Working in the Community Development Field - A challenge

If someone is considering a new career in the community, then they can consider a nonprofit type of career field called Community Development. Community development is the practice of working together with various nonprofit organizations, with social institutions, as well as with concerned politicians, to help people empower themselves in their communities. Typically, these community development programs are for those who live in the impoverished or underserved communities of the world. These communities tend to be in urban areas, and in the rural areas around the world.

These initiatives were developed sometime around the mid to late 20th century, when the social ills of these communities were at an epidemic. It was discovered that a lot of the social ills that were being talked about in the news and in the newspapers could possibly be done away with, if there were programs that could teach people to help themselves. For example, if there are programs that could teach people how to read, and how to comprehend other forms of literacy, and if there were programs to teach people jobs skills, or to help people to go to college, then the residents in these underserved and impoverished communities might have a chance in life. Therefore, there were a lot of nonprofit organizations that developed, in order to teach people the necessary skills they needed to succeed in life. This way, they could overcome their plight in life, and move on to a better station in life.

Community Development involves many different types of career fields. There are social workers, politicians, community planners, and directors, as well as all sorts of industries that work together through various nonprofit organizations. These work together to help identify the needs of a particular community. Once these needs are identified, then these organizations band together to form foundations and other programs to help put their money back into the community. In other words, by investing in the lives of the people in the community, these organizations are in fact investing in the betterment of the community.



Many lives were able to be turned around because of the community development programs. These programs not only helped to teach skills to give people a fighting chance in life, but they also helped people realize their own personal accomplishments, as well as their development of pride and dignity. So not only do people learn life skills, but they also learn internal skills and resources that will help them overcome their plight in life, and to not accept a life of impoverishment. So, if a person is truly interested in this nonprofit career field, they should be ready to put in lot of work, but at the end of the day, they might find that this is a very were rewarding career field for them.