Evaluation Of Youths Participation In Self Help Community Development

1.1 Background Of The Study

From the earliest time of human history people have enjoyed and shared together the good tidings of nature because of the presence of communities and the social activities performed by the people for the advancement of their community, which is better called Community Development (CD). The notion of community development was first stated publicly in 1948 at the Cambridge Conference on African Administration at which community development was considered as a movement aiming to promote better living for the entire community. For Hill (2011), it signifies a coordinated strategy whereby the community members conduct activities and initiatives in order to ameliorate the living situation of the people live in that community. This according to Johnson (2008) signifies the improvement in the physca1 and material wellness including livelihood of people in the community. Community development consequently, assist individuals to discover and develop their skill and potential in order to meet their issues and needs which they share (Effiong, 2012). (Effiong, 2012).

Community development marks the stage in the life of a community where by members come together to take collective actions in order to generate solutions to their identified problems.Some scholars like Afuye (2015) posit that community development is a structured intervention that gives communities greater control over the conditions that affect their lives. This however, does not solve all the problems faced by a local community, but it does build up confidence to tackle such problems as effectively as any local action can perform. In essence, community development works at the level of local groups and organizations rather than with individuals or families. Implying that community development has to look both ways; not only at how the community is working at the grassroots, but also how responsive key institutions are to the needs of local communities.

In this regard, people collectively make use of available local resources (human and material) at their disposal to improve their standard of living. They may form community based development unions which would enable them participate in community development projects. The spirit of self-help guided the zeal of the people and in no time, roads, for instance, were constructed through virgin forest to link up villages and other neighbouring communities. People also undertook self-help community development projects like building of markets, community halls, road expansion and maintenance, tree planting to check erosion and communal palm fruits harvesting, amongst others (Nzeneri, 2008). Self-help community development projects are those tangible ventures that the inhabitants of the community embark on in order to improve the living condition of the people residing in that particular community. For example money realized from communal palm fruit harvesting is usually used to sponsor the education/scholarship of indigent students in the community as well as foot the bills of other development activities

One of the basic assumptions of community development herein is that community development activities are all inclusive as it provides opportunity for people to learn and grow thus, ensuring that no segment of the populace is exempted, youths inclusive. According to (Rowland, 2011). Definitely, being young is a transitional phase of life which carries with it increased vulnerabilities and delinquencies. If the youths are not adequately harnessed it becomes a problem. Youths therefore, could be effectively mobilized and involved as assets, beneficiaries, partners and youth leaders in community development activities which abound in various communities; instead of displaying their unruly behaviors as militants, terrorists and other restiveness in the community and society today. involvement is the act of participating in the achievement or accomplishment of a particular task. Youths involvement in the context of this study means giving the youths opportunity to effectively participate as facilitators in community development agenda in all the stages because of the effect it will have on their lives now and in future. Through their involvement they will be acquainted with the myriad of problems in their communities and suggest remediation. Thus, this study will provide information on the self-help community development projects embarked upon by communities in the study areas, ascertain the areas of youths involvement in self-help community development projects and finally find out the constraints to youths participation in self help community development in Benin City, Edo State.