THE PROCESS OF

COMMUNITY
IMMERSION
 THE PROCESS OF COMMUNITY IMMERSION
▪ The community immersion process is a series of interrelated and interviewed
phases which commences with the Pre-Immersion followed by Entering the
Community, Community Integration, Community Needs Assessment,
Program or Project Implementation, and Termination of the Project.
Phase I: Pre-Immersion

This phase regards the identification of the community where the

students will be immersed at. Trainees will have to prepare themselves
physically, mentally and spiritually for many task ahead. Trainees must
have waivers from their parents or guardians stating that they are
informed of the mandate undergo the NSTP community immersion. The
school also needs to organize its own manpower, resources and other
technical needs
 Area Selection

Factors to be considered in area selection:

1. Groups or communities to be chosen belong
to the deprived, depressed and unprivileged
(DDU). The marginalized sectors are your target
clients because they are the ones needing your
assistance more than any other groups in the
society. Examples of marginalized groups are the
youth, women, slum, dwellers, the
differently-abled, among others.
2. Willingness of local groups and community
leaders to work with you in community
projects. This goes to say that we should start
with the people and work with the people.
 Area Selection

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.
 Area Selection
5. Stable peace and order situation. You have to put
into consideration your own safety when conduct your
immersion. Some of the salient questions you need to
ask are that, “are the roads and works area secure to
travel on?”
6. Accessibility, Successful community immersion
also relies on how quickly and how often you can
visit the community. If you live in Poblacion and you
happen to have chosen Talahib Pandayan as an
immersion area, would it be easy for you to conduct,
monitor and evaluate your projects in the latter area
mentioned?
Phase II: Entering the Community

To ensures 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 relationship of people
with these resources.
Anchored on Manalili’s concepts, those planning to conduct
community immersion can enter the community thru:

Ostentatious Entry. Complete with banner and a general assembly of

the people, the community ushers in the people who will undergo
immersion or outsiders.
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 economics crisis, emergency and disaster situations. The
outsiders try to find out which aspect is it that the community will need
them for and through this, they emphasize on how they could be helpful.
Anchored on Manalili’s concepts, those planning to conduct
community immersion can enter the community thru:

Academic Style of Entry. Communities are often called social

laboratories because they are a place to test the theories learned in
classrooms. Academic institutions field some students and the
community is done to identify the terms to which the community service
will be fulfilled.
But the best way is People-Centered Approach. This approach
ultimately believes on the capacity of the community people to
participate and acknowledge whether outsider assistance is really
needed. Users of this type of entering the community invest on
community relations, believing that both parties are partners to
community development. Key to this type of entry is strong linkage with
the people in the community.
Phase III. Community Integration

Integration is a continuous process wherein the trainees come into

direct contact and become involved with the community people. This
phase is where the immersion phase gets more personal. The trainees
should realize that there is an existing concern within the community. As
the problems
Integration may be done through:

a. Border Style. If provisions allow, the trainees may choose to stay and
live-in the immersion area for a certain period of time. They may live-in
the immersion community to pursue deeper knowledge about the
community. However, the boarder or guest status will still be the regard of
the people toward them unless they integrate themselves fully with
community life.
b. Elitist Style. Some trainees tend to stay close to key informants and
political players during their stay in the community. Due to this, their social
circle becomes limited and their interaction is confined to a few people.
Immersion activities must always 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

Need assessment, social analysis or community diagnosis as others

refer to, is a concrete base for the formulation of programs. It reflects the
sentiments, needs, aspirations and recommendations of the community
people. When it is done properly, it will reflect also the trainees’ feeling of
oneness with the community. They begin to see that the people’s
problems also reflect their own.
 Community Needs Assessment Defined
Community needs assessment covers the meaning, importance, steps and exercises in
preparing 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.

Importance of Needs Assessment

▪ Gather information about citizens’ attitudes and options in order of importance.

▪ Determine how citizens rank issues, problems and opportunities in order of importance or
urgency.

▪ Give citizens a voice in determining policies, goals and priorities.

▪ Evaluate current programs and policies.

▪ Provide speculations about what people are thinking.

▪ Provide speculations about what people want.

Information to be Included in Assessing
Community Needs
Methods in Collecting Data for Community Needs
Assessment

▪ Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with Key informants. The key

informants of the community are people who hold socially responsible
positions such as educators, public officials, clergy and business
representatives or those who are active in community events.
▪ Community Forum/Assembly. This involves holding of group events
that may include the entire community.
▪ Public records. Public records like national census will provide data for
social and demographic indicators of the community.
▪ Survey. Survey and questionnaires involve asking individuals in the
community about their everyday needs.
 Steps in Conducting Needs Assessment
1. Establish a working committee to solicit citizen and community involvement and develop a
plan of action.

2. List important aspects that are needed to be looked upon.

3. Identify the population to be surveyed.

4. Determine the information that is needed.

5. Select a random sample of person to survey.

6. Develop and pretest a questionnaire.

7. Collate the information.

8. Analyze the data.

9. Go back to the community for validation of information.

10. Finalize the document.

 Community Assistance in Assessing Needs
1. Help identify community groups and citizens to be involved in the working committee.
2. Facilitate group discussion to identify important issues and set priorities.
3. Help select the sample to be surveyed and design a system to identify respondents.
4. Provide tested questions from which the working committees choose questions that
address the issues and concerns.
5. Help design a process to distribute and collect survey questionnaires, code, enter and
analyze the resulting data.
6. Provide summary reports of data.
7. Suggest programs to report the results and strategies to solicit community,
involvement.
8. Work with citizens to identify course of action based on the information.
 Phase V: Program/Project Implementation
Project implementation deals with the actual execution of the plans. This phase
of project development 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 project.
 Phase VI: Termination of Projects
▪ NSTP trainees are expected to complete their projects in the community in the span of
50-90 hours as prescribed to the CHED-endorsed Program of Instruction for it to be
credited in the training course.

▪ Right at the very start the trainee-implements must appraise their target participants of
the particulars of the project undertaken especially in terms of time frame.

▪ This will enable their clients or partner community to prepare for any eventualities should
the implementer will terminate the project.

▪ Trainees are advised to inform them with due respect of the status of the project and
other details as may be deemed necessary.
Thank You!