Changing relationships between service users/providers

Dr. Judith Dunlop, Professor Emerita in the School of Social Work, presented at the World Community Development Conference 2018 at Maynooth University, Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland on June 27, 2018.

Dr. Dunlop’s presentation was entitled “Community Development Planning Model:  How to Increase Service User Participation.”

The model consists of a cohesive eight-step planning framework anchored in the concept of empowerment. This offers an opportunity for change in the relationships between service users and providers by structuring a defined parallel and joint planning process. The process supports authentic service user participation in local planning . 

During the presentation, Dr. Dunlop identified the purpose of each step, the action steps which comprise it and presented a sample of the activities which support the work of local service user/provider planning groups.   

Over 450 participants from around the world attended this year’s conference, which took place June 24-27, organized jointly by Community Work Ireland, the Department of Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University, and the International Association for Community Development.

“The opportunity to meet other community workers and to share our successes and challenges increases not only our knowledge of community development across the world but builds a strong sense of community among us,” Dr. Dunlop explains. “Being able to re-connect with others each year and hear about their community development successes reflects the importance of this successful conference that brings participants from across the world.”

Dr. Dunlop’s current areas of research include social work and the use of geographic information systems (GIS) for local community planning, rural seniors and the use of technology to overcome social exclusion and neighbourhood youth centre program evaluation.