ln Pâttlal Futftllnant of Èhê - MSpace at the University of Manitoba

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my involvement in the workshops and WHCI , which lasted
approxinate]-y one and one harf years, r wourd potentiarry and
did, gain an understanding of the processes of conmunity building
and enpowerment. The experience I had with f,tHCI made the
inpedinents to empoe¡ernent quite c.Lear and all-or¡ed ¡¡e to
understand, in a very real r,¡ay, an empowerr¡ent based planning
practice woul-d not be an easy model- in which to work,
UNDERSTANDING EMPOWERMENT
My o¡{n personar netamorphosís towards ên understanding of
the idea and practice of empowernent occurred over a lengthy
period of tine in which f read about and discussed empowernent a
great deaJ- but never completely understood. The process began
with a belief in the need for greater part,icipetion by "regular
people" in the pranning process. At this point r pararrered
participation with enpowerment. r did not understand that the
fundamental dífference between participation and enpowernent was
that enpowernent dictates the necessity for totar cont¡or of the
situation to rest with the individuals who are effected by the
situation. Participation all.ows for the forun and agenda to be
controrLed by actors not directry effected by the circunstances
of the situation in question.
My understanding grew to the point where I recognized
empowernent to be different from partieipation in that
empowerment involved a greater amount of commitnent and nore of
an aII encompassing attitude of equity and social- justíce.
Empowerrnent was not necessarily based on what was best for ne,