The Skinny On Collective Empowerment

By Timothy Jackson


Building a community is rather difficult as it takes the effort of all the individuals inside of it. In order for development to take place, there is a concept known as collective empowerment wherein the leaders would empower each individual as a collective and get them to contribute to the betterment of the community. This is also known as community development and is something that all leaders must learn.

When one would think about empowering a community, they would usually think about giving items or services to people in a community. However, it is definitely more than just that as empowering a community encompasses wide dimensions of aid. First of all, one has to take into consideration independence if he or she will be tackling the broad spectrum of overall empowerment.

One of the most important ways to empower people is to make them feel confident. One will become more confident in his or her abilities if he or she gains more knowledge and skills in a certain area of expertise that allows him or her to profit. In a way, teaching more skills and providing more knowledge will make communities more independent as they can fend for their own local economy.

After one becomes empowered on a personal level, the next step would be to empower him or her to be a part of the community through inclusion programs. The important thing here is to ensure that all of the people are treated equally so that they can be united no matter what sub group they come from. Whether they come from sub groups of different ideologies, religions, or classes, they should all be able to unite when needed.

Another aspect would be cooperative programs that allow the people to each contribute their own weight to the betterment of their community. First, they must have skills to contribute and second, they must all be united in a sense that they all must look toward the development of the district. These two go hand in hand with the success of cooperative programs that can empower the collective.

Now, some points to take note of would be to develop a sense of community within the individuals. That is by far one of the most important aspects of development because if each individual feels like he or she is part of the local collective, then he or she will also work toward its development. That is also a part of the dimension of inclusion wherein everyone is treated equally.

In order to get this result though, it is also important to create a certain community culture. By creating a culture for the community, the people will feel like they are part of a group and develop that sense of belonging. Of course, it will be the job of the leaders and influencers inside.

As one can see, the empowering of a community is not just empowering all the people inside of it. Rather, that is just one aspect of this activity. It is the first step that will lead to empowering the people to work as a group in order to strive for the betterment of their entire turf.




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