Welcome to the our website

We would like to share our passion for community development as a science with your experience in practice. Together we could take your community development practice to the level of evidence based science.

Priority Index

The Priority Index (P-Index) is specifically designed to prioritise the needs within communities or other target groups.  It is designed to (i) determine the actual needs of the community at a given point in time, (ii) ranking them in order of importance, (iii) through the people’s voice without being paternalistic, (iv) in such a way as to reflect the measured differences in urgency between the needs represented by the various items. The P-Index use priority of needs defined as the discrepancy between the importance and satisfaction regarding the same expressed need.

Community Index

The potential for community development depends on three issues namely the (i) bonding in the community that has the potential to affect the possibility of involvement of the members in the community in shaping their environment, (ii) the extent to which their individual basic physical needs are satisfied, and (iii) the extent to which their social needs are satisfied. The Community Index (C-Index) consists of the following 15 basic building blocks that symbolise the basic cornerstones for any community to exist as a community through all times. The latter is the reason for a value-free interpretation of each of the building blocks to reflect the “people’s voice”.

BIIM

The Baseline Intervention Impact Monitor (BIIM) is specifically designed to inform funding agencies involved in community development intervention projects and project auditors/evaluators and/or project leaders that have to reflect on the level of success of a community development intervention project/programme. It should also be accepted that the sustainability of a community intervention project cannot be determined from the outset. The sustainability of any community intervention project simply demands a (i) time-lapse, (ii) baseline needs assessment and (ii) evaluation measurement. The UniSearch BIIM is a sustainability monitoring measurement to determine the longevity of the effect of a community intervention project, i.e. one year later in the same target community, to fathom the progress or regress in the impact of the development intervention in the target community.

5 Erijaville focus group

Doing the right community project too early is just as wrong as doing the right project too late! The successful Community Development Practitioner is also a timing artist. We can assist you doing the right project at the right time.

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About UniSearch

De Wet Schutte is an emeritus Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Studies at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). He is currently on a contract appointment as a Researcher in the Centre for Student Support Services (CSSS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He holds an MA degree from Stellenbosch University and a DPhil degree from the University of Pretoria in Sociology. He worked for 18 years with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), where his research focused on intergroup studies, community development theory and practice, and research methodology. He joined the CPUT in 2006 as a Community Development, Sociology, Research Methodology and Management Practice lecturer. He is also the founder of UniSearch Community Development and Research Consultants. He developed the Basic Need community development theory and various data collection instruments, including the Baseline Intervention Impact Monitor (BIIM) and Water Contact Profile (WCP). He also developed and patented the Schutte Scale, a manual measuring instrument to quantify qualitative perceptions across languages, cultures and literacy levels. His Priority Index (P-Index) community needs assessment, and Community Index (C-Index) community profiling techniques are used by various institutions to prioritise and monitor human needs in their target communities as part of their integrated development programmes.

Our Services

We have more than 40 years experience in scientific research, lecturing and as community development practitioner, ready to be blended with your needs. Do not hesitate to contact us for the following services.

Community Development Consultancy
We provide consultancy and project evaluation services based on more than 40 years of development consulting and research experience.
Social Impact and Monitoring Studies
We give the social impact assessment (SIA) focus for your multidisciplinary environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies.
Baseline Community Needs Assessments
Our unique technique to Prioritise community needs has been the standard for various community development initiatives.
Innovative tailor made Social Research Projects
We can assist you with your questionnaire development and innovative scientific data collection and measuring techniques.
Community development theory and practice
We offer formal tertiary lecturing and/or community workshops on community development theory and practice.
Lecturing: Research Methodology
We offer an interdisciplinary Research Methodology course which covers qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques.

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