The present paper describes actions which community psychologists and social workers undertook when acting as consultants for community development in a very poor neighborhood in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The work addressed questions regarding community participation in planning actions, determining priorities, defining and using common resources. Postulates of Social Community Psychology (Freitas, 1996) were employed to approach external agents without loss of basic community rights and responsibilities) and with respect for the differences between academics and life reality of the community. We believe that actions like those can be undertaken with sucess in other settings, if the psychologist approaches the community with a broad and realistic view of the work that could and should be done.
Community development; partnership; citizenship