Eastern Star Academy, Inc.

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

Grade Level: Grade 12      Learning Modality:  Modular Distance Learning

  Subject: CSC Subject Teacher:  Jhener Nonesa, LPT

Most Essential Learning Competencies:

Define using various perspectives, e.g., social sciences, institutions, civil society, and
local/grassroots level.

Duration: Week 3, 3 hours

Understanding Community Institutions

What do we mean by community institutions?

By "community" institutions we mean the rules that govern intangible institutions like kinship,
marriage, inheritance and sharing of oxen at community level and organizations that operate at
community level and are controlled by their members. Development workers tend to pay most
attention to relatively formal, visible institutions, such as development agencies or various forms of
associations and organizations that they find within communities. This is because they are
relatively easy to identify, and usually have fairly clear stated objectives. But institutions often
overlap - informal, unstructured social or socio-cultural institutions, such as caste, gender or
informal "rules of the game", may exist throughout society and inside formal, structured
institutions. Such "nested" institutions may undermine the formal objectives and effectiveness at
meeting those objectives.

Community-based organization (CBO) is a generic term applied to all organizations controlled by a

community CBOs generally fall into two broad categories: (a) institutions such as the Village
Development Committee (VDC) that have "public" functions at community level and are meant to
represent the interests of the entire resident population, and (b) Common Interest Groups (CIGs)
that have "private" functions, and represent the personal interests of their members. Examples of
the latter might be a women's enterprise group or a water users' association or a farmers'
association or a village savings cooperative.

Social institutions
A social institution consists of a group of people who have come together for a common purpose.
Every society has a social institution. These aren’t some places, but the structures of relationship,
obligation and function. Many members in a society have their own concept of right and wrong,
relationships, values and norms. The members who don’t honor or respect the societal concepts are
termed as anti-social. The social Institutions are chief instruments by which the societal behaviors can
be regulated and controlled. They help individuals to socialize and plays a major role in maintaining
harmony in the society. They are helpful in passing culture from one generation to another. Without
the social institutions modern society could not exist.

While leadership within a corporation or a military organization is difficult

enough, community leadership requires particular sensitivity to (and ability to work with) the
context of the community.  While a corporate or a military hierarchy is designed to have a
certain internal logic and has control over the definitions of its boundaries and relationships,
“the community” is not a product of logical design and its structure is determined much more by
tradition and overlapping allegiances.  To succeed in such an environment, a leader must be
particularly sensitive to the multiple and overlapping interests with which he or she must work.
 
Roland Warren, in The Community in America (1963), identified five locality-relevant functions
which any community must satisfy if it is to survive.  Although any single community
organization usually has one or another of these as its primary function, societies tend to be
over-determined (they satisfy their needs in multiple ways so that there is no single link in the
chain that is irreplaceable) and most organizations play some role in all five functions.  The
institutions which serve these functions are integrated to each other both horizontally and
vertically.  These five functions serve as a useful framework for analyzing the community in
which you are working, and role your organization (and other organizations) play within it.

Every society have mainly five social institutions

• Family

for managing the institution of marriage and family mainly for the continuation of human off spring
through the structured means.

• Religion

To deal with the man’s innate fear of mystical. It deals this fear through religious prayers and
contributions.

• Government

To deal with the elementary necessity of leading or governing large groups of population through
formalized means of government and laws.

• Education

Transmitting functional skills for functioning of society

• Economics

To deal with the material needs of the population and for the fulfillment of basic needs like food,
clothing and shelter.

The five functions are:

 Production-Distribution-Consumption:  No community can survive if it does not provide
some way for its people to make a living and obtain the material resources that they need
for living.  This involves, first of all, the industrial sector (broadly understood).  Someone
has to take raw material and fashion it into some sort of useful product.   It is also the
transportation/warehousing/retail sector, since somehow the goods that are produced
have to be moved to and through the market.  Finally, production and distribution are
useless if there is no one to buy or use it, if there is no “market.”  When Henry Ford was
criticized for paying his laborers the princely sum of $5 a day (a lot of money in 1920), he
replied that all those cars he was making were no good if no one could afford to buy
them. 
 Socialization:  Second, no community can survive it does not arrange for its
continuation.  A way must be found for children to learn what they will need to know to be
adults; for workers to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities to do their jobs; for in-
migrants (whether they are from the neighboring State or from across the ocean) to learn
“how we do things here.” 
 Social Control:  Communities are incredibly complex systems.  For all those players
 (whether human or corporate) are to move around and “do their thing,” there have to be
“traffic rules” to keep them from crashing into each other.  Only the smallest part of social
control is “busting bad guys”; much of it is an issue of forming and enforcing contracts
(mutual agreements about who will do what to whom how and with what) and supporting
the “social contract” (those “rules” of what is expected of one that were learned through
socialization).  This function is also often referred to as “boundary maintenance.”
 Social Participation:  I suppose it would be possible for the first three functions to be done
“for” (or “to”) the people in a community.  But it would all be beside the point if the people
weren’t part of it.  In part, the community needs the human resources of its people to get
the job done.  In part, it is through participation that much of those
functions is accomplished (for example, suppose they threw a sale and nobody
came?).  And much of socialization and social control is accomplished as a by-product of
social participation.
 Mutual Support:  Finally, one of the purposes of community is to “share the journey,” and
to motivate and encourage each other along the way.  In fact, some would say that this is
the primary reason for community (except for mutual support, why not live as a
hermit?).  Much of this is done informally, although we recognize an entire sector of the
economy (the nonprofit, or “third” sector) as existing for this purpose.

Function Typical unit Horizontal Pattern Vertical Pattern

Production- Company Chamber of National Corporation
distribution- Commerce
consumption
Socialization Public school Board of Education State department of
education
Social control Municipal government City Council State Government
Social Participation Church Council of Churches Denominational Body
Mutual Support Voluntary health Community welfare National health association
association council

CIVIL SOCIETY
Civil society refers to the space for collective action around shared interests, purposes and values,
generally distinct from government and commercial for-profit actors. Civil society includes
charities, development NGOs, community groups, women's organizations, faith-based
organizations, professional associations, trade unions, social movements, coalitions and advocacy
groups. However civil society is not homogeneous and the boundaries between civil society and
government or civil society and commercial actors can be blurred. There is certainly no one 'civil
society' view, and civil society actors need to contend with similar issues of representativeness
and legitimacy as those of other representatives and advocates.

Despite its complexity and heterogeneity, the inclusion of civil society voices is essential to give
expression to the marginalized and those who often are not heard. Civil society actors can
enhance the participation of communities in the provision of services and in policy decision-
making. Recognizing this, the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) was set up
with a separate civil society stream of work on social determinants of health, which contributed
case studies and a separate report in addition to conducting workshops and contributing to
meetings and the final report. The CSDH report identifies the need to tackle the inequitable
distribution of power as essential to reducing health inequities. The continued involvement of civil
society and the participation of communities in work on social determinants of health will thus be
fundamental to the chances of success in closing the gap in a generation .
 What is Grassroots Community leadership and development?

A grassroots movement is one which uses the people in a given district, region, or community as
the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use
collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international
level. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision
making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power
structures.

Grassroots movements, using self-organization, encourage community members to contribute by

taking responsibility and action for their community. Grassroots movements utilize a variety of
strategies from fundraising and registering voters, to simply encouraging political conversation.
Goals of specific movements vary and change, but the movements are consistent in their focus on
increasing mass participation in politics. These political movements may begin as small and at the
local level, but grassroots politics as Cornel West contends are necessary in shaping progressive
politics as they bring public attention to regional political concerns.

The idea of grassroots is often conflated with participatory democracy. The Port Huron Statement,
a manifesto seeking a more democratic society, says that to create a more equitable society, "the
grass roots of American Society" need to be the basis of civil rights and economic reform
movements. The terms can be distinguished in that grassroots often refers to a specific movement
or organization, whereas participatory democracy refers to the larger system of governance.

A community grass roots organization that is too quick to confer its credibility, legitimacy and
respect on other stakeholders risks no only losing its credibility, legitimacy and respect, it also runs the
risk of failing to protect politicians, other government officials, and nonprofits from accusations of
bait and switch, mismanagement of metrics, and community exploitation. (Which isn’t to say that a
community grass roots organization that confers its credibility, legitimacy and respect too slowly cannot be
rendered irrelevant over time or be accused of trying to “extract” too much economic benefit for the people
who are the intended beneficiaries of the economic development initiative.)

 Politicians.  Politicians are going to politic (i.e., favor groups more likely to vote in their favor,
especially in an organized and denser manner).  Here, the grass roots community group might be
better positioned to offer guidance couched in political terms.  “We support the and the vision of the
economic development initiative as originally portrayed, especially in its ability to help low-income,
predominantly African-American renters in this community.  No one likes to support politicians who
can’t control their own initiatives.”

 Government officials.  Government officials are there to seek favor from the politicians referred to
above.  Here, the grass roots community organization may be most effective publicly reminding the
government officials of the goals of the community development initiative – as proclaimed by the
politicians – and warn the officials of the need to follow those directions.  No one likes a government
official who uses power, subject matter expertise and position to advance agendas that are distinct
from the public guidance offered by those we have elected.

 Nonprofits.  Just as a politician must politic, nonprofits must raise money.  They use the statistical
(and individual) profiles in material poverty of community members to raise money.  Before moving
on to another community, the nonprofits will need to use the statistical (and, to a lesser degree,
individual) profiles in material wealth or income improvement to show success so that the nonprofit
can be entrusted to work in the next community.  Knowing this, a grass roots community
organization can publicly encourage nonprofits to direct their benefits, programming jobs to the low-
income, predominantly African-American renters in the community.
 Eastern Star Academy, Inc.
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

WORKSHEETS
Name:_______________________________ Module #______________________
Grade and Section:_______________________ Date:_________________________

DISCOVER
ACTIVITY #1 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

INSTRUCTION: What is the importance of different institution in the community? How can you relate it to
each other? Make a diagram out of it that shows the relationship of each institution in community building.

FAMILY

GOVERNMENT

RELIGION

EDUCATION

ECONOMY

ACITIVITY 2 GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT

INSTRUCTION: Read and answer the following situations.

Situation #1: If you are going to be a politician what is your plan in your community?

Situation #2: You are already a public official, what could be your response with the pandemic? (Show your
step by step procedure.)

Situation #3: What could be your nonprofit advocacy and initiatives? Create your own nonprofit organization
and write the following:
a. Vision and Mission
b. Logo (Drawing)
c. Advocacy and your concern
d. Future projects.

ACTIVITY #3 MY COMMUNITY, MY IDENTITY

INSTRUCTION: Paste a picture of your community and tell the following situations:
A. Current condition of people living in the community
B. Security of the people.
C. Local government roles and partnerships with the people.
D. Relationship of the neighborhood to each other.
E. How is the health standards and protocols?
 JOURNAL
Name: __________________________ Topic: _____________________________
Subject: _________________________ Week #: ____________________
Write your realization, understandings, and all things you’ve learned and experienced in
accomplishing the module. Write legibly.
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Parent’s/ Guardian’s Signature: __________________ Teacher’s

Feedback:
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