Chapter Highlights:

• Perspectives on Community
• Geographic and Interest communities
• Community subsystems
• Close communities
• Benefit, action and target communities
• Peripheral community
• Basic community characteristics
• Sources of community capital: environmental, physical, economic, human, political, informational, spiritual, cultural and social
• Unmet community needs
• Dangers of needs assessments
• Identifying and valuing community assets
• Participatory action research
• Community readiness for change
• Five stages of community life
• The many resources of the library
• Organizations and individuals as sources of information
• The value of lists
• Newspapers are more than just news
• Using your eyes and ears as research tools

Full chapter: ch 5 Knowing your Community

Reference: Chapter 5 Knowing your community pp 96-108 in Homan, M. (2008) Promoting community change:making it happen in the real world. Brooks/Cole Belmont, CA