On Churches, Management and Community Development

Some years before I discovered Citizens' Organising, I attended a seminar about American Community Development Corporations (CDCs).  This must have been in the late 1980s, before Community Development Trusts (CDTs) became well known in this country.

The CDCs were designed to focus on the finance of local regeneration through building up local assets, in contrast to organising's emphasis on relationships between people.  However, there was a strong relationship component which illustrates some of the cultural differences between Britain and the US.

I remember the speakers' assertion that whilst those in attendance at the seminar in Britain were community development professionals, in the States it would be the community activists and representatives of the funding foundations.  The paid community workers were more likely to be back at the CDC doing the admin!

The activists in the States took responsibility and did not hand it over to professionals.  Also their primary relationships were with the private sector, not local government.  In Britain paid professionals, provided usually by local government or the churches, are instrumental in raising funds by building relationships with statutory agencies. 

In the States, private companies set up charitable foundations which relate directly to local activists.

Two conjectures:

1. I am sure that US local activists learned their skills through the churches, through organising or similar activities.  This is why so many community development approaches show evidence of gospel values.  Once again we see the possibility of the Christian faith influencing change well beyond the formal reach of the churches.
2. The mixing of local activists and the private sector has resulted in a degree of mutual exchange of methods so many management approaches these days also reflect community development values.

I don't have a lot of evidence for these conjectures - maybe somebody has and will point me in the direction of it - but what I have experienced of radical theology, community development and management theory suggests the linkages are real.

This in no way denies the contribution of traditions other than Christianity but it is to suggest these linkages are significant and real.