DRAFT Community Development v. Community Organizing DRAFT

From "forward-thinking", "community-centric", and "close-to-home" at Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago to Europeanization, child well-being, and youth engagement and empowerment at World Vision Georgia in Tbilisi; from "self-management education" for adult immigrants with Type II diabetes in Little Village to "non-formal education" for the most vulnerable children, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), in Gldani: what do I get myself into!

Where to start? In I Believe, a 1969 paperback book with 19 personal philosophies I bought in a used bookstore and curiosity shop near the Galata Tower in Istanbul, Lin Yutang, a Chinese philosopher, writes succinctly yet eloquently: Science is a sense of curiosity about life, religion a sense of reverence, literature a sense of wonder, art a taste for life, and philosophy an attitude toward life.

A "Brief History of Development," distributed to us PCRVs during our orientation in September 2015, says that in the 1970s and '80s, there was a major focus on global economic development. Yet people eventually realized that, despite all the industrial development and international trade, the majority of the people in the world were still struggling to survive poverty.

Thus a new approach emerged with an emphasis on reducing absolute poverty and increasing individuals' abilities to consume food, purchase clothing, and have shelter and access to health care. Subsequently, there was a growth spurt in the so-called third sector (that is, NGOs and NPOs) to address these issues.

The human development approach is one the most recent approaches, based on increasing the choices and opportunities people have in their daily lives through improved health care, educational, and economic opportunities. This approach led to the UN's Millennium Development Goals aimed at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability (deep breath) by 2015.

The Peace Corps believes that the greatest help its PCVs

can provide is to empower people to develop their capacity to improve their own lives, organizations, and communities. The Peace Corps' approach is participatory and inclusive, people-to-people, from the bottom up, with PCVs working alongside the local 9-to-5ers, so to speak.