A diagnostic model for evaluating community-based organizations takes into account the political, legal, social, economic, and cultural environment and the organization's structure, membership, goals, resources, philosophy, leadership styles, and rewards/sanctions. The ways in which both sets of variables either facilitate or inhibit the…

Community workers should leave training with a foundation for liberatory practice. Their educational experience should be consistent with the rhetoric of community development; it should use learner-centered methods and transformative learning, and provide conditions in which learners can create their own knowledge. (SK)