1. Citizen Participation & Empowerment Chapter 12 Fall 20101

2. 2 Why have you gotten involved in the past?

3. 3 Citizen Participation Themes Fall 20103 1. Participation in community decision-making 2. Citizen Empowerment 3. Participation & empowerment are related to Sense of Community

4. Citizen Participation Fall 20104  “A process in which individuals take part in decision-making in the institutions, programs, & environments that affect them” (text, p. 402)  Participation/Efficiency Balance

5. Participation: The Means-Ends Distinction Fall 20105  Means: way of improving community conditions  Commitment to a decision/outcome is greater if you have participated in it  Ends: essential quality of democracy  Its own reward

6. Empowerment Fall 20106  “An intentional, ongoing process centered in the local community, involving mutual respect, caring, & group participation, through which people lacking an equal share of resources gain greater access to & control over those resources.”  Accomplished with others, not alone

7. Qualities of Empowerment Fall 20107 1. Multilevel Ecological Construct Individuals: personal sense of efficacy Organizations Empowered Orgs: know how to create changes in community Empowering Orgs: know how to empower people in org Communities: competent community 2. Levels are Independent feeling empowered ≠ being empowered 3. Bottom Up Approach

8. Contrasting Empowerment & Prevention Fall 20108  Rappaport’s (1981) Distinction: Needs Perspective (prevention) vs. Rights Perspective (empowerment)  Different Origins  Needs perspective from helping professionals  Rights perspective from activists, perspective from activists, community organizers

9. Characteristics of Needs Perspective Fall 20109 1. Professional as expert 2. Clients lack competence which they need 3. Risk factors are in the individual 4. Programs developed in one context can be transported across contexts 5. Organizations & communities are sites where intervention occurs, not objects of intervention

10. Characteristics of Rights Perspective Fall 201010  Focus on what rights people have to control their lives  Collaborating with people rather than being expert  Assuming people have competencies but lack environmental opportunities to develop them  Risk factors are in environment  Programs need to be developed locally to be responsive to local situation  Organizations & communities are object of intervention

11. Power: Brief Review Fall 201011  Involves ability to affect external events/ forces/ decisions  Best understood as aspect of relationships or interrelationships (can be resisted as well as acquiesced to)  Contextual: may have power in some situations/ roles & not others

12. Power’s Multiple Forms Fall 201012 1. Types of Power  Power Over - capacity to dominate others  Power To - ability for self-direction to pursue goals  Power From - ability to resist power exerted by others 2. Integrative Power: capacity to build groups, bind people together, & inspire loyalty (“people power”) (e.g., Ghandi)

13. Power Fall 201013  Reward Power —controlling valued rewards that can be used to shape others’ behavior  Coercive Power —capacity to punish  Legitimate Power —based on role/position of one over another  Expert Power —based on knowledge/skill  Referent Power —based on interpersonal connection or a shared social identity

14. Participation in Neighborhood Orgs & Sense of Community Fall 201014  Neighborhood organizations as mediators between citizens & higher-ups  Mediators are go-betweens/ liaisons  Citizen participation ranges from attending meetings to holding leadership positions

15. How Community Orgs Empower Members Fall 201015 Empowering (member influence) vs. Empowered Orgs (community influence)

16. Qualities of Empowering Orgs Fall 201016 1. Solidarity  Group-based, strengths-based belief system  Social Support  Shared, Inspiring Leadership 2. Member Participation  Participatory Niches, Opportunity Role Structures  Task Focus  Participatory rewards for volunteers who make the org possible  Promoting diversity  Fostering intergroup collaboration

17. Dilemmas in Creating Empowering Orgs Fall 201017  Challenge of success  Growth/Resources affect initial sense of mission/solidarity  Paradox of empowerment  Can one group empower another?  Can old social regularities be overcome?  HSC experience

18. Fall 201018