History of a community organization
After the Civil War, there was a rapid increase in the number of charitable organizations in the United States dedicated to helping the displaced, disabled, or impoverished by the war. Many of these organizations were progressive in philosophy even by the standards of the early twenty-first century, and they provided services or activities for children and teenagers. The late 1800s also saw the expansion of the public school system, along with the creation of hundreds of orphanages, hospitals, settlements and other charitable services. Because of the rapid growth of such organizations and the lack of government oversight, the distribution and coordination of services soon became problematic. The term community organization was coined by social workers of the time to address the problem of coordinating charitable services, thus reflecting a structural community perspective.
The next stage in the evolution of community organizations emphasized collaborative planning among private community organizations. Efforts were directed toward the specialization of services and the centralization of decisions concerning those services. By the late 1940s, community organizations had become professionalized in the field of social work . Community organizing theory emphasized organizing as a process in which a professional organizer works with communities to help develop leadership in the community.
In the 1960s, a new awareness of the context of American communities – particularly the vast social and economic underclass and the inability of the welfare bureaucracy to adequately meet the needs of the poor – influenced the orientation of community organizing efforts to work more closely with community organizing . . It was during this period that the concepts of community organizing and community organizing became more interrelated. The emphasis on organizing rather than organizing led to an emphasis on citizen participation and empowerment.
During the 1980s and 1990s, community organizing expanded to the point where it became known as a movement, and the process of community organizing spread to many community organizations. One of the problems that emerged during this period was the awareness of the transition of power from local communities to regions, nations, and international corporations. The process of globalization raised new questions about the effectiveness of local organizations in solving problems caused by large-scale economic forces.
Types of Community Organizations
Classifying community organizations is difficult because they can range from voluntary organizations to professional service agencies to informal groups. These organizations are often considered to include churches, unions, schools, health care institutions, social service groups, fraternities, and clubs. Community organizations are predominantly conceptualized as nonprofit, but broader community concepts sometimes include all organizations, including for-profit businesses. Service agencies are often referred to as community agencies.agencies because their services have moved from centralized institutional structures to dispersed geographic locations that provide greater access for residents. Social service agencies have been criticized because, although their geographic locations have improved access for residents, their hierarchical social practices maintain social and cultural barriers to access.
Another distinction should be made between volunteer and professional organizations. Volunteer organizations often have professional or paid staff, but volunteers carry out the vast majority of these organizations’ efforts. These organizations are often advocacy-oriented and employ community organizing strategies to achieve their goals. In contrast, professional organizations are usually staffed by experts who provide services with little or no volunteer involvement. These service-oriented organizations usually have more resources than volunteer organizations, and they interact with residents based on professional norms and standards, whereas volunteer organizations have a more egalitarian orientation.
Another type of community organization is the informal group. These groups are represented by informal networks of friends and neighbors that exist in all communities. The growth or decline of these groups is debated. While some argue that informal groups, such as bowling leagues, are in decline, there is also evidence that other groups, such as self-help groups or small support groups, have proliferated.