Transforming Human Services Organizations Through Empowerment of Neighbors

Bibliographic Data

ID6076868
AuthorsIra C Colby (University of Central Florida, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume4
Issue2
Pages1-12
Publication date1997-05-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Community Practice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1070-5422 • E-ISSN: 1543-3706
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1300/j125v04n02_01
OpenAlexW2011926419
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited1

Social programs of the 1990s, in particular those that are neighborhood-based, often carry the often negative stigma of social history. Community workers must recognize that previous experiences and perceptions outweigh promised changes. The challenge for the community worker is to offset the past and replace negative perceptions and beliefs with positive encounters. This paper details the needs assessment process of a multicultural, community-based substance abuse protect to organize alcohol and other drug abuse (AOD) prevention activities in four diverse communities and describes how the neighborhood needs assessment contributed to the empowerment process. This innovative process builds on the strengths perspective and documents that a neighborhood group is able to direct rather than be directed by a project. Traditions of distrust and alienation between neighborhoods and social institutions, fostered over years of failed attempts in social welfare programming, can be offset by a neighborhood participation ownership model

Alienation · Ambivalence · Distrust · Empowerment · Perception · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Community Health and Development · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Homelessness and Social Issues · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work

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