Religious groups play both upfront and behind-the-scenes roles in community and leadership development.
| DISCIPLINES: • Community Development • Community Building |
Community and leadership development: Many religions place value on community, inter-connectedness and cooperation. Religious leaders can be rallying forces for neighborhood change, be outspoken for and against development issues, and may parlay their religious leadership skills and support into political or community leadership. Similarly, community and political leaders may be guided in their decision-making and policy by their religious beliefs.
Local involvement: Understanding the religious climate of your community and the resources religious groups can provide may aid in community decision making and sound policy choices. Effective community development and building rely on understanding economic and social patterns, which may be related to religion. Religious groups may be aware of community needs as far as poverty or resources due to outreach to underserved communities.
Many local activists based in churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious affiliations work to improve neighborhoods, cities and individuals’ lives. Known as faith-based or congregation-based community organizing, such groups often partner with secular organizers, unions and civic and neighborhood groups. Some use aggressive tactics and are highly political, yet most are nonpartisan. Experts say that in 2000, at least 3,500 congregations and 500 union locals, public schools, PTAs and neighborhood groups worked on issues including jobs, public safety, schools, housing and access to health care. Researchers say most American cities have at least one of these networks, which provide training and support and help set local agendas. One of the largest, California-based Pacific Institute for Community Organizing has affiliates pushing 50 projects in 150 cities in 16 states, involving an estimated 1,000 congregations and a million families.
Cooperation: Speaking with religious groups about a community’s needs can be used in addition to traditional approaches, such as designing economic models, demographic analysis, mapping, fiscal analysis, technological adoption and other tools. People of faith often enjoy engaging in public conversation, critiquing prevailing norms and cooperatively imagining a community future. Working with religious individuals and networks, understanding their resources, and being aware of religious demographics is useful when trying to strengthen community-based groups and nonprofits, or foster local entrepreneurship and business growth.
Religious groups can also be helpful when developing community emergency management programs. Many groups have response systems in place to help others in case of emergency. Faiths such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) hold self-reliance as a spiritual tenet, believing that preparing for the future dispels fear. Individuals and families are urged to prepare for emergencies spiritually, financially, by storing a year’s supply of food, and having basic emergency and first-aid supplies available.