The importance of community development

This afternoon a specific Community Development field trip was organised for us by Trevor Hogan; it was at a childcare centre in the middle of the multi-cultural area of Sheffield. In my last blog post I said I was ok with the study tour being interdisciplinary; but I then realised that there was one course missing. Yes, it is very important to learn the history of the city, I have learnt a lot from this experience, and yes Community Development would have taken place along the way or the city wouldn’t be what it is now. But it was good to see a current project being implemented in an area that needs more support and education. This experience made me realise that there are universal issues, and my course so far, especially Julie Rudner’s class is giving me the knowledge and understanding that I need to better fulfil this role of enabling communities to be able to combat these issues.

This experience also made me realise that community development takes place everywhere, in every career, a person just needs to be passionate about a cause and be determined enough to believe they can create change. Knowing this now I am left in another predicament; which is trying to understand in my own head what I am passionate about and do I need to do further study to reach this goal? For me, this is the best thing about the organised field trips and study tours it puts everything for me back into perspective and makes me want find that that thing I am passionate about.

- Erin Smith (Bachelor of Community Development)