A Model of Rural Community Work

Abstract

Practising community work in rural areas is not wholly different from urban community work; the values underpinning the practice are the same. The crucial point is that the intervention of rural community work is applied in a particular context. The nature of rural communities, and the institutions, agencies and organisations operating in them, demand a relevant, appropriate form of practice, one which differs from the urban experience and is more than a diluted version of it. Difficulties can arise if workers attempt to apply a model which fails to recognise key characteristics of rural life.