LOCAL GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT - EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERCEPTIONS OF EMPOWERMENT AND COMMUNITY IMPACT

Local governments are increasingly turning to community-based organiza tions (CBOs) to support improvement in low-income neighborhoods. perce ptions of more than 70 community leaders and 120 citizens involved in the formation of a CBO in the Orlando, Florida, metropolitan area an u sed to illuminate relationships between community empowerment and comm unity improvement, Congruent with expectations, findings suggest that both local government responsiveness and community involvement in deci sion making ore linked to perceptions of community improvement. In con trast to expectations, findings suggest that in early stages of commun ity development citizen involvement in the development activities of t he CBO is not strongly correlated with either the perception of commun ity impact or the anticipation of positive change, As a result, local governments sponsoring similar ventures need to recognize the importan ce of information and communication as tools to secure citizen partici pation until such rime as citizen volunteers are more fully engaged in the development process.