Community Work: Initial Contact and Assessment Techniques
Initial Community Contact Strategies
P. Henderson and D.N. Thomas proposed a highly useful approach for community workers to cultivate contacts from the start and harness knowledge-building for developing extensive contact campaigns. They suggest that the process of collecting information is the best opportunity to communicate and connect with many people. Some of these contacts can become the starting point for community action.
This engagement must occur outside our sphere of power, entering others’ spaces. If we move into their homes, streets, local associations, health centers, or schools, we demonstrate a desire for equal treatment, facilitating future contact. Admission is, above all, a time to listen. Only through listening can the community worker understand the community’s perspective on their realities and the state of things, guiding the initial organizational tasks. Listening helps discover not only neighborhood customs but also residents’ perceived problems, natural leaders, the history of struggle and organization in the area, etc.
Defining the Social Space
The delineation of the social space where a social worker should initially focus depends on many circumstances. One of the most influential is the political-institutional context in which the community worker operates. Institutional boundaries set by administrative, legal, and budget decisions do not always align with relational realities. Census tracts and city districts often do not coincide with what people consider their barrio (neighborhood). Frequently, within what is formally considered the same neighborhood, there exist various areas with strong identities that may maintain some conflict among themselves.
Community Assessment Methods
When a community worker enters the social space, an initial period prioritizing knowledge development and information collection is required. The aim of this information gathering (often forming a general monograph) is to recognize a locality’s needs and its potential for action, providing a basis for reflecting on the most appropriate lines of action.
This process must be viewed as interrelated: requesting information involves giving information. Explaining our work provides information about us, which is also a way to request information. It’s also possible that potential actions emerge during this process that should be exploited.
To create a general district monograph, a wide variety of both quantitative and qualitative information sources are necessary. Data sources should also be diversified:
- Secondary and documentary data collection: Utilizing census data, institutional documents, books, publications, etc.
- In-depth interviews: Conducting open or semi-structured interviews with key informants. A key informant is someone with extensive knowledge about the environment or problem under study and valuable experience in implementing actions.
- Collective information gathering: Holding meetings to gather opinions and subjective information from neighbors, professionals, leaders, etc.
- Direct observation: Visiting institutions, monitoring gathering places, participant observation in meetings, group activities, etc.
- Surveys: Collecting data through questionnaires.
It is crucial to monitor the extent of data collection to avoid overflow. Exploration should concentrate on the problems to be studied. The community worker aims to build knowledge useful for action with this study, which should guide the selection process.