Community Capacity Building as a Strategy of Family Violence Prevention in a Problem Stricken Community: A Theoretical Formulation

• NCJ Number: 228681
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 24 Issue: 8 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 559-568
• Author(s): Yuk-chung Chan; Gladys L.T. Lam; Howard C.H. Cheng
• Date Published: November 2009
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Using an ecological perspective, this study examined problems confronting families in a multi-problem community in the Tin Shui Wai (TSW) community in Hong Kong, with attention to the government's existing approach to countering family violence in TSW, followed by a discussion of the rationale and features of the recommended community capacity-building model for addressing family violence.

Abstract

TSW is composed of a large number of socially isolated, poverty-stricken, and stressed families that have been neglected as a result of poor social planning. The government's current approach for family-violence prevention in TSW has two key features. First, the emphasis is on community building. Consistent efforts are made to develop TSW as a caring community. Second, efforts have been made to improve existing collaboration among various professional groups in handling family violence cases. This has involved the development of new interdisciplinary and multiagency cooperation. The rationale underlying this approach is that family violence can be reduced through successful community-building and improved multiagency collaboration in the handling of family-violence cases. This effort, however, has mainly involved government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and other publicly funded organizations such as schools and health agencies. The emphasis is on a top-down approach that has relatively neglected the involvement of local residents and grassroots agencies that are the key to building community capacity. Chaskin (2001) identified four characteristics of community capacity that should have priority in TSW. These are the development of shared social norms and values that reject all forms of violence; the cultivation of residents' and local organizations' commitment to the development of a consensus that family violence is a problem that must be addressed by the entire community; the development of an action plan; and facilitation of families' access to community resources. 1 table and 51 references