Dispelling Public Misconceptions about Community Development as a Discipline and Profession. (Part 2)

Community Development and Philanthropy

Public misconceptions and distortions about the profession of community development are indeed prevalent and widespread. These misperceptions tend to dissuade individuals, especially the youths who desire to take up career in the field. Practitioners sometimes encounter misguided or misleading comments about community development from individuals who don’t actually understand what the profession is all about.

The media has not been helpful either. The relevance and role of the media and its impact in community building and development is an important one. The media has the capacity to promote awareness of the activities of practitioners in communities across the nation. But the reverse has been the case. The media have had a more limited role in promoting community development activities, especially in generating awareness and promoting community participation. What you find is that the media frequently report negative happenings in communities without recognizing what is being done by practitioners and the communities themselves to address such challenges.

Focussing on the problems and challenges alone by the media tend to cause greater fear of the issues than the actual reality of the reported problems and this also tend to enhance stereotyping in those communities.

Community development practitioners have traditionally dedicated themselves to work towards a better society and to fill gaps left by government and business sectors by directly or indirectly working with communities. They tirelessly work with local communities to design, plan and execute community projects that improve quality of life, yet these activities most times go unreported by the media.

On their part, the public tend to mix up community development and other disciplines like social work and many people out there think that they are the same thing. Some people are quick to tell you that community development is about taking care of the poor, the aged and vulnerable people in the society while others think it is all about physical development and that community development mostly concern itself with local people coming together to clear bush paths, keep market square clean, sink bore holes, repair dilapidated school buildings or build town halls.

The general opinion in the urban centres is that community development is all about improving the urban sanitation, keeping streets clean, engaging in refuse disposal and forming local vigilante groups to provide night time security among neighbourhoods. Others assume that community development has to do with rehabilitating drug addicts and taking care of juveniles. Some even think that community development has so much to do with the establishment and running of co-operatives societies. Yes, these varying ideas, thoughts and opinions are not entirely wrong as they reflect the vast and diverse domain of community development.

A former school mate of mine who is in the insurance industry was surprized when I informed him that I am a community development practitioner. He was obviously surprised and wondered how I came about the financial resources to be involved in community development. He reminded me of a particular Nigerian businessman and a philanthropist who used his stupendous wealth to assist many ordinary Nigerians. He told me that this man built and donated many health facilities and religious worship centres to many communities around the country, and even offered scholarships to countless indigent children and youths. My friend concluded by saying that the philanthropic gesture by this businessman encapsulates community development in totality. With a tone of finality, he explained that it is only very wealthy individuals who desire to assist poor people or communities especially those who may not be in position to repay such goodwill that can practice community development.

From the perspective of my friend, there is a mix up in his understanding of community development and philanthropy. However, it is important to note that like community development, philanthropy is driven by the quest to meet human needs, alleviate human suffering, and solve the problems that prevent human development and progress, so there could be a recognized degree of overlap in their practices, but they are not the same thing.

Philanthropy enhances community development through the process of giving. It is a substantial and growing source of funds and finance for community development programmes and activities. Philanthropy contributes to community development and capitalizes community development effort. Philanthropy gives to society in several ways but recently, it is mostly directed to supporting individual ingenuity and community/human development initiatives.

These are some of the myths and misconceptions about the profession of community development and the concluding part will be coming up in our next blog.