Driving and Developing Welfare Grassroot Economy in Mae Jo Municipality and Pa PhaiSubdistrict Municipality, San Sai District, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

The objectives of this article were: 1) To examine the roles and duties of community organizing groups in the process of driving the grassroots economy on improving the quality of life of members at the household and community level of community organizing groups, 2) To investigate the process of developing the potential of community organizing groups regarding the process of building cooperation among community organizing groups in driving and developing a welfare grassroots economy. The article was qualitative research and the instrument used in the research study was a semi-structured interview form, and focus group. Key informants included representatives of community organizing groups, representatives from government and private agencies, representatives of local leaders, representatives of educational institutions, representatives of religious leaders, and representatives of the public sector with the total 60.

           The results of the study found that most community organizing groups were formed under government policies under the supervision of government agencies. Moreover, most organizations worked in accordance with the objectives of the establishment to achieve the goals of each group, focusing on strengthening the specific group. In addition, the study showed that neither community organizing groups drive and develop the community's economic base directly.       At the same time, there had been informal integration of community organizing groups as the main facilitator for building integrated cooperation in driving the grassroots economy concretely.

           The results of the study on the development of the potential of community organizing groups to be strong found that they were able to manage self-reliance and can be relied upon by the people in the community. Therefore, it is very necessary to lead to the creation of a process for developing community organizing groups through group leaders and committees. The processes for developing community organizing groups were: 1) searching for problems of needs, and potential, 2) designing learning processes to create the knowledge,                     3) organizing a workshop to develop the potential of community organizing groups through committee leaders and members, and  4) designing the process of building integrated cooperation to develop a welfare grassroots economy leading the behavior for benefit further.