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Community Relations & Development System

A division of the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission

About the Community Relations and Development System

Mission

  

Foster cooperation and conciliation among diverse groups and elements within the population


within the process of


informing, examining, advising and helping to develop key contributors to the quality of community life, including intergroup relations


and in doing so


advance goodwill, harmony and the betterment of human affairs within South Carolina


How

By primarily supporting the creation and functioning of advisory, conciliation and development oriented community relations and development councils at the local, regional or statewide level, that aid in achieving the purposes of the act as stated above

Core Definitions, Beliefs & Values

Community Relations and Development Division

Group within the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission with the responsibility of fulfilling the goals of the South Carolina Human Affairs Act that focus on enhancing community relations and development via a network of community relations and development councils

Foster Cooperation

Process of bringing diverse community members (or representative citizens) into constructive, efficient and effective engagement with one another about key contributors to the quality of community life, including intergroup relations 

Intergroup Relations

Refers to patterns of perception and behavior that exists within the process of engagement between groups, and the impact of such patterns on the quality of community life and satisfaction with community experienced by group members 

Conciliation among Diverse Groups and Elements within the Population

Refers to the process of collaboratively identifying and addressing reasonable interests in a manner that emphasizes:

  • authentic and skillful engagement
  • mutual learning
  • reasonable distribution of responsibility
  • mutual flexibility and reasonable adjustment
  • pursuit of mutual satisfaction or reasonable compromise

Diverse Groups and Elements within the Population

Refers to:

  • groups represented by the protected characteristics defined within the body of Federal Civil Rights Legislation
  • groups of citizens who have common characteristics with consequences that may require conscious examination and management by the community 

Constructive Engagement

 Refers to:


  • Processes of general engagement that promotes authentic and skillful expression, and a skillful balance among active listening, seeking input, giving feedback, demonstrating support, setting reasonable boundaries and challenging others


  • Commitment to clarifying the origins of information that is being shared (e.g. scientific research, personal opinion based on life experiences, suggested patterns based on multiple observations, intuition or hunch etc.)


  • Commitment to reasonable openness, flexibility and learning


  • Pursuing an overarching goal of mutual learning, mutual adjustment, reasonable consensus and mutual satisfaction or reasonable compromise (except where compromise represents a substantial failure e.g. not protecting constitutionally protected human rights or failing to protect reasonable majority rights)


  • Processes of identifying, analyzing and advising on key contributors to the quality of community life that are organized, rational, appropriately creative and grounded in established outcome and process oriented ethics

Ethical Framework

Outcome Ethics

Determining whether a state or outcome is appropriate because it meets the criteria of:


  • Maximizing the most amount of satisfaction for the most community members (ethical basis for majority rules democratic systems)


  • Protection of reasonable individual, minority and group rights/interests from the unreasonable neglect and/or aggression of the majority (ethical basis for constitutional protections that limits the scope of the majority rules system)

Process Ethics

Trade-offs, balances and inclusion of the following process states that ensures that a process has integrity:


  • Direct input (e.g. it's your turn at the microphone)


  • Representation (e.g. I will be speaking on behalf of the people of Horry County)


  • Efficiency (e.g. we've received as much input as we possibly can accommodate, we now need to make a decision otherwise we'll miss the reentry window)


  • Due process (e.g. the process must included the right of rebuttal)


  • Structure and information used to support execution of the process is appropriate given the intended outcomes (e.g. don't flip a coin when deciding to support affordable housing, do the analysis)

Process and Outcome Linkage

Refers to the need for organized, rational and properly executed processes, supported by sufficiently valid information, in order to support the integrity of outcomes (e.g. conclusions, advise, decisions, course of action etc.)

Quality of Community LIfe

Refers to

A general perception of a community comprised of thoughts, feelings and wants that produce an emotional orientation toward the community ranging from dissatisfaction to satisfaction


Satisfaction with community is influenced by:

  • actual community conditions
  • perception of the actual community conditions (inner picture of the outer conditions)
  • extent to which the perceived conditions meet personal needs/wants which influences both thoughts and feelings about the community
  • nature of the personal expectations, needs and wants

Key Contributors to the Quality of Community Life

  

refers to those aspects of a community that significantly influence the quality of community life and satisfaction with community experienced by members of the community. Key contributors to the quality of community life include:

  

  • Political System
  • Local Government
  • Economic System
  • Public Safety and Judicial System
  • Infrastructure and transportation System
  • Education system 

  

  • Level of Health and Health Care System
  • Housing system
  • Food supply system
  • Social and Community Services System
  • Communication System
  • Arts, Entertainment, Culture, Leisure and Sports System 

  

  • Social Climate and Environment (state of social relations)
  • Natural Environment
  • Aesthetic Nature of the Community (look and feel)
  • Other Key Contributors to the Quality of Community Life

Human Affairs

 

Refers to matters of mutual concern that members of a community need to constructively address in order to maximize the quality of community life for the most people, while being responsive to reasonable individual, group and minority rights/interests

Goodwill

Refers to the development and maintenance of a positive disposition between members of different groups

Harmony

Refers to a state of intergroup relations that is generally free from unreasonable patterns of perception, behavior and consequences that arouse disruptive tension and engagement among groups 

Betterment of Human Affairs

Refers to

  

  • fostering cooperation and conciliation among diverse groups and elements within the population

within the process of


  • Informing, examining, advising and helping to develop key contributors to the quality of community life, including intergroup relations

and in doing so


  • Advance goodwill, harmony, the quality of community life and satisfaction with community