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Social Work vocabulary · Community Work

Capacity building

Meaning in social work, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In social work, capacity building means: Strengthening the skills, knowledge, resources and organisation of people, groups or institutions so that they can act more effectively on their own.

In Turkish: kapasite geliştirme, kapasite artırımı

How it is used

Very common in NGO, donor and international development language, covering training, mentoring and support for local organisations. In community work it means helping groups run themselves rather than doing the work for them.

Example sentences

  1. The grant includes capacity building for small women's organisations.

  2. Capacity building took two years, but the tenants' association now runs itself.

Common collocations

  • capacity building programme
  • institutional capacity building
  • capacity building for NGOs
  • community capacity building
  • community developmentWork with local people to identify shared problems and strengths and to take collective action that improves life in their community.
  • NGOShort for non-governmental organisation: an independent, non-profit organisation that works on social, humanitarian or environmental issues.
  • empowermentThe process of helping people gain more control over their own lives, decisions and resources, and the confidence to act for themselves.
  • community engagementInvolving local people and groups in identifying needs, planning services and making the decisions that affect them.

More terms: Community Work

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