Introduction to Community

 The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:

• Respecting diversity, self-determination, and analyzing power relations in community are integral for working towards social, economic, and environmental justice.
• Exploring and reflecting on one’s own experience as a member of a community is fundamental to understanding socialization and respecting other experiences and perspectives.
• Communities have many resources. Through collaborative work, communities have power, the capacity to effect change, and the ability to take care of their own members. 
• Critical thinking and the clear effective articulation of ideas in a variety of formats and settings are essential to effective practice and community involvement.
• In addition to knowing the standards of practice or the expectations of one’s employers, practitioners need to continually examine their own beliefs and value systems to understand how they shape professional practice. 
• Professional practice requires an understanding of ethical principles and their application to decisions and actions taken.  Ethical decision making requires continual reflection, self-examination, and ongoing values clarification.
• By making a commitment to become active, ethical practitioners, human service workers can contribute to the development of healthy communities.
• Critically examining the history of the social service field and service delivery is necessary to understand what has been, what is, and what is possible.