Mission Statement

The mission of the Cottonera Community Service is to work closely with the local community in order to facilitate and encourage a process of change within the community through local participation. The Unit strives to enhance the local potential, to offer optimal individual and family social work services that are aimed especially at the most vulnerable in the community, whilst taking into consideration the context, culture and everyday life of the residents.

The Service

The Cottonera Community Service, which prior to July 2002 was known as the Community Development Unit, works within the communities of Cottonera and Kalkara. This unit works with two strategies, which are community social work and community development. It is committed to work with other agencies and with the residents in order to build a more caring community.

Community social work aims at helping the individual function better within his or her community, to build support networks, and make best use of the services available. Community social work is directed towards the whole community and not just the individual who is the primary service user. This compliments the traditional social work intervention. Being in the community means that the worker is better equipped to see a broader view of the life situations of the service users, and use the resources within the community in order to address their needs.

The basis of community development is the empowerment of the local residents, via organisation and skills training, to improve the quality of life of the community through collective action. Community development seeks to identify the community's potential, to strengthen it and to facilitate local participation in addressing issues that are affecting the community. The community development principles are aimed directly to the more vulnerable in the community, to those who use the services of social work and even potential users.

Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of this service are:

- To improve the quality of life of the local community and promote community care.

- To improve the quality of life of children, families and individuals in the Cottonera community, with particular attention to the most vulnerable and excluded in the community.

- To provide social work services within the community.

- To bring centralised social welfare services closer to the community.

- To build and enhance formal and informal support networks for the benefit of the most excluded in the community.

- To promote and enable the process of community development through local participation.

- To strengthen local potential through support, training and collaboration.

- To evaluate the changes that are taking place and constantly work for more positive changes in the community.