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29 April 2019

The Skinny On Collective Empowerment

By Timothy Jackson


Empowering individuals is one of the best ways to alleviate instances of poverty and aid in the overall economic well being of a society. Collective empowerment, otherwise known as community empowerment, is much like empowering individuals but at a larger scale. For those who want to have an introduction to this kind of activity, here is a brief overview with a few points to take note of.

The first thing that would come to mind when one mentions this term would be community building projects or donations to a particular district, especially one that as a high rate of poverty. That happens to just be one aspect of empowering communities, though an important one. Probably the most important goal of a district is to ensure itself that it is independent and can sustain itself.

That said, the very first thing that has to be taken into consideration would be confidence of the people. In order for a community to grow, the people inside of it must be empowered meaning they must be confident in their individual abilities. For that, teaching programs that would provide knowledge in certain fields or skills in certain jobs can really be beneficial.

Aside from just imparting of skills and knowledge, another dimension of empowering communities would be through programs that promote inclusion or equality. In a community, there would usually be sub groups made out of people of different ideologies, beliefs, ethnic groups etc. Part of empowering the community is bringing these groups together and promoting ways to give all of them equal rights and free speech.

When all the sub groups of people are united, it is then that the district leaders can suggest or bring up cooperative programs for the community. This could be in the form of infrastructure development programs, feeding programs for the more impoverished areas, or even education programs for the young. Again, this is only possible if the people work as a collective instead of as an individual.

In order for all these aspects to succeed though, there is a concept that is known as sense of community that must be observed. If the individuals inside do not have a sense of community, then they will not feel the need to give back to the development of their district. The important thing here is to build a sense of belonging for all the individuals so that they will feel included.

Of course, the development of a certain culture in the community is crucial in doing so. That is also an effort that most leaders do in order to make all the individuals feel like they are a part of an entire group. From there, overall collective effort may be given to the community.

Community empowerment is actually a broad scale of activities that ultimately lead to overall development. It starts with the individuals then stems out to the sub groups. From there, the success of development lies in the unity of everyone inside the entire group of people.




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