The Case for Community Helpers
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Benjamin Deitchman
May 2, 2021
Community helpers was recently the curricular theme of the week in my son’s pre-kindergarten class, as they studied various professions that directly serve the public and support our communities. He and I discussed many of the obvious community helper professions of firefighter, doctor, crossing guard and teacher, but there was not a strict definition of community helper, leading to a fun dialogue about whether or not a clown was a community helper. The ambiguities of this preschool terminology are unsurprising, as society writ large has grappled with the concept of the essential worker in light of social distancing requirements to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. As we reconsider professional categorizations in public policy and public administration, the concept and meaning of community helpers ought to graduate from children into the academic and practitioner discourse.
There is an idealism in the wording of community helper that reflects a rationale behind why many people choose their particular professions. For all of the impersonal aspects of modern society, there also remains a strong desire for and attachment to community and the opportunity to help from within one’s community. Public service may be the common parlance amongst adults, but the more juvenile phrasing of community helper may better link the purpose to the everyday goal. Community helper also has a broader scope than public servant, as it explicitly includes those private sector employees who engage in the direct functioning of society regardless of the financial source of their paychecks. A FedEx or UPS delivery driver is as much of a community helper as a United States Postal Service mail carrier. Public private partnerships, contracting out and other public administration jargon are not part of the preschool curriculum on community helpers, but intersectoral service provision is implicit in this discourse for more advanced students.
One aspect of the community helper concept in the early childhood classroom that adults ought to adjust is the focus on only frontline workers as community helpers. With many people in various professions enjoying the safety and opportunity of working from home for more than a year, frontline workers deserve all of the respect and praise for keeping our communities functioning amidst the public health crisis. As we return to a more socialized daily life and workplace, we also must be sure that our society recognizes that community help occurs outside of everyday visibility. The recent grounding of the Ever Given ship in the Suez Canal, delaying cargo traffic in our global economy, enlightened citizens and consumers to the behind-the-scenes efforts of merchants and mariners to keep us all supplied with necessary products. Community helpers perform their duties in direct, difficult and dangerous situations, but also in boring old offices that support the greater good.
As we reconsider policing and public safety, the idea of the community helper could be a useful paradigm for expectations of police officers going forward. Law enforcement is necessary to maintain public order and support the rules and regulation that government and society promulgate. The police need to cease or diffuse situations that negatively impact our neighborhoods. The goal of the police is not just law and order, however, but also to help the community. Police officers ought to act as community helpers in maintaining stability and serving the community as the community desires. When police officers act outside of their role in the community or ignore the community, they are no longer helpful and can be a detriment to society. “Police officers should always be community helpers,” as a motto seems like a simple but critical option in considering reform to that profession.
As we dive into the arcane theory and pragmatic practice of public policy and public administration as students, researchers and practitioners, it is easy to forget the key principles that drive our public service and justify the existence of our careers. Most of us did not seek to become street level bureaucrats or policy analysts and do not define our efforts as such. We are here to be community helpers and our success lies in how much we can actually help our communities. For all of the complexity of the fields of public policy and public administration, we also need to be able to explain our work such that children can understand our purpose. For the term “community helper” to enter the lexicon for advanced study and debate, it will require a stricter definition to help us to categorize and engage with its meaning. At its core, however, being a community helper is why you became a public sector (or otherwise public serving professional) and we should be proud to be community helpers.
Author: Benjamin Deitchman is a professional and volunteer community helper in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Deitchman’s email address is DeitchmanB at gmail dot com and he is on Twitter at “Deitchman.”
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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The Case for Community Helpers
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Benjamin Deitchman
May 2, 2021
Community helpers was recently the curricular theme of the week in my son’s pre-kindergarten class, as they studied various professions that directly serve the public and support our communities. He and I discussed many of the obvious community helper professions of firefighter, doctor, crossing guard and teacher, but there was not a strict definition of community helper, leading to a fun dialogue about whether or not a clown was a community helper. The ambiguities of this preschool terminology are unsurprising, as society writ large has grappled with the concept of the essential worker in light of social distancing requirements to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. As we reconsider professional categorizations in public policy and public administration, the concept and meaning of community helpers ought to graduate from children into the academic and practitioner discourse.
There is an idealism in the wording of community helper that reflects a rationale behind why many people choose their particular professions. For all of the impersonal aspects of modern society, there also remains a strong desire for and attachment to community and the opportunity to help from within one’s community. Public service may be the common parlance amongst adults, but the more juvenile phrasing of community helper may better link the purpose to the everyday goal. Community helper also has a broader scope than public servant, as it explicitly includes those private sector employees who engage in the direct functioning of society regardless of the financial source of their paychecks. A FedEx or UPS delivery driver is as much of a community helper as a United States Postal Service mail carrier. Public private partnerships, contracting out and other public administration jargon are not part of the preschool curriculum on community helpers, but intersectoral service provision is implicit in this discourse for more advanced students.
One aspect of the community helper concept in the early childhood classroom that adults ought to adjust is the focus on only frontline workers as community helpers. With many people in various professions enjoying the safety and opportunity of working from home for more than a year, frontline workers deserve all of the respect and praise for keeping our communities functioning amidst the public health crisis. As we return to a more socialized daily life and workplace, we also must be sure that our society recognizes that community help occurs outside of everyday visibility. The recent grounding of the Ever Given ship in the Suez Canal, delaying cargo traffic in our global economy, enlightened citizens and consumers to the behind-the-scenes efforts of merchants and mariners to keep us all supplied with necessary products. Community helpers perform their duties in direct, difficult and dangerous situations, but also in boring old offices that support the greater good.
As we reconsider policing and public safety, the idea of the community helper could be a useful paradigm for expectations of police officers going forward. Law enforcement is necessary to maintain public order and support the rules and regulation that government and society promulgate. The police need to cease or diffuse situations that negatively impact our neighborhoods. The goal of the police is not just law and order, however, but also to help the community. Police officers ought to act as community helpers in maintaining stability and serving the community as the community desires. When police officers act outside of their role in the community or ignore the community, they are no longer helpful and can be a detriment to society. “Police officers should always be community helpers,” as a motto seems like a simple but critical option in considering reform to that profession.
As we dive into the arcane theory and pragmatic practice of public policy and public administration as students, researchers and practitioners, it is easy to forget the key principles that drive our public service and justify the existence of our careers. Most of us did not seek to become street level bureaucrats or policy analysts and do not define our efforts as such. We are here to be community helpers and our success lies in how much we can actually help our communities. For all of the complexity of the fields of public policy and public administration, we also need to be able to explain our work such that children can understand our purpose. For the term “community helper” to enter the lexicon for advanced study and debate, it will require a stricter definition to help us to categorize and engage with its meaning. At its core, however, being a community helper is why you became a public sector (or otherwise public serving professional) and we should be proud to be community helpers.
Author: Benjamin Deitchman is a professional and volunteer community helper in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Deitchman’s email address is DeitchmanB at gmail dot com and he is on Twitter at “Deitchman.”
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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