Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T06:15:33.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Building community capacity for children, youth and families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Robert J. Chaskin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Communities have long been seen as of central importance to individuals and families, and as critical lever for change. In recent years, the emphasis on community as an organizing principle to address a range of social problems and developmental needs of children and families has been increasing. This paper explores the question of why community is important for children and families, what communities can provide for their well-being, and how they might be strengthened. It outlines some of the reasons behind the interest in community as a locus for policy and practice, explores the idea of ‘community capacity’ and how to build it, and distills the principal strategies used by contemporary efforts to build capacity in disadvantaged communities. Finally, it examines both the promise and the limitations of a community capacity framework as an orientation toward social change and as an approach for addressing the needs of disadvantaged children and families.

Keywords

communitycommunity capacitycommunity buildingsocial capitalcommunity organizing
Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , 2009 , pp. 31 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aber, J.L., Gephart, M.A., Brooks-Gunn, J. & Connell, J.P. (1997) ‘Development in Context: Implications for Studying Neighborhood Effects’, in J. Brooks-Gunn, , Duncan, G.J. and Aber, J.L. (eds.), Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Ahlbrandt, R.S. (1984) Neighborhoods, People and Communities, New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Blythe, D.A. Leffert, N. (1995) ‘Communities as Contexts for Adolescent Development’, Journal of Adolescent Research, 10(1):64–87.Google Scholar
Brody, G.H., Ge, X., Conger, R., Gibbons, F.X., Murray, V.M., Gerrard, M. & Simons, R.L. (2001) ‘The Influence of Neighborhood Disadvantage, Collective Soicalization, and Parenting on African American Children's Affiliation with Deviant Peers’, Child Development, 72(4): 1231–1246.Google Scholar
Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G.J., Klebanov, P.K. & Sealand, N. (1993) ‘Do Neighborhoods Influence Child and Adolescent Development?’, American Journal of Sociology, 99(2):353–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G.J. & Aber, J.L. (eds.) (1997) Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Campbell, K.E. & Lee, B.A. (1992) ‘Sources of Personal Neighbor Networks: Social Integration, Need or Time?’, Social Forces, 70(4):1077–1100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaskin, R.J. (2008) ‘Resilience, Community, and Resilient Communities: Conditioning Contexts and Collective Action’, Child Care in Practice, 14(1): 65–74.Google Scholar
Chaskin, R.J. (2006) ‘Family Support as Community-Based Practice: Considering a Community Capacity Framework for Family Support Provision’, in Dolan, P., Canavan, J. and Pinkerton, J. (eds.), Family Support as Reflective Practice, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Chaskin, R.J. (2001) ‘Building Community Capacity: A Definitional Framework and Case Studies from a Comprehensive Community Initiative’, Urban Affairs Review, 36(3): 292–323.Google Scholar
Chaskin, R.J., Brown, P., Venkatesh, S. & Vidal, A. (2001) Building Community Capacity, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. (1988) ‘Social Capital in the Development of Human Capital’, American Journal of Sociology, 94(Supplement):95–120.Google Scholar
Coulton, C.J., Korbin, J., Su, M. & Chow, J. (1995) ‘Community Level Factors and Child Maltreatment Rates’, Child Development, 66:1262–1276.Google Scholar
Coulton, C. J. & Pandey, S. (1992) ‘Geographic Concentration of Poverty and Risk to Children in Urban Neighborhoods’, American Behavioral Scientist, 35(3):238–257.Google Scholar
Crane, J. (1991) ‘Effects of Neighborhoods on Dropping Out of School and Teenage Childbearing’, in Jencks, C. and Peterson, P. (eds.), The Urban Underclass, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Furstenberg, F.F., Cook, T.D., Eccles, J., Elder, G.H. Jr. & Sameroff, A. (1999) Managing to Make It: Urban Families and Adolescent Success, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Garbarino, J. (1992) Children and Families in the Social Environment, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Garbarino, J. & Crouter, A.C. (1978) ‘Defining the Community Context of Parent-Child Relations’, Child Development, 49:604–616.Google Scholar
Gephardt, M.A. (1997) ‘Neighborhoods and Communities as Contexts for Development’, in Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G.J. and Aber, J.L. (eds.), Neighborhood Poverty. Context and Consequences for Children, Volume I, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. (1973) ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, American Journal of Sociology, 78: 1360–80.Google Scholar
Lee, B.A., Campbell, K.E. & Miller, O. (1991) ‘Racial difference in Urban Neighboring’, Sociological Forum, 6(3):525–550.Google Scholar
McMillian, D.W. & Chavis, D.M. (1986) ‘Sense of community: A definition and theory’, Journal of Community Psychology, 14:6–23.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Rankin, B.H. & Quane, J.M. (2002) ‘Social Contexts and Urban Adolescent Outcomes: The Interrelated Effects of Neighborhoods, Families, and Peers on African-American Youth’, Social Problems, 49(1):79–100.Google Scholar
Saegert, S., Thompson, J.P. & Warren, M.R. (2001) Social Capital and Poor Communities, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Sampson, R.J. (1999) ‘What ‘Community’ Supplies’, in Ferguson, R. & Dickens, T. (eds.), Urban Problems and Community Development, (pp. 241–292), Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Sampson, R.J. (2001) ‘Crime and Public Safety: Insights from Community-Level Perspectives on Social Capital’, in Saegert, S., Thompson, J.P. and Warren, M.R. (eds.), Social Capital and Poor Communities, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Sampson, R.J. & Groves, W.B. (1989) ‘Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory’, American Journal of Sociology, 94(4):774–802.Google Scholar
Sampson, R.J., Morenoff, J.D. & Earls, F. (1999) ‘Beyond social capital: Spatial dynamics of collective efficacy for children’, American Sociological Review, 64(5):633–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sampson, R.J., Morenoff, J.D. & Gannon-Rowley, T. (2002) ‘Assessing “Neighborhood Effects”: Social Processes and New Directions in Research’, Annual Review of Sociology, 28:443–478.Google Scholar
Warren, M.R. (2001) Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, W.J. (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar