Book Description

Improve decision-making skills for community organizations and their leaders—from a participatory perspective! This book will show you how (and why) participatory communities come into being and what they can accomplish, regardless of the current political climate. It also examines leadership—and the skills community leaders need to develop to be most effective. You’ll find ethnographic and psychosocial perspectives on the relationship between families and community organizations, leadership interventions designed to facilitate more effective decision-making, and more—all from organizations making a very real difference in a country that has had a strong community work tradition since the 1960s. This book presents an essential overview of the dynamics of urban low-income communities in Venezuela. With examples drawn from organizations designed to help a population that has been neglected by its government, Leadership and Organization for Community Prevention and Intervention in Venezuela is a unique source of inspiration and practical know-how. The intensive training workshops and restructuring projects documented in this book have proven to be positive and effective tools, strengthening Venezuelan communities despite the political unrest that has plagued the country. In Leadership and Organization for Community Prevention and Intervention in Venezuela, you’ll learn how community organizations are: providing shelter for people displaced by natural disasters providing essential services when the government can’t—or won’t establishing community leadership roles—and helping community leaders to work more effectively transforming the perspectives of community leaders—from narcissistic to altruistic and much more! With this book, you’ll examine the interaction between community organization and leadership—using the liberating, dialogic, reflective, and conscientization approach developed by Latin American community psychology. The book’s approach is grounded and realistic. It highlights the outcomes of the authors’ participatory research and action in urban Venezuelan communities, focusing on organization, participation, modes of leadership, decision-making and meta-decision-making, the moral development—and moral dilemmas—of community leaders, and the interrelationship between family systems and community in Venezuela.