Calling for a joint effort

Social work area in China is still in a backward position, let alone the efforts on community development. The lack of professional social workers and the overall low community participation lead to a poor image of community in China. Actually this concept was rarely brought up by people. Though for China there is still a long way to go in terms of community development, a joint effort should be made by two parties: the professional and non-professionals.

Local policy, demographic change, and outside investments all threw a growing variety of challenging issues to communities. As a result, the problem-solving capacity of a community must be created and put in motion. But who are considered to be responsible for solving the problems? When thinking about community development, people often rely on professionals. When it comes to community participation, a wider range of non-professionals, usually the community residents are expected to be involved  Both parties share equally important responsibilities in community development.

It is true that community problem-solving is about change and development, which relies heavily on professionals. Professionals can be managers, organizers, investors, educators, researchers, and more, working in communities to tackle important social problems and seize opportunities to promote change. They may get involved in a wide variety of community issues, such as housing, health care, education, environment, economic development, and public safety. They contribute to a comprehensive community change. For examples, community needs police to maintain order and enhance the public safety.

However, problem-solving is also a democratic process which needs the community participation with a broader population to be involved in and to contribute to the generation of ideas, decision making process and responsibility sharing. According to Richard Florida,"cities are not built from the top down, but from the organic, bottom-up, community-based efforts to strengthen and build on neighborhood assets." In this process, it is essential to engage non-professionals such as community residents, business owners, shop keepers, and local workers in the process of solving problem and making changes. Thus, the inclusion of a large number of non-professionals is necessary. Nicholas Lemann also pointed out that: "Bottom Up, Not Top Down. The people who know the most about the needs of poor neighborhoods are the residents; therefore, poverty programs should be designed and implemented by them, not imposed from above by mayors, members of Congress, social workers, intellectuals, Federal bureaucrats or other authority figures."

Thus, the development of the neighborhoods or community can not be entirely handed over to government or other professional developers. The engagement and enabling of local residents participate and build on community assets. The video shows the rebuild process of a neighborhood called Ravine Pintade in Haiti which was destroyed by the 2010 earthquake. The reconstruction project was based on a comprehensive and integrated planning process that involved experts, like architects and engineers, but also relied heavily on the participation of residents in the planning and decision-making required to rebuild the entire community. Now with the collaboration between the professionals and residents,  not only is the whole neighborhood living in better houses, also many of the problems they faced with inadequate water and sanitation have been addressed.