ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the issues that have emerged in our discussion of community work practice in the Southwark Community Project (SCP). The operating procedures with which SCP workers and neighbourhood groups ordered their interaction were rarely clarified by workers when they initiated work with groups. Resource transactions between an agency and a community group may precipitate changes, for instance, in the agency’s practice and procedures, in its relationships with other agencies and in its ability to identify the particular strengths and weaknesses of agency personnel. In situations where residents and service personnel came together to review service-delivery problems it became an important task for the community worker to achieve recognition of the mutuality of the benefits likely to be gained from such joint efforts. The community worker has a major responsibility to help the group define its primary problem and thus the goals that confront it as it sets about negotiations with decision-makers.
