

Understanding how community members view themselves and others
Understanding how community members view themselves and others both inside and outside the community will help you understand where you and the community need to start. Some of the factors you might explore:

• How much do community members interact with one another? How well do they know one another? Is there a sense of community solidarity, or are there deep divisions between long-time residents and newcomers, or between people of different races or ethnicities? Are there existing mechanisms in the community that serve to bring people together or keep them apart?
• Do community members see themselves as a community? Do they see themselves as part of multiple communities? Do people identify with the community as you've defined it, or with any community? Or are their strongest connections instead to family, friendships, work, faith communities, or other networks?
• How do community members view change and their own ability to affect change? Do they want changes? Do they feel that change is possible? Are they angry? Afraid? Discouraged? Hopeful?
• How do community members describe the community's strengths and challenges? Do they feel that the community is respected by people and institutions outside it, or overlooked or treated unfairly?

How community members view change and their sense of the strength of their community are extremely important factors to understand. If people have repeatedly seen their efforts ignored or believe that they have little influence over important decisions, they may understandably be reluctant to invest time and energy in another effort. Helping create realistic opportunities for meaningful participation and demonstrating that collective action can make a difference are often among the first -- and hardest -- tasks that community organizers and community builders face.

It can be harder still when some community members are confident that change is possible and others see it as a lost cause ("'They' are too powerful," "we have no knowledge of how things work," "everything gets decided behind the scenes anyway," etc.). Making sure that the more confident or experienced group does not dominate the process, while still keeping them engaged, is a difficult but necessary balancing act.
 

• What kinds of current or potential connections do community members have to policymakers or other influential people or groups? Do they see those connections as possible or useful?

Identify the reasons that the community is likely to be willing to organize.

The reason that Saul Alinsky, commonly seen as the father of modern community organizing, was able, in 1930s Chicago, to bring together neighborhood groups that had been hostile to one another is that they shared important interests in improving conditions in and around the stockyards and challenging conditions they saw as unfair. If a community is to come together, it has to have good reasons for doing so, and those reasons have to be determined by the community itself, not by an authority, expert, or outside organizer, no matter how well-intentioned.

Those reasons may be small specific issues (the deterioration of a neighborhood park, the need for more streetlights) or larger concerns (the fear that the community is dying economically or socially; feelings of frustration or lack of influence; a sense that opportunities are being missed; widespread discrimination and inequity; hostility from outside the community; etc.). Furthermore, the reasons may not be understood or shared by everyone. It's crucial to find out what community members are concerned about, and to determine what might move them to unite and take action to address their concerns.

Determine who are the opinion leaders and trusted individuals and groups in the community.

Opinion leaders are people whose perspectives and advice are respected by others in the community. They may be leaders because of their position (CEOs, clergy, college presidents, government officials), because of professional knowledge or experience (doctors, professors), or simply because they have demonstrated level-headedness, fairness, compassion, or good judgment over time. Often, they are community members who have earned their neighbors' respect through their actions and relationships.

Find those people and start with them. They'll often know how to attract others, and who among those others can bring still more people with them. Their support can lend credibility to a locality development effort. In addition, they're likely to be able to identify and help navigate personality and group conflicts and other potential difficulties in locality development.

Alinsky's organizing efforts in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago were successful at least partially because he was able to gain the support of two institutions that were particularly important to many residents at the time -- the unions and the Catholic church.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to treat everyone with respect. If you can develop a reputation as someone who's straightforward and honest, and who respects everyone, people will be more willing to hear what you have to say. If you're condescending, or present yourself as knowing more about the community's needs than community members themselves, you can quickly undermine trust.

Recruit community members to the effort.

First and foremost, locality development relies on personal contact. Meetings in people's living rooms, door-to-door canvassing, outreach to organizations, institutions, and agencies, community events, phone calls, texts, e-mail, and other forms of direct communication can all contribute to an organizing effort. It's difficult to build relationships and participation without direct communication.

Recruitment can and should go on continuously. It doesn't matter where you are in the locality development process -- there are almost always additional people and perspectives that can strengthen the effort.

Recruitment is really inseparable from building trust and becoming part of the community. Some organizers believe that living in the community can help establish credibility and deepen their understanding of local life, and in some communities that may be especially important. Having the support of opinion leaders and other trusted community members and groups can also help, but it is not a substitute for doing the core work of organizing: making personal contact with people, listening to them, and maintaining relationships over time.

Build a communication system.

The first of the system improvements necessary to locality development is a communication network that makes it possible for people and organizations involved in the effort to reach one another. Not only can such a system make working together a great deal easier, but it can also help correct rumors, clarify misunderstandings, and address problems before they grow.

The ability to make direct contact with someone and find out exactly what they meant in a public statement, or whether they're actually planning what you've heard they are, can make all the difference. A remark may have been misunderstood or misquoted; a plan may still be under discussion rather than final. On the other hand, if there's actually a problem, it's usually better to deal with it straightforwardly and early than to wait until positions have hardened.

One important historical example of the value of direct communication is the Washington-Moscow hotline established in 1963 after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Contrary to the popular image of a "red telephone," the original system used written communications rather than a direct voice call. It provided U.S. and Soviet leaders with a rapid channel for communicating during crises and was first used substantively during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The larger lesson for community organizing is straightforward: direct, reliable communication can prevent misunderstandings from becoming conflicts.

A communication system, in this sense, doesn't necessarily refer to complicated hardware or technology, but rather to people knowing whom to contact for what and having practical ways to reach one another. This might include a shared contact list, phone and text trees, e-mail lists, messaging groups, newsletters, or other systems. The important thing is to choose communication methods that are accessible to the people involved rather than assuming that everyone uses the same technology.

Encourage leadership from the community from the beginning.

Identify, support, and mentor emerging leaders, so that they can take on increasing responsibility and ultimately help direct the effort. One of the key pieces of infrastructure that locality development is meant to create is strong community leadership, making it possible for the effort to be sustained by community members themselves.

Some community members may have had fewer opportunities to participate in formal meetings, speak in public, facilitate groups, or navigate organizational decision-making. Providing training, mentoring, and accessible opportunities to practice these skills can help more people participate confidently and take on leadership roles.

Create a structure to help the community accomplish its goals.

In order to solidify and coordinate the development effort, it is often useful to create an organization of some sort, or even more than one, to provide structure for and coordinate your action. An exception may be a situation in which an organization already exists that has community credibility and can appropriately take on the work of locality development.

There are a number of reasons for establishing an organization or other structure:

• It makes the work easier. An organization gives the effort an identity that can then be used to seek out resources, devise and carry out actions, gain official status, and state positions. It can make it easier to operate in the world of government regulations and fundraising, explain the effort to others, and attract participants.
• It makes the work more efficient and more effective. A structure makes it easier to divide and delegate tasks efficiently, to contact people when things need to be done, and to keep track of everything.
• It gives the effort standing in the community. A formal or recognizable structure can demonstrate that the development effort is organized, serious, and supported by community members.
• It lends form to the development effort. An organization is something community members can point to as a result of their coming together. It has a name, structure, and purpose, and people are associated with it.
• It creates a focus for community work. An organization can act as a coordinating body for whatever comes next. It provides an organizational focus and, in some cases, a physical one as well -- an office, meeting place, phone, or computer. People belong to it, work with it, or participate in its activities. They care about what it stands for because they helped shape it.
• It unites those involved in locality development. An organization gives community members something formal to belong to and participate in. It brings people together for meetings and other activities and gives them an ongoing structure through which to work with one another.
• It gives the community an entity that it helped create and shape. If the development effort has been conducted well, the organization will grow out of the participation and ideas of community members. That sense of ownership can strengthen people's commitment to making it successful.

To this point, the steps for engaging in locality development apply equally well to social action or policy change. The next few steps are specifically aimed at an effort that seeks to unite the whole community in a drive to improve conditions broadly, rather than an effort focused primarily on gaining equity or power for a group that's been treated unfairly, or a drive focused primarily on changing policies and laws.

Define the most important issues that relate to the community's overall concerns.

Just as when your group came together, the issues to be worked on must come from the community itself and reflect community members' concerns and needs. Some of these issues may be the same reasons you cited for coming together; others may be stepping stones to a larger goal. In either case, people are more likely to find them compelling when they have had a meaningful role in identifying and defining them.

Develop a strategic plan.

Once you've determined where you're going -- i.e., the issues or problems to be addressed -- the next step is to figure out how to get there. The way to do that is by developing a strategic plan -- a step-by-step blueprint for accomplishing your goals. This means embarking on a participatory process to establish a vision for the community, a mission for your effort, objectives to be reached, a strategy by which to reach them, and actions that will carry out the strategy (VMOSA).

An important part of planning is considering what's possible and what will help to keep the development process going. It's often wise not to try to reach your ultimate goals all at once, but to work in stages. Aim first for something that's achievable, so that the effort can build experience and momentum. When that goal is met, strategize again and set the next goal. With each stage of the effort, people may gain confidence, knowledge, and commitment that can help them work toward the more ambitious goals set out in the strategic plan.

Implement your plan.

Here's where all your organizing and hard work pay off. The community takes action to achieve the results it wants, based on the plan that's been developed.

Continually monitor and evaluate your work.

The Community Tool Box considers these functions so important to any effort that it devotes four chapters (36-39) to evaluating community organizations and initiatives. Monitoring and regularly evaluating your work gives you the opportunity to change what's not working and to respond to changes in the community. It also tells you what you're doing well, and may give you ideas about how to build on your successes.

You should be looking at both the process and the results of what you're doing. How successfully have you brought in people from across the community? How meaningfully are they participating in making or causing changes that will improve people's lives? How well is your organization running, and does it meet the community's needs? Is the action you're involved in effective at keeping you moving toward your goals? Are you achieving the outcomes you're aiming for?

Make the locality development effort sustainable and community-led, so that it can continue as long as it's needed.

The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC), which Saul Alinsky helped establish in 1939, still operates today and continues to provide community-based services and economic development programs in Chicago's Southwest Side. You may not be interested in that level of longevity, but locality development is an ongoing process. Individuals and groups move, circumstances change, and new community members who know little about the original effort take their places. If you build strong relationships and a strong organization that belongs to and is led by community members, the effort can adapt and continue as long as it's useful.

In Summary

Locality development is the facet of community organizing that concentrates on building an infrastructure of relationships, processes, and systems that makes it possible for the community to identify and address its own problems and respond to its own needs through planning, action, and advocacy. The development process should be inclusive of all sectors and participatory, and leadership should be encouraged and strengthened from within.

Locality development can provide a foundation for many organizing efforts. It is the process by which community members are recruited to the effort and invited to identify and address community needs and problems by using community resources and the influence that comes from people acting together. That may mean that people throughout a large community unite to address such major community issues as economic development or public health, or it may mean that members of a more closely defined community -- Hispanics, workers in a particular trade or plant, Muslims, people receiving public assistance, tenants of a housing project -- unite to address more specific concerns or advocate for fair treatment.

Whatever the situation, locality development starts with understanding the community and its history, and building relationships one by one. Relationships with trusted individuals can help greatly in attracting others to the effort and in identifying potential pitfalls and paths to success. As recruitment proceeds, emerging leaders from within the community can be identified and supported with training and mentoring. At some point, the effort will probably form an organization or other formal structure to act as a focus. The organization -- community-led, inclusive, and participatory, as the effort should be from the beginning -- engages in identifying issues, strategic planning and action, and evaluation. The organization also finds resources to sustain the effort, and becomes the vehicle that carries the work forward for the long term.

Locality development is useful in many communities. It can address inequities, systemic problems or inadequacies, policy development or change, or serious community problems. Conducted well, it can contribute to long-term, positive social change and a healthier community.