Daily Archives: January 30, 2021

The third of the five webinars for the series UNLAD: Para kanino? Talakayan ukol sa pagbubuo ng mga proyektong pang-kaunlaran ng komunidad, which was held through the Zoom platform and YouTube live reached more than ninety (90) participants. This webinar revolved around the topic of assessment and analysis of the needs and strengths of the community. Asst. Prof. Paul Edward Muego from the College of Social Welfare and Community Development started the discussion by emphasizing that, “mahalaga pag pinag-uusapan natin [ang] assessment at analysis of community needs and strengths ay dapat nakatuon ito sa pagkamit ng mga pangkalahatan at partikular na layunin ng people-centred development.” According to him, these objectives include promoting the welfare and well-being of the people, capacity building, strengthening communities’ participation in various organization efforts, promoting learning, increasing self-efficacy and confidence in self and community efforts, and lastly, assessment and analysis of needs and strengths should encourage fellowship. Assessing and analysing the needs and strengths of communities should not be disintegrated with the concept of community organizing, Prof Muego pointed out. Through community organizing, the organizers can collect data and information about the community which will reveal the needs and strengths of the community. He further highlighted that the organizers should only assist the people in doing such instead of imposing instructions to the community. He then proceeded in outlining the processes involved in participatory project development and management and made the participants know where assessment and analysis of needs and strengths come into play. He mentioned that knowledge of the needs and strengths of the community will aid in identifying which projects are feasible and should be implemented. Why do people need to play a major role in the assessment and analysis of needs and strengths? Sir Muego answered this by saying that it is to make sure that the needs and strengths came from the community itself. This will verify the identified needs and strengths because they came first hand from the people. Moreover, if the assessment and analysis are done by the community, their understanding of their lives and their situation will deepen and […]