Skills in Neighbourhood Work is a practice textbook. It explains the skills, knowledge and techniques needed by community workers and other practitioners to work effectively in and with communities. While the principles and methods it describes have stood the test of time, the political, economic and social changes which have taken place since the book was first published have made a new edition essential. Completely rewritten and updated, the third edition retains all the practical information needed by the student or practitioner but sets it in the contemporary context. It includes a European perspective and views from America and Australia.
Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1(2) Key concepts 3(6) Changing context 9(8) The importance of the neighbourhood 17(2) The poverty of neighbourhood theory 19(1) Defining community capability 20(4) Some ideas around which the book is organised 24(11) Dealing with isolation 25(1) Neighbourhood work 25(2) Seeing neighbourhood work as a process 27(4) A work book 31(4) Entering the neighbourhood 35(18) Thinking about going in 35(7) Negotiating entry 42(11) Getting to know the neighbourhood 53(28) Why collect data? 53(2) What do I need to know? 55(9) How do I go about data collection? 64(15) Conclusions 79(2) What next? Needs, goals and roles 81(23) Assessing the nature of problems and issues 82(5) Setting goals and priorities 87(3) Deciding on role predisposition 90(12) Specifying the next moves 102(1) Summary 103(1) Making contacts and bringing people together 104(29) Making contact: but for what reasons? 108(4) The process of making contact 112(5) Ways of making contact 117(14) Conclusions 131(2) Forming and building organisations 133(33) From group to organisation 134(6) Forming an organisation 140(12) Building an organisation 152(11) Public meetings 163(3) Helping to clarify goals and priorities 166(15) Clarifying goals 167(5) Identifying priorities 172(4) Issues for the worker 176(5) Keeping the organisation going 181(19) Providing resources and information 187(3) Being supportive 190(1) Co-ordinating help 191(2) Planning 193(2) Developing confidence and competence 195(5) Dealing with friends and enemies 200(22) Identifying and negotiating with decision-makers 201(7) Relating to other groups and organisations in the community 208(5) Constituency and the general public 213(1) A social policy perspective 214(2) Learning to administer and provide services 216(6) Leavings and endings 222(21) A comment on evaluation 223(3) Types of endings in neighbourhood work 226(6) The experience of endings 232(3) The tasks involved in endings 235(7) Conclusions 242(1) Appendix: Community auditing as a community development process 243(19) Ruth Stewart Introduction 243(1) A people-centred process 244(1) The audit group 245(1) Planning and preparation 246(1) Methodology 246(1) Secondary data 247(1) Fieldwork 248(1) Survey 249(3) Presentation of results 252(2) Community auditing in practice - a model 254(7) Action planning 261(1) Websites 262(2) Bibliography 264(6) Index 270
