Reflections

Just reflecting on my last post. Amongst the most important skills in community work is communication. If communication is not happening it can be the sign of a closed group. This can bring with it, on one hand, a strong sense of belonging but it can also mean that the group has become insular. The offshoot of this is often a distrust of anything new and a situation where new participants are shunned. It's a pretty negative place to be.

It's interesting to me that my difficulties in finding a particular community centre was seen a positive, in that the building didn't present itself as what one expects a community centre to look like. I had seen it as a negative in that anyone who was anxious about presenting themselves for the first time at the centre, would have this added difficulty.

In fact, it has interested me greatly recently that I am continuously asking what the important aspect of our learning is e.g. the Streets of Wexford project - is the most important aspect of this the completion of the task or is it the groups responsibility to each other to complete the task? Is the important aspect of our community work learning to set up and use a blog or positive interaction with people?

The unruly body needs looking after - I'll be back