Strategies for Citizen Participation and Empowerment in Non-profit, Community-Based Organizations

In community development, there is a consensus that citizen participation, empowerment, and linking community residents and clients of organizations to the political system are important goals. There is also a great deal of empirical evidence that verifies the effectiveness of empowerment in community-based organizations. However, little of this literature explicates the actual activities that are required to implement this approach. This paper examines strategies that can be used by non-profit, community-based organizations to encourage participation in organizational and political decision-making. A conceptual model is described that links citizen participation with specific outcomes associated with empowerment-enhancing activities in community-based organizations.