ABSTRACT
Identification of the individual with the group is a key element of community that has two important implications. First, through identification, the community becomes a part of who individuals think they are, and thus the mechanism by which the first person plural is a correct grammatical form. Second, it is through identification that individuals accept community contingencies as their own. An important part of any community is the range of feelings of its members about their membership. Newspaper, radio, and television stories could be designed to increase knowledge about the history and current resources of the community as well as its problems. Such communicative strategies can result in increasing feelings of commitment and responsibility to a community. These are important resources for community-centered practice. Community-centered practice depends on a conception of community that can hold diverse individuals together in relations of mutual obligation, even in the face of gross inefficiencies and disutilities.
