Why is community capacity building important?

There are three main reasons why community capacity building matters:

• First, and most importantly, it is the way in which communities can work to improve their quality of life by taking up issues and opportunities that matter to them.
• Secondly, it is an important part of shifting from a passive, blaming culture to one of activity, integration and shared endeavour.
• Thirdly, government policy encourages community engagement across a wide range of policy areas, but this needs to be underpinned by taking steps to ensure that communities have the capacity to engage.

It matters to communities

People in communities, and in particular people in excluded or disadvantaged communities, often experience challenges that they wish to overcome, or may recognise that there are gaps in provision that they want something done about. Some examples are:

• a group of young people who realise there is no safe space in a neighbourhood for them to meet
• a tenants association that is opposed to proposals to change their terms of tenancy drawn up
• a group of migrant labourers being exploited and needing to understand their rights and how to best communicate their grievances.

It matters to society

Most of us want to live in a society that is safe, caring, inclusive, respectful, and in which we feel valued. Many people want to work towards such a society, by learning from each other, by making connections to others, through volunteering or by seeking change.

Community capacity building is one of the three national priorities for CLD. The WALT guidance links the community capacity building function to the wider purpose of CLD within community planning 'as a key tool in delivering our commitment to social justice'.

Community capacity building is a necessary feature of participatory governance and strong civil society, but it is generally acknowledged that work in the area needs to be more focused, and that more resources should be directed towards it.