Signs and Sources of Organizational (or Community) Well-Being and Strategies to Enhance It, Research Paper Example

Introduction and Definition of Community of Interest

A community can be defined as a group of people sharing a locality and who share similar interests, a common government or may share ideologies that makes them distinct from the other segments of society. A community’s well-being or ill-being can make it live for many or a few generations. A sustainable community can live for generations in a healthy and prosperous economy with a vibrant state of being. A community’s well-being is also its state of welfare which is an evaluation of its quality of life. The community of interest in this research is based on the analysis of my neighborhood.

An Analysis of Signs of Wellbeing in My Neighborhood

Signs of wellbeing in my neighborhood can be described in various aspects of life. Among the issues to be discussed include: Social justice and equality, liberal awareness and movements, quality of education, Availability of health and social services, Economic prosperity, adequate housing, Proper sanitation and environmental safety, Building of community structures, Proper child care and family planning, Social cohesion and low levels of crime.

Social justice and equality has not been fairly achieved in levels of governance in community initiatives such as community groups since both gender has not been represented equally in community leadership. Gender roles have been rigid to changer since women representation has not gradually increased in the male-dominated leadership circles. Domestic violence is another test in which female-victims related violence has increased compared to a decade ago, more especially involving the young marriages that barely survive the first anniversary.  Social Justice over local disputes is poor due to corruption through bribery and favoritism among relations.

Liberal awareness has been narrowly achieved in churches but not much in the homes. There has been a divergent view on permitting liberal teachings in the social norms of the community which has met tough criticism from the conservative churches who feel responsible to preserve the moral authority of the community. Same-sex marriages and abortion are viewed negatively and there are no liberal movements for this cause that is often stigmatized. Divorce and separation are common so is remarriage and wife inheritance by the brothers of the deceased which is morally allowed. Awareness on HIV/AIDS is high and its stigma reduced due to the realities of the disease. Efforts have emerged to help and support widows and orphans which are both community initiatives.

The quality of education has been boosted by the government initiative to meet goals of free universal education. There has been equal opportunity provided for both girls and boys to education but follow up has lacked by parents and education authorities. As a result most resources aimed to benefit children have gone to waste. There have been efforts to promote health care by donors but progress has been halted by leaders indecision due to conflict of interest between community well being and political interest. The people can access one health centre for minor ailments but complicated procedures are referred to more advanced care centers.

Economic prosperity is unbalanced with majority poor and a few rich. The rich control 70% of the land resources while the poor control 20% and the rest is allocated government land for public infrastructure development. Most poor live on daily casual earnings which are meager compared to what the rich get from their labor. The type of housing depends on the economic position of a person, the well off live in better homes with spacious compounds while the poor live in shanties that are at risk in rainy seasons. There have been low environmental risk due to the rampant greening agenda but this may eventually collapse with dumping and poor waste disposal from the shanties. Extreme crime isn’t a bothering issue but other forms of crime are experienced (Isaac, 2008).

This community does not lack in the basics that form a normal life, but in essence it’s an unhealthy and poorly performing community since its generations cannot be sustained. As a result it ought to perform better by putting structures into place that will contribute to saving future generations and make a better survival for them.

Analysis of the Sources of Wellbeing in My Neighborhood

Among the sources of wellbeing include: Poverty, power, and people participation. Poverty can be described as a negative state of affairs economically that is influenced by limited access to resources and that promotes the ill being of a community. This neighborhood is poor since it lack in fair justice and has promoted inequality (Larry, 2007). The efforts of the awareness program seem futile due to the ever increasing cases of HIV and AIDS. Ignorance has increased despite the free universal education program which means the community will lead to high illiteracy levels if strict measures to learning are not enforced.

Poverty has also lead to inability to access better treatment where most sick people end up  dying before reaching the hospital due to impassability of roads and unavailability of close medical care. The mentally challenged who come from poor families end up without any professional care for all their lives unless medical campaigns are established for treatment of such people. Poverty has been generated by the imbalance between the rich and the poor due to the oppression of the poor with low wages by the rich. Lack of permanent and money generating assets has also contributed to poverty where all money is consumed with no future savings for a better life. Poor family planning has lead to escalation of poverty due to larger number of dependents compared to a constant wage that is against a growing economic crisis. Poverty has lead to crime levels increasing as a way of survival and in a way to compensate the oppression granted by the rich in wages.

A poor community is further oppressed by corruption where only the rich can survive to get their ends of justice sine they have the means of money to bribe for favors. Power in this community seems centered on patriarchs and the rich. Political power is found among men such that women are oppressed which has lead to a community short of justice and fairness. The rich poses economic power over resources which make them control the well being of this community where the ills of poverty are focused to the poor while they get the best for themselves out of them. Economic power makes the rich take their children to private schools where they receive keen observation while learning while the poor barely can afford. As a result , there is a revolving cycle of illiteracy since the community leadership is not committed the well being of the poor.

Local participation in decision making is poor and biased which has made its hard to put in lace structures that would transform the well being of this community. Otherwise the existing leadership does not seem committed to either the present or future generations well being.  Therefore the community’s trend is poor in dealing with the sources of ill being of the community. Other than women groups and church organizations that have consciously lead to responding to the aids menace, the civil leadership lacks decisive action to this and other issues. The values adopted by the community may not sustain it for long especially in family. Most young marriages have failed because of that pre dominant domestic violence that has become more notorious with the young generation. This inherited culture has done more damage than good to families. The wives inheriting customs has lost its importance since it has become a ground for the prevalent AIDS disease. This question the relevance of our tradition in today’s worlds challenges.

The group’s dynamics such as women groups, widow groups, orphan groups, and business groups’ agendas might have been hindered by existing status quo in the leadership and resource power. As a result, there has been little done to change at the eve of corruption and bribery among leaders and the rich (Isaac, 2006).

Strategies of Well Being In My Neighborhood

There are various strategies involved: programs to promote family well being, prevention and early intervention, value based partnerships and group dynamics. The program to promote family well being will help preserve the family institutions which is responsible for divorce and separation cases in the community. Proper family planning will promote better child care, reduced dependency ,better a quality of education, more basic wants will be satisfied, better housing, better sanitation and environmental care and promoting of a saving culture which can adequately cater for a better future.

Prevention strategies are better than collective strategies since the damage is avoided. There will be proper family planning from the start which will lead to better quality of life, education, housing, leisure, acquirement of assets and wealth. Collective strategies are such as better wages for casual laborers, building of institutions such as health facilities in schools, making of structural frameworks in leadership and economic development that will see a change of leadership. Incorporation of liberal awareness programs and movements, medical campaigns for the mentally challenged and disabled orphan groups, widow groups and groups for young people will help promote the quality of life for all groups of people even the minority groups.

In changing community conditions, a community should check its strengths and weaknesses. Partnership should involve common interest to be able to be committed to goals of this interest. The length and the intensity of the intervention should also be measured such as intervention to boost the number of children going to school under the free universal education should be done early to avoid a common culture of early school dropouts. Communities should also involve proactive and reactive interventions (Gautam, 2006).

In changing the state of leadership in the community’s civic and project positions, a community should first know the kind of leaders they require, those who are committed to goals and not self interest and as a result react by electing them to civic seats and project management positions. Post intervention measures and follow up measures are also important to see to it that implementation of these interventions is done. These are the final phases of intervention and are the most important to achieve desirable well being.

A young people based approach to providing jobs by the community will help them stay away from idleness and criminal activities and save the community from an unsustainable future generation. Incorporating and integrating all gender in decision making in community leadership will diversify views and help create an equal society where all groups are presented in both political and economic leadership for the well being of the community. Development of infrastructure such as roads and hospitals will increase access to health facilities and other important places such as markets to sell produce and a result empower the community economically. This will create a healthy and prosperous community.

Conclusion

Lesson Learnt on My Neighborhood as a Community of Interest

In spite of the community’s well –being blamed on the leadership of the community, the community members might have played a passive role to see any change take place. Their inability to change the status quo has lead to their continued oppression and poverty. There has lacked change agents to champion the cause of the poor and the sick especially the mentally challenged. Most people seem to have general apathy for the situation since the ill being of these community affect them directly such as low wages given to casual laborers but seem helpless to act.

Some other people are affected and have taken steps to change the situation such as the women groups, the widow groups and orphans. These groups mostly serve for emotional and moral support but there is a tendency to shy away from the more serous economic issues affecting them (Allan, 2009). This is because they would not use aggressive means to reach their goals such as boycotting low wages. For many reasons portrayed in the analysis of this community, the researcher thinks that this society ought to take a cognitive step towards its problems to be able to sustain its generations and should therefore think in light of positive change.

Lessons of Well Being in General

The well being of society depends on the affective behavioral and cognitive steps of change through which community change will be realized. Affective steps to change depend on realizing the problem and how it affects the society. Behavioral step to change depends on how we do toward the problem and the reaction towards its consequences. The cognitive step to change is the forward step to change the situation put in place by the problem. This focuses on hoe we think and how this affects our actions to realize change. An ill fated society lack the change agents who should take these steps and therefore remain glued to the status quo and seem helpless to determine the fate of its generations.

Poor leadership, unfair allocation of resources and poor quality of education leads to a cycle of poverty to which a community remains in, revolving around for generations. On the other hand, proper leadership, equitable allocation of resources and quality education will lead to a sustainable community that will live for generations enjoying quality life. If these things are tackled, issues such as poor housing, improper sanitation, poor environmental sustainability, improper roads and infrastructure, improper health care, high dependency ratio and poor family planning problems will not be a burden to society and as a result, a community will achieve its maximum well being

Lessons of Theory and Research

Theory tends to validate or disapprove research and in most cases, proper theoretical framework tends to agree with field research. In our case study my neighborhood, the theory that poverty correlates positively with crime has been proved true by the evidence of high rate of normal crime. The theory that poor leadership lead to improper allocation of resources has been proved right by the fact that there is rampant corruption and bribery in these community with an aim to scramble for the limited land resources. This has lead to a large number of squatters and landless despite the rich minority owning large tracks of land. The theory that poor family planning correlate with poverty has been proved right by the fact that there is high dependency ratio over the constant wage rate among the casual laborer who have large number of families. Therefore the theory that the rich tend to have few children while the poor are pre occupied with many children is true. Therefore theory validates research and vice versa.

References

Allan M. (2009), Community Well being and Public Welfare, India, Xlibris Corporation

Gautam Raj (2006), Shaping Organizational Strategies, US, Sage Publications (ca)

Isaac Prilleltenskey(2006), Promoting Child and Family Well-Being by Linking Personal, Organizational, and Community Well-Being, retrieved November 23, 2009 from www.educaton.miami.edu/isaac

Larry Coben (2007), Strategies for Community Well Being, US, Jossey-Bass Publishers