Community practice is also referred to macro practice. Normally, in the United State of America, macro practice is a branch of social work. This branch of social work focuses on social change and massive social systems. Fortunately, these social changes and systems are always tied to the historical roots of the US social work. Community practice field on social works comprises of social planning, community organizing and human service administration. Others include the huge systems interventions, electronic advocacy, mediation, policy analysis, evaluation and finally community development. However, in the United Kingdom, the term community practice is normally used to refer to health visitors. Nevertheless, social science and disciplines such as public affairs, nonprofit management, urban planning, rural sociology and economic development have being known to overlap the community practice since back in the days.
On the other hand, Policy practice is said to be an integral key element of social work. Therefore, policy practice is defined as the use of social work skills to cause changes in policies and purpose. The main reasons for policy practice, is basically to attain the set goals of economic and social justice. In addition, policy practice therefore enhances the link between social works such as national levels and local state. It would be considered wise to include policy practice on daily basis of community work practice. As a result, policy practice is therefore considered as a powerful and also most effective platform for enhancing the specialized missions, goals of economic and community justice.
There are several theoretical models of community. One of them being, due to the nature of community work when applied, unfortunately theory has a lesser impact as most of the times it is not considered. However, apart from this been one of the theoretical models, there are several other theoretical models that are usually used as guidelines for practitioners especially towards the social action. Some of these theoretical models have evolved since the early days to the present Era. The following are some of the theoretical models of community practice; coalitions, social planning, political and social actions, neighborhood and community organizing, social and sustainable development, organizing functional communities and movements for progressive change.
In the past years, social work practice has been known to be divided in two different categories which include macro and micro practice. Even though there is a frequently overlap in skills amongst the two areas, there is a clear line dividing the role of both micro and macro systems. Macro-practitioners dully work on creating and ensuring change in large political, community and social systems. On the other hand, micro-practitioners dully drive its attention towards working with individuals. In addition, it should be noted that there exist another category of social work. This category is commonly known as the famous ‘mezzo practice’. Basically this type of category comprises of a combination of both micro and macro categories. Usually, its major focus is driven towards the interventions in systems or smaller groups. For instance, macro-social work experts that typically participate in community practice methods include such as political organizers, program managers, community organizers and without forgetting the community educators who play a vital role in the society. Community care policy and practices have always been subjected to the continued rapid changes. This has been witnessed since the application of the Community Care Act 1990 and the NHS.
Even though all the Europe counties encouraged the adaptation of the culture of teaching and learning opportunities, entrepreneurship faces competitions from other platforms too. Community and policy practice was highly regarded by the European nations. Due to this similarity, entrepreneurship was highly encouraged and taught in many institutions. This was only met after the Higher-education institutions discovered that the lesson was critical for the changing world.
Limitations
Despite the extended room for expansion in the systems, there are a number of limitations that pose as a challenge. These challenges will ensure macro-social work force together with those that have being engaging in the community practice methods to always encounter some barriers hence reducing the rate at which the community practice activities are being executed. Luckily, due to the nature of macro-community practice, which facilitates a timely intensive process, the end results are usually felt by the organizer and the community at large. This happens especially when the efforts employed are alleged to fail. Sometimes, the community may decide to distrust or reject some persons who are likely to lead the organizing efforts. This in turn, may create obstacles for future involvement in the community. In addition, due to chronic exposure or distress, community organizations and organizers may seem to burnout. Macro-social workers may specifically get tired from contentious unsuccessful efforts which they employ towards the success of the community practice.
Time is another factor that limits the impact of community of practice in different ways. At most occurrences, time factor is considered as a key factor in the development of any system. For instance, community of practice requires time in order for it to develop naturally. Hence, if the work requires increase, some individuals may end up lacking adequate time needed for the allocation of the micro or macro system. Time is therefor considered a key factor to be considered for efficiency of any system. Recently, community and policy practice have been critically analyzed. This analysis is with regards to the common and most possible drawbacks in their assumed capability to make easier transfers in the virtual universe. It has come to the attention of Kimble that, virtual communities have great difficulty in establishing a firm link between its members. The main reason has been that, due to lack of open chances and opportunities in facing the interactions. Overcrowding may be another challenge in implementing the system. This is due to the nature of the system where it does not limit member’s participation. Therefore, this may pose the danger of too many members hence becoming hard for one to control the crowd hence crippling the whole system at large.
Another major drawback of the community and policy practice is organizational hierarchies. At most times, communities of practice are from time to time conceived within well-established groups or organizations. Therefore, it becomes a necessity for such to coexist with a well already made and existing group or organizational hierarchy. It is believed that the organizational hierarchy has among its apparatuses a French industrialist known as Fayol. He is highly credited for having described the principles of Administrative theory and central elements. Moreover, Weber, who was a German sociologist and also a political economist also distilled quite a number of observations just like the French industrialist, Fayol.
Regional culture is also another challenge that faced community and policy practice. re
Advantages
The following are some of the advantages of community and policy practice which include, the system can be either formal or informal. This flexibility enhances the members to be able to explore a larger area since they are self-organized. Moreover, due to this form of flexibility, the leaders may be selected depending on the matters arising or according to the agency of the matter.
Membership of community and policy practice is done on voluntary basis. Most members are selected according to their level of contribution towards attaining the set goals and missions of the group formed. Moreover, no one is forced to join in any form of group that he/she feels like he/she does not belong to. Also, the management of the community of practice is always built on mutual relationships. Normally, the mutual relationship is always between member’s whereabouts.
Whenever there is no more interest, this is the gate way to the termination of the group. On normal basis, teams for instance, they are always terminated after the completion of the allocated task. However, the community and policy practice teams, they always stick around until declared null and void. Another advantage of community of practice and policy is that, most of the students are encouraged to invest. Sometimes, the criteria’s set are always so harsh to accommodate any person who doesn’t meet the cut off. Therefore, instead of the student throwing away his/her dream of pursuing a certain field of job, he/she can take an alternative option. In addition, the collaborative designated learning areas often allow students to consult on areas which they feel like they are not well versed. In return, this facilitates team work and end result is always an eye catching event for many.
Methodology
The empirical study had to seek the way to explore on how engagement in the community of practice can be enhanced. This could be done by encouragement and introduction of entrepreneurial learning in many institutions all over the nations and its neighbors. The main agenda of the research was initially designed to be the initial study. Therefore, before questionnaires or detailed surveys are conducted, it is always important to gain the inner most understanding of the concept. Moreover, it is qualitative in nature. Therefore, at most times it involves two forms of data collection
Conclusion
This report sought to answer the basic questions about the availability of opportunities, advantages and disadvantages of the community and policy practice. There were some interesting outcomes of the study. In order for the enhancement in understanding the learning advantages of community and policy practice, the system was broken into two branches. The two leading branches comprised of the micro system and the macro system. . Despite the two major branches, it should be noted that there exist another category of social work. This category is commonly known as the famous ‘mezzo practice’. Basically this type of category comprises of a combination of both micro and macro categories. It would be correct to say that, encouraging this form of system to most communities would be termed to be wise as it comprises of many advantages thus benefiting the communities. Despite the little drawbacks, community and policy practice is the future for most nations to adapt for them to cope with the daily changes.