Social Transformation Framework

The social transformation framework combines psychosocial and transformational strategies; it recognises that the individual must be supported and integrated within social support structures. The constituent elements of the framework - viz., vulnerability context, psycho-social domains and transformational processes - are interdependent, constituting different ways of describing interrelated phenomena. So, for example, in the event of a disastrous hurricane, the mode of aid delivery has an impact (positive or negative) on the vulnerability of the individuals and communities affected, and this shapes the way that community perceives any psychosocial intervention in the aftermath of the disaster. This in turn has a bearing on the response of the community to psychosocial intervention, which must necessarily precede (but not exclude) transformational processes. Both the psychosocial and transformational processes influence each other, requiring constant programmatic modification. The outcomes, in turn, have a bearing on the ongoing psychosocial intervention as they modify the resource pool.

Social transformation, in the above post-disaster example, recognises that the individual must be supported and integrated within emerging social support structures, and empowers the community to actively engage in supporting each other by giving them the knowledge and resources they need.

It helps the community to

• understand the processes that influence the receipt or mobilisation of post-disaster support.
• identify methods of applying such influence.
• implementing a long term plan to arrest decline in psycho-social and transformational resources.
• build fresh resources that substitute for those lost.
• re-establish psycho-social and transformational patterns.

This framework should be equally applicable to any community under similar circumstances. All communities are constantly affected by events and circumstances, and are continually adjusting to them. The understanding that communities are dynamic, always adjusting, and changing is fundamental to this concept. It can be seen as a process of engagement leading to transformation involving new relationships between the capacities, linkages and processes of that community.