For a professional to be in a better position to help community members, he or she has to form meaningful relationships with the people he is willing to offer help. Building relationships will make it easy to assess and understand the needs or problems faced by community members. Relationships create attachment and community members can open up and discuss their issues at ease without fear of being ridiculed. Having meaningful contacts is also beneficial and comes in handy when solving community problems. For example; when trying to solve drug addiction among youths in the community, valuable connections that are helpful solving this problem include; contacts for rehabilitation centers, education centers that create awareness on dangers of health abuse, and contacts to health facilities (Reisch, 2016). Corey and Corey in their book "Becoming a Helper", and Homan in his book "Making it Happen in the Real World" suggest the possession of specific skills and knowledge for an individual to provide meaningful help in the society.
Corey and Corey suggest that for a helper to efficiently provide help to others, he or she has to know thyself by undergoing self-exploration. The helper should have self-understanding of the life experiences he or she has gone through (Corey & Corey, 2015). The helper can, therefore, draw essential lessons from his own life experiences to enable him or she understands and solve a diverse range of community problems. Corey and Corey also suggest that for a helper to develop a healthy relationship, he or she should not be respectful and non-judgmental towards the people they interact with (Egan, 2013). Support the choice value of others even when they differ from the helper's values will help in forging strong, meaningful relationships. Homan suggests that to bring significant change, community members have to be involved and motivated to participate in activities that improve community conditions (Reisch, 2016). Homan further suggests that to promote community change, individuals have to forge professional contacts with charity organizations and relevant government authorities. Professional contacts help in mobilizing funds through fundraising and assist in building an organized changed effort in the community.
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References
Corey, M. S., & Corey, G. (2015). Becoming a helper . Cengage Learning.
Egan, G. (2013). The skilled helper: A problem-management and opportunity-development approach to helping . Cengage Learning.
Reisch, M. (2016). Why macro practice matters. Journal of Social Work Education , 52 (3), 258-268.
