One of the problems facing community work is, that it has no single definition and is frequently considered simply as a form of welfare work: Social Care Practice Assignment, NUI, Ireland

One of the problems facing community work is, that it has no single definition and is frequently considered simply as a form of welfare work. For example, a wide range of activities, such as visiting housebound and older people, working in economically and socially deprived housing neighborhoods, and intervening with young offenders, have all been described as community work.

Because it encompasses such a wide area of work, “community work” can be considered as an umbrella term.

It has been argued, therefore, that the term “community work practice” is imprecise and unclear. It can be almost everything to everyone. For example, practitioners have been accused of lacking direction and certainty about their role.

Some of the questions frequently posed are: do community work for or against local authority? Can/should community workers tread a middle path while maintaining both their professional standing and street credibility? As a significant amount of community work operates on short-term funding, can it, therefore, be considered as little more than experimental?

These dilemmas are not clarified by much of the community work literature, particularly that derived from projects, which is often considered to be both descriptive and anecdotal. However, paradoxically, it can be argued that the experimental and creative approach of community work is its strength.

The view that the term “community work practice” is imprecise and unclear is compounded by the numerous definitions used to analyze the concept of community. For e.g, Hillery found that there were 98 definitions of the term and the only thing that sociologists agreed on was that community had something to do with people!

Czech author Musil

on the basis of work Popple, Willmont, and Hedley summarize meanings utilization of the term community by social workers. They mark so – those, who share disadvantage – a category of disadvantaged people (clients). This term implies, that it is a grouping of individuals, between them, needn’t exist relationships, in sense of a sociological concept, it is not a community.

An organized community is a result of the professional activity of community workers, partly it can be the result of a spontaneous need of clients to join together. This mixture of associative and solidarity links express good the term “community of interests”

Community workers also work with families etc. – to could in cooperate with professional organizations to participate in help providing, so raise organized network, which is based on relationships in the community. We can speak about informal networks, that are providing informal help. Their cooperation with professional organizations grow up the integration of formal and no-formal care, which we could specify by the term service community.