Die ontwerp van 'n gemeenskapsontwikkelingsmodel: 'n maatskaplikewerk-perspektief

English: Although at present community development enjoys high priority in South Africa for the purpose of developing especially disadvantaged communities, upliftrnent of communities has occurred since the early years of origin of the present South African communities. In an important policy document the ANC, which has formed the majority government since 1994, drafted the RDP, a programme that amounts to all sectors, but especially the welfare sector, having to give high priority to the development of disadvantaged communities Various welfare and government organisations joined the action actively and several community development actions were launched. Gradually the sustainability of the programme came to be doubted increasingly. The need for a scientifically well-founded community development model came tot the fore increasingly. Against the background of the constructivist and constructionist epistemolgy, this study attempted to find a strategy that can serve as a basis for a community development model. The narrative method proved to be a useful strategy for entering (accessing) communities efficiently and involving them in the process of community development. By proceeding from a position of not knowing, one can approach culturally divers communities as experts on their own particular circumstances. This creates a milieu in which the members of communities are increasingly empowered to accept responsibility for their own sustainable development. By means of the narrative method, the members of a community are afforded an opportunity to expression to their narratives and then externalise the problem-dominated themes, thus obtaining greater control over them. Gradually unique outcomes are identified in the stories of community members, which serve as a basis for the development of new narratives. The new stories usually imply specific actions that promote the solution of the problem. By means of definitional ceremonies, new narratives are confirmed by witnesses. This should lead to community members increasingly living according to the new narratives, thus rewriting and gradually enriching the stories of their lives. In addition community members are also afforded an opportunity, by means of remembering conversations, to rearrange persons, organisations or even events in order to bestow greater prominence in their lives on those persons and events that support the rounding out of the new narratives. In the process of community development, the social worker also develops new narratives; her life is affected by the circumstances and actions of the community. By means of repossession actions (taking-it-back practices), the contribution made by the community to the life of the social worker is acknowledged and appreciated. The result is that the life of the social worker is also defined in a richer manner. By means of participatory action research members of the community are increasingly recruited as participants and thus they become involved in the total process of community development. Participatory action research becomes a useful method for involving members of the community as participants in research concerning their own circumstances. The process of participatory action research becomes so entwined with the process of community development that this form of research becomes, as it were, a method of sustainable development. It appears that the narrative method offers a usable working method for the implementation of participatory action research. In order to use participatory action research efficiently, the researcher should be able to apply the narrative method. The initiation of community development in a culturally divers community demands special sensitivity to the dynamics of the community and should be implemented with great care. It also appears that if researchers and/or community developers, as team, are representative of the culture and language groupings, this facilitates efficient access to the community. The result is the successful launching and implementation of sustainable community development.