Witnessing, saving, serving? A relational approach to community development in the suburbs of a global city

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the community development practice of The Salvation Army in a public housing estate in Sydney, Australia. Drawing on interviews with community members, officers, staff, and volunteers from The Salvation Army, we explore the transformative potential of relational, rather than transactional, community development practices. In accepting the theological principle of imago Dei as the foundation for its practice, The Salvation Army prioritized listening, witnessing and simply loving people and place, and generated a profound sense of belonging and connectedness. This relational approach to community development offers valuable lessons for faith-based communities of social work practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Religion
• advocacy
• community organizing
• public housing
• relational community development
• The Salvation Army
• imago Dei
• engaged witnessing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The research has produced a short film documenting the community and its relationships with the community house, which is freely available at https://vimeo.com/345849379.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Macquarie University [Enterprise Partnership Scheme Grant No 9201701105] jointly funded by The Salvation Army.