Ask an Advisor: Is it possible to extend Social Programs?

Ask an Advisor featured question, by Nate Israel

            Ask an Advisor is a feature from the Community Tool Box (http://ctb.ku.edu) in which anyone around the world seeking for advice regarding community work, could find a brief and personalized response. For this week’s post, we feature the following question from Nepal:

            Question: Dear sir Its me Baburam Niraula from kathmandu, Nepal. I would like to work in social sectors. Is it possible to extend to social program in Nepal. thanking you Best regards.

            Answer: This is a very important question—thank you for asking it. Social programs contain parts which can be extended, and parts which must be adapted. The aims of most social programs – to provide people with a voice, meaningful choices, and the power to achieve their goals, can probably be extended to people in nearly any place. However, the ways of achieving these aims likely differ. In each local context one must identify appropriate ways of achieving these aims. Often it is difficult for people to understand why change is happening, even if it is for the better. Old ways of interacting with people, even if they are not helpful to everyone, are often hard to change. For this reason, it is important to understand how one can achieve the aims of a social program while being sensitive to how people will respond to change in your specific environment. There are resources in the Community Toolbox which can help you better understand your local needs and resources, and these may be helpful in identifying what kind of social programs might be helpful and how to extend them in your community. These resources are available at: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/index.aspx

To submit a question about your community-based work to Ask an Advisor, please visit http://ctb.ku.edu/en/AskAnAdvisor.aspx