Community-based Organizations
as a Catalyst of Social Processes
Arūnas Poviliūnas
Number of Community-based
Organizations
2000
1800
1800
1600
1400
1300
1368
1200
1200
1000
837
800
600
400
300
200
0
3
1995
2002
2004
2005
2006
2008
2011
Why the Movement?
• Community-based organizations have a clear aim.
• Community-based organizations are concentrated
in the relatively uniform and tangled networks of
organizations.
• The participants of community centers share a
common understanding and values.
The Factors of Communitybased Organizations’
Movement
1. A constructive response to the social
exclusion of the rural communities
2. “The effect of epidemic”
3. Expectations
regarding
the
support
opportunities of EU Structural Funds
(LEADER+, previously EQUAL)
Average of the Monthly Disposable
Income of a Household Member in
2001-2008
Generalization of the
Community-based
Organizations’ Activities
1. Mobilization of local community – 60-80%.
2. The organization of cultural and educational
activity – 40-50%.
3. Activities in the field of social services – 20-30%.
4. Business initiatives – 9%.
The Development Model elements
of Community-based
Organizations
• INSTITUTIONS
– The common living together rules of society or
community that can be either formal or informal
• ORGANIZATIONS
– It is a group of individuals united for a common aim
(economic, political, social and etc. organizations).
I stage – Local Community
Coalitions
• Institutional changes
– No institutional conflicts;
– Fixation of social exclusion and the importance of public sphere;
– The movement from marginalized rural community towards
an active and inclusive rural community.
• Organizational changes
– In towns and villages establishes the first community –based
organizations;
– Concentration of towns’ communities (community celebrations,
threshing and etc.).
How do the balninkiečiai spend their
leisure time and how would they like to
spend it?
Eiti į kavinę/barą
Dalyvauti saviveikloje
Bendrauti su kaim ynais ir draugais
Užsiim ti savo pom ėgiais (m ezgim u, žvejyba)
Skaityti spaudą/knygas
Tvarkyti nam ų aplinką
Bendrauti su šeim a, vaikais
Žiūrėti TV
Dirbti ūkio/nam ų ruošos darbus
0%
10%
20%
Tenka leisti
30%
Norėtų leisti
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
II stage – Community Center as a
Cultural Organizer
• Institutional changes
– Conflict with the concept of culture that is organized by the top
down principle;
– Formation of cultural activities involving network;
– What is culture? From the providing to the involving concept
of cultural activity.
• Organizational changes
– Community-based organizations are strengthening, develop the
networks of community-based organizations;
– Organizations focus on involving cultural activity, originates
educational and self-educational circles.
Scheme of Providing Cultural
Model
Oficialiosios kultūros monopolija
Centro ir periferijos problema
Kultūros laukui būdingas fasadiškumas ir rituališkumas
Kultūros įstaigų darbuotojai sudaro oficialiosios kultūros elitą,
kuris kontroliuoja tiekiamosios kultūros lauką
Oficialioji kultūra užgožia kitas iniciatyvas ir tai,
kas nepriskiriama oficialiajai kultūrai, nėra laikoma kultūra
III stage – Attempts to Provide Social
Services
• Institutional changes
– Conflict with institutionalized and separating system of social
services;
– Involving network of social services;
– Movement from institutionalized system of social services to the
model of social community services .
– Deinstitutionalization of general social services, especially for
elder people.
• Organizational changes
– The strengthening of community-based organizations and its
networks;
– Community-based organizations need to acquire new skills that
are needed in the provision of social services.
IV stage – the Beginning of Economic
Cooperation?
• Institutional changes
– Conflict with monopolistic business;
– The acknowledgement of alternative business and other various
forms of funs;
– From the stereotypical business and entrepreneurial concepts
toward broader concept of business that includes social business
and social entrepreneurship.
• Organizational changes
– Diversification of community activities; alternative networks of civil
participation;
– Alternative food networks, farmers’ markets , “Sūrininkų namai”
and etc.
The Movement Stages of
Community-based Organizations
Ekonominė veikla, kooperacija
Socialinių paslaugų teikimas
Kultūrinės veiklos plėtra, bendruomenės narių švietimas
Bendruomenės telkimas ir viešosios erdvės plėtra
Pirmosios
organizacijos
Pirmieji
veiklos metai
Organizacijų
bumas
2 – 3 veiklos
metai
Organizacijų ir
tinklų
sustiprėjimas
Alternatyvios
organizacijos
ir tinklai
3 – 4 veiklos
metai
4-6 veiklos
metai
Important
• The Movement of communities is integral and
multidimensional process
• Communities are connected with various ministries (The
Ministry of Agriculture, The Ministry of Social Security and
Labor, The Ministry of Culture, The Ministry of Economy,
The Ministry of the Interior, The Ministry of Education and
Science and etc.)
• In order to use the energy of the movement of
communities, the government should deinstitutionalize
itself.
The Social Economy Sector
Includes:
• Community-based organizations (usually a small space and
small community-based organizations, modest funding and
depends on voluntary activities);
• Voluntary organizations (has its own rules, do not depend
on government, self-governing, non-profit, participate many
volunteers);
• Social enterprise (these are business companies that raise
the social objectives for itself, and the received profit is
invested in the more effective activity that seeks for social
objectives.
Social Economy
(European Union)
• Includes cooperatives, mutual assistance organizations,
non-profit organizations, various support and charitable
founds and social enterprises.
• Experts calculate that in the social economy sector
– operate around 2 million companies (around 10 per cent of all
companies in EU),
– Provides around 11 million workplaces (6 per cent of all
workplaces in EU, 70 per cent of it include non-profit
associations, 26 per cent cooperatives and 3 per cent mutual
assistance organizations);
– The number of people who are concerned with the service of this
sector is up to 160 millions.
Thank You for
Your attention