Közösségfejlesztők Egyesülete

Association for Community Development
Association du Développement Communautaire

1011 Budapest, Corvin tér 8.
1251 Budapest, Pf. 42
E-mail: kofe@kkapcsolat.hu
Telefon: (36-1) 201 57 28, Fax: (36-1) 225-60-13, www.kka.hu

- CEBSD – TLCD -
II. Relay visit report
18-20 February 2008, Budapest
Participants:
Lies Beunens (B)
Fenny Gerrits (NL)
Oonagh Mc Ardle (IRL)
Ilona Vercseg (H)
Mate Varga (H)

Contributors:
Zsuzsa Mészáros (H)
Péter Peták (H)

Foreword
In terms of contents, we tried to meet two important requirements during the second stage of the
TLCD project’s Relay visits. On the one hand, we have followed the ideas put forward by the original
project, and, on the other hand, we have also conformed to a division of labour set-up at the Hague
meeting, which has specified vocational training and non-formal education as the focus of the Relay
in Budapest.

As a result, we had the following viewpoints in mind when designing the programmes within the
Relay project:
- All the four countries should have the opportunity to present CD-related adult training in their
countries on different levels.
- As the hosting country is Hungary, the situation there should be presented in more detail and in
a more tangible way. There should be opportunities to visit projects in the field and meet
project leaders.
- Through all this, participants should get the opportunity to develop ideas for the future on the
basis of the experiences presented.

To achieve this, we started out from the broadest context when organizing the visit. This means
that we moved from a general diagnosis of the state of affairs in the countries concerned to the
community development and adult training activities performed there, and then, through the action
and training structure of the organizations presented, we moved on to the presentation of concrete
training programmes.
 National contexts – activity structures – concrete trainings

Day 1. Getting to know each other – general picture on CD and adult education

Following the introduction, Ilona Vercseg presented the history and characteristics of community
development and adult training in Hungary, as well as the operating mechanisms of the Hungarian
Association for Community Development. (The following is a summary of this presentation. The full
text is enclosed to the report in a zipped file).

Community development in Hungary has developed from a profession the name of which is
impossible to translate into English. The closest equivalent would be public education (its
progressive trends would be now translated as community education). This profession was meant to
take the place of people’s own initiatives and was centred round the cultural houses during the
decades of the Soviet type of dictatorship, with decreasing political content and ever increasing
cultural, leisure, amateur art and adult education content.

Main events in the History of CD in Hungary

After 1848 – self-organising activities emerged due to the modernization processes

(Self-help and mutual help, associations, secular and church charity, philanthropic activity, the
intelligentsia and reformers, the peasantry and the workers’ movement)
1912 Settlement House in Budapest, Újpest
From 1948 – centralization and nationalisation of the social institutions and civil movements, the
establishment and expansion of the Soviet type of “cultural house” system
1970-73 Education of the intelligentsia at the Budapest Techical University. Two movements:
- University students for public education
- Winter Public Education Exercise
In the former, university students undertook voluntary work in the preparation of the technical
drawings and refurbishment plans of 200 cultural houses in Hungary. In the “Winter public education
practice” study groups were organised from the students of various professions (engineers, doctors,
teachers, lawyers, economists, etc) from the country’s major higher education institutions, who, at
the beginning of the second semester, spent two weeks in a receiving village studying local society
and wrote a joint summary study of their experience, which was then received both by the receiving
villages and the universities involved (Varga).
From 1975
- “Open House” Experimental Research by the Hungarian Institute for Culture (Beke, Varga)
- The establishment of the Community Development Department in the Hungarian Institute for
Culture
1983-86 First CD Experimantal Research in the Bakony Small Region (Varga, Vercseg)
1986 onwards – hundreds of locality development CD processes, run by the CD Department and later
the HACD
1989 - the establishment of the Hungarian Association for Community Development HACD. It is a
registered, accredited, countrywide membership organization, recent number of member is 88, both
individuals and organisations.
The objective of the HACD is the development of the ability of citizens to initiate and act in the
community. This goal is meant to be achieved through an increasing participation of citizens in their
own and in their common affairs, through improving the community-related conditions of local
action, and through building-up the local institutions of democracy.
Functioning of the organisation:
As a movement promotes the attitude and methods of community development:
• It organises conferences, seminars, and meetings.
• It publishes its own quarterly, the PAROLA.
• It runs the Civil Radio - in Budapest and the surrounding areas - and it strengthens the operation
of local media (community radios, local newspapers, local associations).
• It runs an electronic information system and network called the Community Database.
• It develops and maintains national and international relations, and it participates in events that
are important for its work.
As a professional organisation performs professional development work:
• It develops new methods and leads local, small regional and regional projects.
• It analyses, publishes, and teaches the results.
• It enables volunteers for community work and civil action.
• It trains professionals at higher-educational institutions and through its own training courses.
• Its training activities are strengthened by the provision of training curricula, course books, and
other materials published by the organisation itself.
• It makes efforts to win over decision-makers as well as sponsors in order to apply community
development in a wide over decision-makers as well as sponsors in order to apply community
development in a wider range.
1991 onwards – joining to the Combined European Bureau for Social Development CEBSD
1992 – 1998 membership in the International Community Education Association
1992 The establishment of the Intercommunity Foundation, a registered organization for collecting
and distributing data on CD, through its Community Databank and homepage: www.kka.hu The
steadily expanding contents (almost 7000 books, study materials, documents, articles, etc.) and the
growing number of users at the portal (community development professionals, social workers,
college and university students, local authorities and civil organizations) have made it necessary to
involve further volunteers to perform the maintenance of the system.
1994 - the establishment of the Civil College Foundation by the HACD, a registered and accredited,
nationwide adult training organization.
1999-2004 Community Development Network Building in Central and Eastern Europe
2000 onwards joining to the Central and Eastern European Citizens Network CEE CN
2004 onwards: organising a countrywide network for a community-based society, called: Vocational
Network for Developing Community Initiatives.
2005 onwards: to set up the Union for Developing Community Involvement Association with the
participation of 11 organizations focusing to community work, community development.
A large number of books, studies, case studies and other publications were published during
these years (see Parola, Parola-booklets in www.kka.hu)
A large number of conferences, seminars, workshops, summer universities (from 2004
onwards, interdisciplinary cooperation) and citizens participation weeks (from 2005 onwards, in 17
CEE CN countries in the same time) were organised and visited in abroad.
A large number of national and international, EU and CEE CN projects were realized during
these years.
Experimental researches and surveys were conducted, like the Social Capital random
survey in 2004, the Standards of Community Development in 2007.
For more information see the Annual Reports on the homepage!

In Hungary only very few professionals make a living from community development. In their case we
cannot talk about a professional group, but, rather, about specialists who belong to different
professions. For them community, civil society, participation and democracy are very important,
and in shaping the role of their professions they seek community based solutions – in culture houses,
youth centres, leisure and community centres, information centres, schools, family support centres
and also in civil organisations involved in legal and interest representation, nature and environment
protection and recently in development projects.
In the programme distributed we asked our partners to bring 4 typical cases, examples,
situations that give a good insight into the community development and adult training activities
performed in their country. During the follow-up we asked everybody to divide a flip-chart
paper into four and use it to characterize their country’s situation with drawings and keywords,
or to highlight the important characteristics of local conditions through examples from their
work.

IRL - Clockwise from top left

Many people involved in voluntary community activity , as

well as a wide number of funded community development
programmes. Many of those paid as community workers
are not trained.

Wide variety of community work courses offered by 3rd

level institutions, while no standards or agreed common
content. This has led to different practices and outcomes
for communities.

The State giving funding to groups to be critical of the State is like ’turkeys voting for Christmas’ , according to a
Senior Government Civil Servant. There is a reluctance by some community workers and groups to challenge
causes of poverty and disadvantage.

However, many community workers and projects in Ireland work with and within communities for social change
linked to social justice and equality. They are involved in shaping the future of community work rather than
waiting to be shaped by it. A key example of this is the development of standards for Quality Community work.

B
The Christmas-three shows a way off thinking about how
we have to work: after the analyses (the ground where the
three is standing in), You want to achieve a certain goal
(arrow above is the point that you want to reach). It is
useful not to go directly towards that point but to do some
actions related to the public you are working with or the
broader public in society and afterwards at the side of the
policy-makers you are working with. Important is to switch
each time from public towards policy and to start with
general issues (far away from your goal) and to come
closer and closer by each action.

Community society can work on the digital gap in society. The aims of these projects are: reducing the digital
gap, increasing work, more social cohesion. More information about concrete projects, you can find in the article
written by Gerard Hautekeur, distributed at the relay.

Using the LENS-method it was not only the organised residents, but rather the non-organised population who
were involved in the formulation of a regeneration plan for the Ledeberg area in Ghent. In organising local
th
involvement in the various neighbourhoods of the 19 century peripheral areas, the local authorities called on
the expertise of the RISO (Regionaal Instituut voor de Samenlevingsopbouw – Regional Institute for Community
Development Work)-Ghent. For each of these neighbourhoods a plan has been developed with concrete policy
proposals for housing, education, recreation, traffic and other policy areas.

“To discover good criteria on the basis of which we can judge if our projects actually help in dealing with social
exclusion”. This was the objective of the
European Good Practice project. In Ghent professionals, project workers and volunteers came together to work
on a project that resulted in a booklet. They felt that ‘a house’ was an excellent symbol to illustrate their criteria.
 NL

The task was solved in a very detailed way, you can read
the information later, in the training structures section!

- Two-sided and agressive political fights. Dealing with

the surface, nothing in the deep. There is a strong
propaganda from both sides around their citizen
involvment and interest, but the reality is very different
- Profit and degree oriented adult education, only „sexy”
thematics. Noone deals with demotratic edutaion and
community issues, organizational survival is more
important
- Very low level of citizen’s participation and interest,
but also very few efforts in attracting citizens from the
other side
- There is a more and more strong emphasis on action
and issue oriented approaches in the civic sphere.

Day 2. – Field visit and discussion on training systems

The Civil College Training centre in Kunbábony

Ilona Vercseg:
1994 the establishment of the Civil College
Foundation by the HACD, a registered and
accredited, nationwide adult training
organization that provides training for citizens
willing to act, the members of self-organizing
communities, and the participants of
community development and community work
vocational courses.
Its residential training centre in Kunbábony has three functions, those of:
National civil training centre
Local folk highschool
Practice field for professional community development training
The first two functions refer to the training of local people active in community development
processes, whether they live around the college or somewhere else in the country. In most cases, we
organise 24-hour, one weekend residential training courses for them where they share and work on
their experiences through various methods of participation while becoming aware of the “whys”,
community objectives and acquiring the techniques of civil action.
The third function of the training centre is to provide a practice field for students who study
community development in one of the 30 institutions of higher education nationwide.
 The Civil College Foundation organises and runs its training activity in cooperation and
partnership with the HACD.
So called “general purpose adult training courses” (not for certificate but evidence) are:
Community Course
Civil Course
Democracy
Community Media
Community based Economic Development
Training professionals:
120-Hour CD course for practitioners (certified by the Regional Job Office and Training
Centre)
45-Hour further education accredited training course on Community Work (certified by the
University of Budapest, ELTE)
In progress:
“Community/Civic Organizer” Higher-Level Vocational Education recognized by the National
Training Register (1000-Hour, 2-Year, semi-BA undergraduate course)
Postgraduate course named “Community and civil studies” (3-Semester) with the University
of Budapest, ELTE Social Work and Social Policy Department

The College was in partnership with the Northern College, Barnsley, UK until 2007.

12 regularly contracted trainers work for the College, all of them community developer and adult
educator.

Mate Varga:
In this way, one of the general objectives of the Civil College is to prepare citizens for local action
in an adequate way: to raise interest, to develop trust and willingness to carry out change, to
encourage the taking of responsibility and getting involved in the local community, and, through all
this, to launch the planning of local action and facilitate the process of action itself. The lack of
these things is the very motive behind the operation of CD-related organizations in Hungary. At the
same time, it is also to be noted that these shortcomings highlight some deeper interconnections
and problems within society, also giving a good overview of the weaknesses of basic structures and
operating mechanisms. It is obvious that some genuine structural changes are needed that are based
on a general consensus, whereby stakeholders engage themselves towards launching joint,
comprehensive and long-term processes in order to solve the above problems (the lack of trust,
responsibility and action).

The Civil College also reacts to the training demand appearing as a result of the community
development process. At the same time, it tries to react and influence the above-mentioned
stakeholders as far as the opportunities and situations let it do so, in order to have them recognize
their roles and responsibilities in strengthening democratic participation, and to have them be
willing and able to act for this cause.

The main tasks could be summarized as follows:

- education should deal with the development of a democratic attitude even on the elementary
level through developing the communities of students and preparing them for citizenship,
- adult education should concentrate on following-up or substituting this process, that is, it should
empower individuals and their communities to understand and rethink their roles and be active
citizens on the basis of their local needs and existing experience. To do this, new training
programmes, methods, and trainers who are well-versed in community work are needed,
- through the collaboration of helping/development professions (community development,
regional development, social work, etc.) networks can be developed that help sustain the existing
processes and further motivate local action.
From the side of the state, efforts and assets are required for promoting the realization and
sustenance of the above.
In order to achieve this, the Civil College implements educational and interdisciplinary co-operation
schemes, while also lobbying at and putting pressure on accessible local and national government
officials.

In previous years, the networking activities of the Civil College Foundation have been strengthened,
and, through them, we have realized that, besides the training courses effected by local community
development processes, we should also make efforts to reach a wider public in promoting citizen,
community and social participation. To do this, we are working on a training system that
summarizes the most important fields and aspects of developing participation, linking them with
adequate vocational training and field practice, thus building up a multi-level, transparent and
credit-based system.

The following figure shows a simplified demonstration of this, the system and some relations (please
increase the viewing percentage if the figure is too small):

Introduction of the local CD processes, educational projects, institution building efforts

Zsuzsa Mészáros:
Community Development work in the Upper-Kiskunság region (main topics of the speech):

The initiation started in 1997 in 10 local authorities (32.000 people leave in the area). The
Community Workers Association was set up in 1998.
With the help of the Association several local organizations, and educational programmes were set
up:
- 1997-1999: community enterprise training courses (17 persons started local enterprising), and
cooperative development processes
- 2000: a local economic foundation was set up (employment and other programmes)
- From 2002: the community house is run by locals and community workers in the town of
Kunadacs
- Unemployment education for women (40 persons), the root of the Children Care Center’s set up
in Kunszentmiklós
- 2004: a local community radio started in Kunszentmiklós
- 2005: wide adult education programme started, through which 198 persons attented to training
courses in various thematics
- 2005: an adult education partnership programme started in the region
- 2006: as a result of the partnership programme, the local actors made an employment and
education strategy for the region
- Continuing the strategy, an Employment Paktum created by 31 key actors in the region
- 2008: as a result of the new coop development, a cooperative was set up to run the local
Television chanel

Zsuzsa was describing the difficulties of CD processes in the Region. This is a disadvantaged area,
with a very low level of citizens aciveness. It has been always a problem, that a lot of initiations
were started but at the main point, when the locals should took a higher responsibilty for those
projects and organisations, in spite of the results of trainings and assistance, the initiatives were
hardly pass on. The ditrust, fear and passivity could always been stronly recognised both from the
citizens but even more from the official side. There were several points where they had to change
strategies and their approaches, but that moment the future is more promising than ever before.

After discussion we went together to the Children Care Centre and we visited the Community Radio
in Kunszentmiklós.

Introduction of the participant’s training activities (IRL, NL, B)

Oonagh Mc Ardle: Ireland

Essentials of Community Work was a pilot programme, which was co-ordinated and delivered by
the Community Workers Co-op.

The programme aimed to provide a space for community workers, both paid and unpaid, to re-
discover the essential elements of Community Work. It was expected that participants should
have substantial experience of involvement in the anti-poverty/community sector, be open to
reflecting on their work and strengthening their critical and analytical skills, as well as being
committed to participating fully in the training.

The short programme was designed to provide a space for community workers and activists to
reflect on their work, explore the context in which it happens and look at building strategies
for a more cohesive approach to the work, locally and nationally. Specifically, we worked
with community workers from a local area and over a short time frame, to return to critically
understanding the work that they do, in order to lead to collective critical action.

The programme was delivered in 5 areas in the Republic of Ireland.

Youth Work and Community Work in the Department of Applied Social Studies
The Department of Applied Social Studies in NUI, Maynooth, Ireland offers two professional
programmes in the area of community work and youth work;
• Diploma in Community and Youth Work (DCYW) - a two-year full-time or three-year part-time
undergraduate programme, with
• Higher Diploma in Community and Youth Work (HDCYW) - a one-year full-time or two-year part-
time postgraduate programme.

Both courses require students to undertake two block fieldwork placements, one in each year of the
course and each of 12 weeks’ full time duration (total 24 weeks).

Both programmes have also from the outset been designed and delivered as programmes of
professional education and training. All course documentation identifies and describes them as such,
they are advertised as such, and employers (and the youth work and community work sectors more
broadly) have in practice recognised them as such.

Aims and Objectives

As already stated the youth work and community work programmes share the same overall aims and
objectives. The broad aims of the programmes are:
a) to provide students with the education and training to enable them to become (or to
develop their capacity and competence as) professional community and youth workers,
capable of working on their own initiative and taking responsibility for their work;
b) to supply the community work and youth work sectors with skilled and knowledgeable
workers from a range of backgrounds, possessing a variety of appropriate academic and
professional abilities and the flexibility to respond to a changing environment;
c) to contribute to the ongoing development of the professions and disciplines of youth work
and community work and enhance their capacity to promote social justice and positive
social change.
The objectives of each programme are as follows:

1. To enable students to acquire, or perfect, the core skills of learning and communication
which they need to practise throughout the programme, throughout their careers, and in any
further study which they may choose to undertake.

2. To give students the necessary understanding of:

• contemporary society - Irish, European and global; how it has developed and how it
is changing;
• political, legal and administrative systems, and in particular how they affect local
communities and young people;
• the extent and causes of social inequalities and social problems, the development
and relevance of social policies and the tools for further social analysis.

3. To encourage students to make connections between their own values and their work, and
to clarify and adopt a coherent personal approach in terms of their objectives and their
methods of work.

4. To ensure that students have an understanding of the basic knowledge and insights derived
from the social sciences, as they relate to community work and youth work.

5. To enable students to explore the central concepts, models and theories in community and
youth work and to discuss the basic theoretical and practical issues that arise.

6. To provide students with opportunities to acquire or perfect the essential skills necessary in
work with individuals, with groups and with communities.

7. To enable students to identify and develop the personal qualities they have which can be of
most value to them in community and youth work.
In short, to use well established categories, the programmes are concerned that students should
acquire and develop certain:

• knowledge (e.g. descriptive accounts, case studies, theories, models of community work
and youth work and of the societal context in which they take place);

• skills (e.g. in observation, fact-finding, recording, reflection, communication,

counselling, group work, planning and evaluation, management and organisation);

• personal qualities (e.g. personal awareness, political consciousness, values and

attitudes appropriate to educational and developmental work with people, sensitivity,
sociability, discretion and dependability).

Fenny Gerrits - Community Work in The Netherlands

Local change
Community Development work was instated in the Netherlands massively after the Second World war.
It was seen as a social effort to support the economic reconstruction that was the result of the Marshall
Plan. During the fifties Community Development was made an important policy with a position within
the Dutch administration that was accordingly. A Ministry of Social Work was formed and the most
prominent director, Dr Gradus Hendriks was very actively engaged in covering our country with a
network of CD-organisations. CD was practised on a local, regional and provincial scale. It was funded
by the national government, however.
The position in which CD-workers operated, working locally, regionally or provincially, gave them a fair
amount of independence due to the national funding of the work.
Only during the sixties a special training programme became available for those aspiring to become CD-
workers. This training became part of the so-called Social Academies that taught a wide range of social
professions. CD was a distinct training that gave people the right to call themselves professional CD-
workers. In due time it became possible for professionals to enlist themselves for an extended form of
CD-training, called in Dutch Voortgezette Opleiding or VO. This training was meant to teach
professional CD-workers with managerial ambitions and many former VO-students became directors of
CD-organisations or managers in other sectors.
Due to the independent position of the CD-workers the local authorities grew more and more
distrustful towards CD-workers during the seventies especially, which was also in The Netherlands a
period of rising political awareness among the population. People became increasingly critical towards
any kind of authority and CD-work was seen as an agent that supported ‘opposition’ to the authorities
in many issues concerning housing, teaching and the functioning of public services.
In the early eighties the government decided to decentralise the work and placed it under the
jurisdiction of the local authorities. Gradually more and more CD-workers depended on the views of
the local authorities on the merit of the work. This means that in some (smaller) towns CD-work was
abolished altogether, in others nothing important changed and in most CD-work was diminished to a
smaller scale. The work has still not yet grown accustomed completely to these major changes that
were, no doubt, also inspired by the worsening of the economical climate in The Netherlands (like in
other western European countries). This fact, in combination with the rise of a new economic ideology
that focussed on the idea that all services, including most public services should be performed by the
market made the position of all social professions more difficult. For CD-work however, it was
especially disastrous because in a market-oriented society there is hardly room for solidarity and it
became increasingly difficult to mobilise people on any social issue at hand. In 1982 the National
Center for Community Development (LCO) was founded to provide a national platform for CD-work and
the workers to counterbalance the decentralising movement while preserving a national focal point
from which many lobbies were conducted in favour of the work in distress.
National change
In the early days after the War Community Development was a very popular instrument used by the
national policymakers to improve social living conditions of a large part of the Dutch population. In
1960 a special CD-programme was adopted by the national government directed at the most deprived
urban areas that were called ‘special situations’. It was a small programme and not every town was
included, it was directed at the most urgently deprived urban areas.
During the eighties a national programme of improving so-called Problem Cumulation Areas was
adopted (PCG-beleid). This was an interdisciplinary programme conducted by several ministries
together. In this programme many CD-workers formed a national network, under the direction of LCO.
The effort of LCO to coordinate the CD-work in those urban areas and thus also mobilising the residents
of these areas were much appreciated by the national government. ‘PCG-beleid’ was succeeded by the
programme of Social Renewal during the nineties and the Big City-policy as of 1994. As of the start of
the Social Renewal programme in 1990 until now we are experiencing the third major
interdepartmental programme aimed at deprived areas all over the country. During this period the
position of CD-work gradually diminished further. Many other social professions claimed to perform CD-
work and the local civil servants and workers at housing corporations also felt to be the bearers of the
tradition of Community Development.
In this same period also the special training for CD-work, originally organised by the Social Academies
including the extended training (VO) were abolished. Instead of the former Social Academies new
institutions had been founded within the existing professional universities that took responsibility for
the training of various kinds of social work. Community Development ceased to exist as a separate
professional subject and can nowadays only be found on the level of a minor. In the meantime LCO
struggled to keep the professional profile of CD-work on the agenda.

LCO
The LCO (National Centre for Community Development) was concerned with transfer, innovation and
quality development in the field of community work and community development work. The essence of
community work is to stimulate and advise groups of residents and citizens organizations and to offer
socio-organisational support in solving problems in society.
It involves mainly residents in 'deprived' situations. Community work involves categorical as well as
territorial methods. Categorical community work concentrates on a specific target group, for example
patients, travellers, those claiming benefit etc. Territorial community development is aimed mainly at
areas, districts and neighbourhoods where many of the inhabitants find themselves in deprived
situations. Often there is cumulative deprivation (in areas such as employment and income, housing,
education and training, health etc.). Supporting initiatives, encouraging participation and developing
(new) (social) arrangements and chance-creating transactions in these areas is a specialized skill in
itself.
There were approximately 3000 community workers and officials in The Netherlands, operating through
various institutions and organizations. Often these are municipal welfare organizations or separate
community work organizations. But also organisations in the welfare sector, environment groups,
housing corporations or pressure groups can offer a base for the community worker.

Transfer
Transfer concerns the exchange of knowledge and experience through cooperatives or networks.
Methods used include site visits, excursions, study days and conferences, but also thematic
newsletters, adoption of projects and project banks, etc..
The LCO was active in and cooperated with numerous national networks of groups of residents in
deprived situations, with local authorities, experts and intermediary professional organizations.
The thematic approach targets deficiency in health care at neighbourhood level, safety and crime
prevention in residential areas, inter-cultural district development, participation in rural areas, sport
and social integration, employment redistribution, resident participation in Government policies and
schemes, Centres for Mothers, environment and liveability etc.
Innovation
Innovation encompasses the invention of new approaches and the development of renewed projects.
The LCO functioned as a 'social inventor', 'processor of import-products' and project developer. In this
way new forms of social dialogue were developed, such as the Olympiad Conference, but also new,
workable connections between citizens and local government such as the Urban Quality Panel. Forms
of 'work redistribution' such as the Change-over formula are being developed.
Another development that took place is the processing of imported concepts for the Dutch market,
such as the German concept of the Mutter Zenter, which took shape in an adapted form and with an
explicitly intercultural component as "Moedercentra" (Centres for Mothers).
The LCO operated also as project developer bringing ideas, people and resources together to realize
inventions or new combinations.

Quality development
Quality development work is aimed specifically at the improvement and renewal of the profession, the
field of community work, creating initiatives which bring together community workers, consultants,
teachers, researchers and scientists in order to improve and ensure quality.
In this respect, the Cooperation for the Development of the Profession of Community Work (SBO) was
an important initiative taker and developer (professional profile of a community worker, professional
code of a community worker, handbook for community work, professional refresher courses, practical
case studies on community work). The Board of Supervisors fulfils an important role in ensuring quality
(testing concept publications, setting up courses and also admission to the Register of Senior
Community Workers). A new professional association for Community Development workers (BON) was
founded in 2001.
In addition, the professional journal MO/Community Development is an important source of
information on new developments, practices and thoughts on the profession.
The scientific basis for community work is provided by the Dr. Gradus Hendriks Foundation which funds
the professorship in Community Work at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam and is also the publisher of
the series of books on Community Work.
Internationally, the LCO represented The Netherlands in the Combined European Bureau for Social
Development, the CEBSD.
The activities of the LCO were made possible by a subsidy from the Ministry for Public Health, Welfare
and Sport, project financing from other government departments and (inter)national funds and own
income.

Present situation
As of 1 January 2007 LCO ceased to exist and became one of six national organisations that together
formed MOVISIE, Netherlands center for social development. In this new setting it is increasingly
difficult to maintain was is left of the once autonomous position of Community Development work in
The Netherlands. Part of the professional infrastructure that LCO created was taken over actively by
MOVISIE and continues to exist.
The BON has taken over the lead as organisation of community development workers and takes part in
programming the annual professional conference that is still organised by MOVISIE. The professional
journal is still being produced and the chair at the University of Rotterdam still functions with the
support of MOVISIE. MOVISIE has also taken over the membership of CEBSD.

Training and learning

As described above specific training in Community Development gradually disappeared from the formal
curricula in the professional universities. In 1997 the profession of CD-worker was formally abolished
and instead of CD-workers there were now only ‘social-cultural workers’ left, officially that is. Many
professionals in any kind of social work persisted in calling themselves ‘community development
workers’. In Rotterdam e.g., many community development workers are to be found who are still
actually called so. This is due to a strong tradition of CD-work in this city that is recognised by the local
authorities until today.
Nowadays the training can only be found on a minor level within the curricula of formal training
institutions. During its period of existence LCO organised many training courses with the support of
community development organisations for the benefit of CD-professionals that were already
professionally engaged in CD-work and persisted in calling themselves CD-workers.
When speaking to experts on social work and remarking that the history of CD in the Netherlands is at
least ‘a bit peculiar’, given the fact that the work is still very popular in many professional circles
engaged in the programmes to revitalise the deprived areas in the country, they massively state that
the profession is ‘taken over’ by other professionals. Therefore it is not necessary to invest in a
separate training programme for CD-workers. It seems that ‘we’, representatives of a wide range of
social professions including those that are professionally engaged in several public services, all have
become CD-workers now. In the mean time we witness a substantial loss of quality in many public
spheres in our society. The government has signalled it and tries to counteract this by ‘speech’: many
political debates were centred on this loss of values that we all detected in the past decade or so. The
Dutch civilian however, is seen to be able to correct this and change his/her attitude under the
pressure of repression instead of a more positive approach that involves in fulfilling existing training
needs.
TLCD should be directed at specifically designing training possibilities for all those that are
professionally engaged in working with the public: professionals in education, social work, housing
corporations, civil servants.

Lies Beunens, Belgium:

One institute for the support of community development work in the Flanders and in Brussels
(Samenlevingsopbouw Vlaanderen) deals with eight regional institutes for community development
work. Regional institutes have been set up in the three major cities: Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels
and, in addition, in the five Flemish provinces. They are the employers of the 300 community
development workers in total.
Together with one person on each regional institute we are preparing a needs assessment at the
moment.

Introduction
How it used to be
a. Each regional institute has a person who looks what people want to follow if the brochures of
organisations arrive
b. We as the supporting institute for communitywork in Brussel where one of those delevers and we where
seen as not from the institute itself
c. Some workers follow nothing, others a lot, people see what is offered and inscribe
We didn’t like how it was
a. effectiviness? not effective to think on several places on what people can follow in stead of making a
programme that is more shared by different regional institutes.
b. effect? folllowing a bit of this and a bit of that without thinking what is needed
c. people choose by coincidence what they want to follow
Basic rules for a question oriented educational programme
a. combinations of needs of a worker X needs for the organisation X ideas of a project groupe called
“partners in education”
b. no gap thinking but future and solution focused need assesment
c. complementary working in the regional institute and the supporting institute
d. inspire people on what they can learn en how, we take the role of an innovator

Idea which a will present: Working with a needs assesment for several years which can serve to make an
educational programme year by year for the whole sector and which can serve in every regional institution to
point out a education policy
Purpose of a needs assesment
Product
We got a reference sheme for a sectoral programme on education.
The sheme is related to the main tasks and also related on the themes we will work on the next years.

It concerns:
• which competences are needed for a community-worker
• which formulas of learning are interesting to work on those competences e.g. courses, introductions,
new ideas, training, etc.

The reference sheme is based on the competences that community workers need, their organisations see
as important development topics and what we as project group on education find important

On the level of every organisation, there is a list that can serve for a educational policy for the own
organisation.

Process
The needs assesment process stimulates workers to learn. Not a gap- thinking but more : what will be
different if we could imagine we are working in a ideal situation where you can learn as much as you want
to.
We also want to know which workers can share a content towards other workers.

Inspiration list for needs assesment

Community work

Main tasks
The agogical task
• Working in groups
• Processwork
• Knowing the lifestyle of our target groups
• Working with people in a multiple problem situation (not as care)
• Working with volunteers
• How to tackle racism
• Conflict management
• Motivated working
• …
The political task
• Understanding how government run (local and national)
• Knowing actual political evolutions related to community work
• Strategic working
• Solution based approach
• Coöperating with other organisations
• Lobbying
• Working with social actions
• Negotiating with policy-makers
• ….

Our work principles

Participation
• Vision
• Participative working with the target group
• Working on civil participation
Innovation
• Creative thinking
• …
Approaches
• Project based working
• Focus oriented and realistic working
• Planning and programmation
• ……

Methods
• Participation methodes
• …

Themes
In this part every local institute takes his central themes on which they will work the coming period
Basic rights
• work
• habitation
• health
• education
• …
(it can be about information, vision building, …)

Welfare (Leefbaarheid)
• fysical welfare
• social welfare (social cohesion, interculturalisation, …)

(it can be about information, vision building, …)

Social development
For example:
• interculturalisation
• grey population
• more urban life
• islamisering
• durable development
• ….

Person oriented
• communication: speaking, writing (to target groups, policy, partners), speaking for public,
taking position in different situations, …
• skills to lead a reunion
• personal development (giving and receiving critic and feedback , cope with transformation
processes, …)
• Leadership
• Coaching
• Technical skills (computer, fond rising, registrating, administration, …)

Day 3. – Some examples and methods from Hungary

Péter Peták

A case study and film about Istenkút’s school closure (and more)- SUMMARY

Personal involvement is a prerequisite for active citizenship. It is about our own life. It is not a
simple school affair, it is an affair of our own school, our own dwelling place, our partners, our city,
our city government, and yes, our association through which local community life could be renewed
and given a new quality.
The interpersonal relationships among people living in Istenkút and their awareness as citizens are
surely deeper than usual. This is the most important result of the community development work in
Istenkút which was initiated from within. In periods of crisis these appear as basic conditions of the
whole internally motivated process.
The school evidently could not be replaced, but the Istenkút Community Association established a
multifunctional institution (Szieberth-KAPTÁR Istenkúti Közösségi Ház – Szieberth Hive, Istenkút
Community House) in the building of the former culture centre of the city government, and made a
mid-run agreement with them.
As a result of the enthusiastic and at the same time conscious developmental work and the voluntary
impulse springing from inner devotion, a communal institution was founded with a wide range of
activities, information centre, for employment, social welfare, youth, cultural and family problems,
which is weekly used by about 100-150 people, but on special occasions 150-200 people may
participate.
The local association has a well trained, professional management accepted even by the City
Government as a negotiating partner.
If we look back upon the Istenkút story, not from the perspective of the school (in which case we
may speak about mere failure, serious defeat), but from the perspective of the liberation and use of
community resources of a clear-cut district, we may speak about success. What does this success lie
in? Something expressible in figures today, a few years ago was still quite obvious and natural. When
there was a school, a hundred families contacted with each other every day. Yet, there is a basic
difference: when the children's parents contacted with each other, their meeting was due to an
educational institution, and there was always some air of compulsion in the celebrations and
programmes organized by the school. Such an institution under the authority of the City Government
is obviously exposed to external sources – the proof of it is the closure of the school (for instance
even the donated equipment's entered the stocklist of the City Government, and as such could be
taken away).
After the closure of the school the action launched to build a new community went back to its
traditions (reasonable handling of conflicts based on former experiences), on the other hand the
voluntary nature of activities had a new essential role, also the awoken needs and intention, an own
internal, undepriveable positive attitude which – together with pride coming from previous injuries –
conveys the joy of independence.

It depends on us! Training Programme

Peter was on of the author of a new handbook, which was created by the Hungarian Association for
Community Development. The book collects the very practical information for local activation, it
became surprisingly popular in Hungary.
According to the book, a new training programme was also developed and pilot trainings were
implemented. Peter talked about this training experience.
Some elements of the presentation:

We offer the training course ‘It Depends On Us! How to Organize and Represent Ourselves in Our
Local Neighbourhood’ to people who are committed to community issues and wish to do something
for their local community.

The objective of the course is to encourage people to engage in civil action through providing the
necessary instruments and skills. The duration of the course is usually one weekend (from Friday
evening to Sunday noon), which is followed by opportunities for personal consultation. The training
does not follow the classical school system, as it requires the active contribution and experience of
participants in the application of team working methods, situational practices and case discussions.

If requested, we offer training courses to (stakeholder) groups already set-up, but it is more typical
that some people concerned with an issue come to us and want to know how to raise awareness in
connection with certain local problems/issues/dangers they have recognized, and how to mobilize
their neighbours.
In case there are special issues or characteristics at hand, the ingredients of the curriculum are
developed accordingly. However, the main framework of training can be summarized as follows:

a. FACTS - Know Your Neighbourhood!

- How to assess the needs and resources of your community? How to access information on local
issues (planned developments, etc.)?
- The meaning of social participation / social involvement (Treaty of Arhus).
- Some information on democracy (participatory and representative, what do they mean?),
democratic rights (participation, election and eligibility, accountability, etc.).
- The role as a working function.
- Working methods in community work: revealing facts, the collective methods of mobilization
(interviews, community discussions, community appraisal, knowledge base, community almanac,
etc.).
- Where is information? What is information? Accessing information of public interest.
- How to make a resource map of your neighbourhood? Screening the movie ‘The Spirit of the Place’
on the community cooperation in Istenkút, followed by a discussion of the experiences from Csepel.

b. PARTNERS - Collect associates!

- How to find fellows to achieve your objectives and represent your cause? How to organize
ourselves? How to organize a team?
- Discussions on the neighbourhood as a venue of direct contact, the primary location of community
development.
- The methods of mobilizing communities: addressing, organizing teams, common issues. - How to
conduct a community appraisal?
- The community development process in Szegvár: screening the film, followed by a discussion.
- Community planning methods: future workshop, vision to action, etc.
- What is citizens advice? How does it work? What kind of legal framework is there for local residents
to participate, formulate community interests and represent them (neighbourhood committees, civil
initiatives, street councils, school boards, etc.)?

c. ACTS - Let’s get down to action!

- The methods of local action, community planning, and community action, and some good examples
of community action.

d.. Practice day:

- Identifying local problems, and developing and discussing a strategy for solving them.

Final discussion and ideas, suggestions for the future

During the meeting we expressed some important key points related to our understanding (and the
TLCD project) and also about our possible common efforts for training and learning in the future.
We all felt that for the issue of sharing among us, it was really important that we made space to
get to know each other’s national and professional contexts and history. That helped a lot to
recognise the similarities and differences and also to realise what we can bring back to home from
each other.
Sharing about our frameworks was also helpful to recognise the different focus points and actors
within our societies, which/who are the most responsible in the change of people’s attitude on
the different levels. We agreed that our task also includes the support of grassroot initiatives, but
we also have a responsibility to influence these actor’s activity and cooperation with each other
(we defined some, as the general education, adult education, helper and developer professions –
community, rural, cultural, social professionals etc. - and the state both on the national and
European level).
We need such policies and support which are making possible real participation in which people can
really take over the responsibility on their lives and empowered properly to this participation. This
cannot go without influencing policy on each level in the society and Europe for gaining good
opportunities which can be seized both local activists and CD professionals.
It seems that it worth to link these national efforts on a European level, where our basis can be the
Budapest declaration in a more strategic way, more concrete on the educational aspect.
It also can be a formalized group (an international Alliance?) which collects, attracts and
influences the key actors responsible for civil society development.

It also came out, that we are all involved and we all are implementing long term processes in our
work but the present situation needs a special focus from CD and adult education to be more action
oriented too. It means that reflective steps are needed from our profession towards the key actors
in policy making and implementing, and through trainings we also have to support directly the
local action.

More notes from the final discussion:

- Within TLCD we should try to bring back the bigger issues. We are thinking a lot in contents
and methodology (what is very important), but we should try to focus on the bigger analysis
that you work from (the community itself, unemployment, disabilities, economics, rights) - this
big issues should be emphasised within training. That also helps to avoid to use CD as a tool
by the hand of the power, which is helpful to increase people’s “happiness” instead of dealing
with real problems
- Use an analysis to link local concerns to wider structures, issues
- Facing our work, we have to make a balance, that besides developing trainings on professional
issues (training professionals), we have to support active citizens directly, the active citizen
should be supported. The professionals have to be more prepared (and their education should
focus on that) about how to support active citizens, rather than using the toolkits they already
have. Need to concentrate and focus on people in communities, developing active citizens,
whether working with professionals or communities/politicians
- This has an implication for training methods and contents, they should be more action oriented
(e.g. Saul Alinsky – Rules for radicals)
- But there is a tendency to simplify the world everywhere (quick knowledge, very practical,
simplifying structures, pictures, summaries, guidelines etc.) which represents an attitude
avoiding the “deep” and the realization of the deeper relations, so that is why the CD training
is very important on the University level as a part of various studies
- Important to look at history and key developments of community work in order to better
understand current context and influence future developments
- Be explicit about the values+beliefs+vision – value oriented community development – how our
values shine in our practice?
- Focus on power-powerless+need of those excluded. Have an analysis of power, who has it, who
doesnt, how it is used?