MODULE 8:

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPTS AND

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY IMMERSION
Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

1. Explain the concepts and principles underpinning community and community immersion;
2. Realize the importance of understanding the dynamics of a community and community
immersion as a way to realize the objectives of NSTP; and
3. Practice the standard operating procedures and establish protocols governing
community immersion.

People involved in community immersion must be knowledgeable on the basic of community,

i.e. its meaning, concepts, underpinning principles and nature of problems and issues arising
therefrom. This will enable you, as students, to have a good grasp of the local situation thereby
preparing them to appropriately respond to the multifarious concerns in the community and
properly carry out immersion projects and activities.

During the first semester lectures, we discussed that a noted community development specialist
Arlien defined “community” as a group of people gathered together in any geographic area,
large or small, who have common interests, actual or potentially recognized in the social welfare
field. To paraphrase the words of Johnson, a community is a collection of people living in the
same geographic locality or not. The meaning of community may actually vary depending on the
objectives of a program to be conducted thereat. A community, as its general definition, is the
web of relationships and interactions among human existences. Understanding of how these
societies works or ought to work has been sought in doctrine, economic sciences, psychological
science, and faith. Community is categorized as geographical or functional. Geographical
community is defined as a sanctuary of people populating in the same geographical location.
Hence, functional community is a group of people who may non-populate in the same location
but has common ends, involvements, or is contending for the same cause.

Like any other group, a community has elements:

1. Demographics which includes population, distribution, and denseness

2. History which will enable an individual to cognize about events from the yesteryear that
will lend to the development of the community
3. Culture is the most important component of a community. It tells about the people’s
manner of life and why they live that manner.
4. Economy which includes the income degree and business of people.
5. Structures which refers to the physical political and societal constructions.

Identifying and cognizing all of these will assist you in what to anticipate during submergence.

WHY IS IMMERSION AN IMPORTANT APPROACH (STRATEGY) IN GIVING

SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITIES?

An old adage says that “Experience is the best teacher.” Through community immersion, you
will be exposed to further and other realities of life which you may or may not belong to. It will
enable you to understand how the people feel, think, say, and behave as dictated by their
conditions and situations in life as a means to make you feel and realize that you are more
fortunate than many others and that you can do something to improve the lives of the
marginalized and underserved. For as the Holy Scripture tells us, “To whom much is given,
much is required.” Therefore, since you were given the rare opportunity and the distinct privilege
of being schooled that you are supposed to better the living conditions of those whom were not
as auspicious as you are.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY IMMERSION?

 Community immersion is a strategy that goes beyond acquainting us with community

concerns but make possible our participation in their (re)solution.

 Community immersion is an essential strategy that entails understanding of the different

community concerns, process, dynamics and lifestyle through exposure and engaging in
different activities. In view of the fact that immersion is a major concern in development
work, you may find it significant to be guided by the following precept:

 You should immerse in actual community life to get to know the social, political
and economic situation of the people.
 You may also undergo certain changes like increase in knowledge about the
social realities, development of good values, empathy towards other people,
improvement of social skills, among others.
 You should identify the community people’s interest and aspirations.
 You must recognize people’s resiliency and does not rob them of their right to
have community participation and determination of appropriate courses of action.
 You should be aware of the gain-negotiated sanction – the acceptance derived
from community relations coupled with the right to conduct immersion activities.
 You must reflect on how your social analysis of the current situation is
concretized in people’s lives. The analysis should have as much meaning for you
as for the community.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE FORM OF INTEGRATION IN COMMUNITY IMMERSION

(On a normal setting)

 Home visits
 Living with selected families preferably with informants
 Informal discussions with individuals or group
 Sharing in household and community activities (cooking with community host, clean up
drive)
 Attendance in social gathering (fiestas,wedding, etc.)
 Assistance in production work (selling, farming)

WHOM DO YOU IMMERSE WITH IN THE COMMUNITY?

 When you go to a community, you associate with the people whom you intend to work
with as your partners or allies in the community. Examples of these community partners
are the parents, youth, the differently-abled constituents, professionals, members of the
people’s organizations and other formal and informal group, and others who can be a
potential collaborator of your project or activities. You do not just work for and serve the
people but rather you encourage their participation. This practice of enjoying people’s
support is adherent to the Confucius’ philosophy of “Give man a fish and he will live for a
 day; teach him how to fish and he will live for a lifetime.” Community immersion is
empowering the people towards development of the locality.

 Community-based service projects must be premised on the principle of people

empowerment and not the ‘dole-out’ mentality. Teach people how to fish so that they will
live for a lifetime.

WHAT CONDITIONS MAY QUALIFY ONE TO GO INTO COMMUNITY IMMERSION?

It is so desired that one fundamental pre-requisite qualification among those who intend or are
tasked to undergo community immersion is a full understanding of the concepts and theories
behind the dynamics of groups and community. In the same breath, knowing the very process of
immersion is a primordial condition. This is so because this endeavor requires a great deal of
know-how and skills in facilitating interventions, planning and managing community service
projects, among others.

Training-wise, community developers/organizers and social workers are most qualified because
it is assumed that they have more or less formal background on carrying out these kind of
undertaking.

WHAT PERSONAL GAINS MAY A STUDENT GET FROM COMMUNITY?

The community immersion aspect of NSTP will be able to benefit not only the communities
served but more so you, student-trainees who may be accorded with the following advantage:

 Opportunity for you to comprehend people’s lives because of the chance given to them
to see real life situation;

 Gain social acceptance derived from community relations coupled with the right to offer
services;

 Enhance experiences in conducting asset mapping such as identifying geographic

coverage, point out resources and the use;

 Establish rapport and relationship with different people who may be of help to you at
some future time;

 Develop your conscientization ability. It helps you realize issues that will help solve
problem in the community;

 Acquire first-hand experiences in dealing with community workers; and the

 Chance to learn life skills that will enrich and better you as a person.

Community immersion generally takes on different overlapping phases, similar to performing

community organizing strategies called social preparation phase, integration, social analysis,
program implementation, evaluation and report writing, and termination of the project.
THE COMMUNITY IMMERSION PROCESS: A SERIES OF INTERRELATED AND
INTERTWINED PHASES:

PHASE I: Pre-Immersion phase regards the identification of the community where you will
be immersed in. You will have to prepare yourselves physically, mentally, and
spiritually for many tasks ahead. You must have waivers from your parents or
guardians stating that they are informed of the mandate to undergo the NSTP
community immersion. The school also needs to organize its own manpower,
resources and the other technical needs. According to many who have
undergone immersion, the activities are both exciting and exhausting.

Aside from your preparation as students and the school, the community is
primarily the one to be prepared and informed. With this, you must set up criteria
in the selection of an area for immersion.

1. Groups or communities to be chosen belong to the deprived, depressed and

underprivileged (DDU). The marginalized sectors are your target clients
because they are the ones needing your assistance more than any other
groups in the society.
2. Willingness of local groups and community leaders to work with you on
community projects. This goes to say that you should start with the people
and work with the people.
3. Anticipated activities and demands fall within your available resources and
ability to meet them. You cannot extend what you do not have in the first
place.
4. Presence of development agencies and other support institutions providing
assistance to the areas. Supporting agencies are probable resources waiting
to be tapped that can provide additional financial assistance when it comes
to projects that are also within their type of service.
5. Stable peace and order situation. You have to put into consideration your
own safety when you conduct your immersion.
6. Accessibility. Successful community immersion also relies on how quickly
and how often you can visit the community. You have to take into account
how much time you spend traveling, how much money you spend for
transportation or lodging.

If you have been able to select an area for immersion based on the foregoing
factors, you can now proceed to entering the community.

PHASE II: Entering the Community Phase. To ensure the success in entering the
community it is necessary to have community mapping of the target area. This
will help you identify the geographic coverage of the project. It will also help point
out the resources that may be used by the trainees in the community and the
relationship of people with these resources. Angelito G. Manalili in his book
Community Organizing for People’s Empowerment (1990) remarked that there
are different ways of entering the community and these are thru:

 Ostentatious Entry – complete with banner and a general assembly of the

people, the community ushers and you and your team who will undergo
immersion.
 Banking on the people's weakness – outsiders sometimes enter the
community through catching people's attention. At times when community
 people are in distress, they usually adhere to outsiders like during economic
crisis, emergency and disaster situation.
 Academic Style of Entry – communities are often called social laboratories
because they are a place to test the theories learned in classroom
 People Centered Approach – this approach ultimately believes on the
capacity of the community people to participate and acknowledge, whether
outsiders assistance is really needed.

Phase III: Community Integration is a continuous process wherein you come into direct
contact and become involved with the community people. This phase is where
the immersion phase gets more personal. You should realize that there is an
existing concern within the community. As the problems of the community
become more apparent, you become aware and validate that you are part of the
circle. Integration may be done through:

A. Boarder style. If provisions allow, you may choose to stay and live in the
immersion area for a certain period of time. You may live in the community to
pursue deeper knowledge about the community. However, the boarder or
guest status will still be the regard of the people, unless they integrate
themselves fully with community life.

B. Elitist style. Some of you may tend to stay close to key informants and
political player during your stay in the community. Due to this, your social
circle become limited and your interactions are confined to a few people.
Immersion activities must always take into account the involvement of the
majority.

C. But the best way is the people centered method of living with the people.

Phase IV: Community needs assessment, social analysis or community diagnosis as

others refer to, is a concrete base for the formulation of programs. It reflects the
sentiments, needs, aspiration and recommendations of the community people.
When it is done properly, it will reflect also your feeling of oneness with the
community. Assessing the needs of the community is a prelude to effective
program offered to clients.

Community needs assessment is the process wherein problems, issues and

concerns of the community are identified through the use of several tools for
assessment. It encourages the participation of the community, as they are the
stakeholders, to the findings in the assessment. Information to be included in
assessing community needs are:

1. Historical development – which refers to the data on how the community

became what it is today and provides insight into the kind of resources to
collect and weed.
2. Geographical and transportation information – which includes information on
the community’s patterns and population contribution.
3. Political and legal functions – which are strategies that the community uses
for selecting players in the political sphere.
4. Demographic data – includes data on age characteristics, size, race, and
transience of population.
5. Economic data – which refers to the economic base, social, cultural,
education, recreational organizations.
 Methods in collecting data for community needs assessment are:

1. Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with Key Information

2. Community Forum/Assembly
3. Public Records
4. Survey

Phase V: Program/Project implementation deals with the actual execution of the plans.
This phase includes making the final arrangement with the target
clients/community partners, officials involved in the activities, right schedule of
each event, day to day activities and needs of the clients, manpower each day of
the program, monitoring and evaluation plan and other requirements like social
and recreational activities and the culminating activities of the projects. To ensure
the success of the NSTP community service projects you will be doing during
your immersion time, the following must be considered:

1. Program must be responsive to the needs of the clients;

2. Contribute to the upliftment of the living conditions of the clients;
3. Maximize the resources available in the community;
4. Tap the potentials of the clients and give due recognition;
5. Objectives must be SMART with tangible results that touch the lives of the
clients;
6. Project must be done systematically to ensure significant contributions from
pre-planning, planning stage, implementation and evaluation;
7. Complete documentation must be observed as basis for reporting and for
future studies ;
8. Projects must be within the capacity and concern of the trainees that will
allow them to gain the knowledge, skills and encourage reflective action; and
9. Develop shared commitment among the trainees.
10. Projects must promote civic consciousness imbued with good citizenship
values of Pagkamaka-Diyos, Pagkamaka-Tao, Pagkamaka-Bayan and
Pagkamaka-Kalikasan.

Phase VI: Termination of the project. You are expected to complete your project/s in the
community in the span of 50-90 hours as prescribed by the CHED endorsed
Program of Instruction for it to be credited in the training course. Right at the very
start, you and your team as the implementers must apprise your target
participants of the particulars of the projects undertaken especially in terms of
time frame. This will enable your clients or partner community to prepare for any
eventualities, should you terminate the project. You are advised to inform them
with due respect of the status of the project and other details as may be deemed
necessary. Nevertheless, you may decide to continue with the project if the
endeavor proves worthy of continuation, follow-up or replication. If you, the
proponents and implementers, have decided to pursue and push through with
their venture, you can seek the assistance and support of the school’s extension
service/community outreach unit just to sustain the project.

If in case you lack hours of community immersion or did not perform well, you are
bound to receive an unsatisfactory rating; more so, failure of compliance must be
noted. If you go beyond the required number of hours in the community in your
conduct of the project for failure to conform or comply with the requirements of
the plan of action formulated, then a similar poor rating should be accorded.
 As a community organizer, you must learn how to work within the allotted time
frame given, for your convenience and also for the community’s sake. If you stay
in the community beyond the agreed time, the action can be construed by the
community for something else like, extending more help (intensified
volunteerism) to them or that they could still ask for your help even beyond your
capability. This might also encourage their dependency on the implementers.

However, it is not really a problem if you want to extend your community service
in the community. In fact, NSTP encourages you to continue your community
work. This time, your services will already be regarded as your personal
commitment to doing voluntary work, separate and distinct from the NSTP-
initiated activities. In step with enjoining NSTP students to eventually becoming
volunteer workers, the school may establish volunteer corps either under the
auspices of the school’s NSTP unit or extension services office to ensure the
continuity of the immersion program for volunteers.

PROJECT PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION

In our lessons during the first semester, one of the topics we had discussed was about project
planning and implementation.

Just for the sake of recalling, project planning and implementation is a time bound undertaking
that is carried out to create a unique service. It combines resources and channeled into a
temporary structure in order to accomplish a specific goal. Project development involves a
series of continuous, often overlapping phases. This cyclical process launches with survey of
felt needs in the locality that will serve as baseline information in the formulation of project or set
of projects that may be undertaken in an uninterrupted or staggered manner. As soon as we
have identified the project plan, it is prudent that we have an inventory of our resources.
Mobilizing our limited resources (men, money, materials and moment) is a fundamental thing to
do. Then implementation comes with regular monitoring to keep track of the development of the
project. Measuring the success of the project as in impact evaluation will serve purpose in
revisiting the plan of action. Afterward, the cycle goes back to round.

PARTS OF THE PROJECT CYCLE

 Community needs assessment

 Project Formulation
 Organization of Resources
 Implement the Project  Project Monitoring
 Impact Evaluation
 Review Plan of Action

PROJECT PLANNING In the formulation of a project, is when a planner, which is you – also
termed as the community organizer, must take into consideration the needs of the target clients.
In this undertaking we (as your trainer) together with the trainees (referred to as you) must
assist the community in identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing the needs and concerns they
must tackle. People in the community know more about the program relevant to their needs.
Developing them in the course of planning will motivate them to support the activities. Based on
the identified needs, project must be made through a proposal to assess feasibility contribution
rational and bases for funding and support.
WHAT IS A PROJECT PROPOSAL? It is a guide for both you and trainers in attaining task
while they’re in community immersion. It serves as the basis of designing program of activities
and key instruments and inputs in monitoring and evaluating the projects to be undertaken in
the community.

PURPOSES OF MAKING PROJECT PROPOSAL IN THE LIGHT OF NSTP:

 It guides you and your trainers in designing a program for your clientele.
 It serves as database in making reports as a requirement of the course.
 It makes work easier for it serves as your reference to give the right information needed
for the project.
 It serves as source of data for research work.

THE PARTS OF A PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR NSTP IMMERSION PROJECTS

There are various formats used in the preparation of a project proposal. Below is one of the
designs followed.

1. The Title: of the project must capture the need and present the name of the clientele to
be served. It must be catchy to the readers; must be written in capital letters, bold and
centered.

2. Project Proponents: This part enumerates the names of the persons to be involved in
the project, their year level (if students), rank (if trainers), contact numbers and address
or college. If there are several activities that require several leaders in every undertaking
names must be specified per activity.

3. Implementing Units/Implementers: It must be noted that in writing this part of the

proposal, capital letters must be used to differentiate from the project proponents.

4. Project Duration: specifies days, weeks and months needed to complete the project.
Specify when the project will commence and when it will end.

5. Objectives of the Project: must be written in operational terms on what you intend to
do to solve identified problems related to the project. The characteristics of the
objectives must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound (SMART).

General objectives can be framed as basis of formulating specific objectives of the

project. It must also consider the domains of learning such as the cognitive (Knowledge-
mind), psychomotor (skills-body) and affective (values/behavior – heart).

6. Project Description: The following standards must be observed in writing the project
description in facilitating the drafting of the proposal:

a. Background of the project: This part requires at least three paragraphs that provide a
realistic background of the project describing the modifying issues/problems that
have influenced the identification of the project.

b. Justification of the project: Discuss the importance of the prepared project in solving
or providing action to help solve existing problems inherent to the project. Give the
 expected output of the project, benefits derived from it, and most probable recipients
of the benefits of the project .It must be written in 3 to 5 paragraphs.

c. Benefits derived from the project: This section should reflect the advantages or
benefits that the activity will bring about when it’s implemented.

d. Coverage: The area or vicinity covered by the project and the type of clients to be
served should be reflected in the proposal. This gives focus on whom the project is
for and the extent of its implementation.

e. Methodology: This part cites the activities or strategies that should be undertaken in
order to achieve the objectives of the project. It should describe the general
approach of the project, agency counterpart in case of partnership, responsibilities,
and obligations, manpower requirement and the manner on how the specific activity
will be undertaken if the project calls for it.
f. Dated budgetary requirements: In preparation of the budget, the budgetary
requirement of all activities must be considered. The amount varies depending on
the extent of the project coverage. For most instances, the bigger the project the
larger the budget required. In many cases, budget depends on the size of
expenditures needed. Sources of funds must also be specified.

g. Detailed schedule of activities