Smallholder farmers in the Philippines remain trapped in a cycle of poverty, with a poverty rate of 27%, nearly double the national average despite their role as the country’s primary food providers. While traditional agricultural programs often focus strictly on technical inputs and crop yields, they frequently overlook the "human element"; that is, the social processes of trust, identity, and collective action, that determine whether a community enterprise succeeds or fails. This study addresses that gap by exploring how participatory pathways enable farmers in Sorsogon to move beyond subsistence toward self-reliant social enterprises.
The study utilized a qualitative descriptive phenomenological design to capture the authentic voices of 187 participants’ lived experiences. It examines how participatory social preparation strengthens capabilities, fosters self-efficacy, and builds cohesion while also investigating how social capital (trust, shared norms, and collective responsibility) supports resilience and sustainability. The study further considers structural barriers to market access and the enabling conditions that allow farmer-led social enterprises to thrive. This cohort included members from eight associations supported by the Department of Agriculture’s Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) program and four established independent farmer groups. Data gathered through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and observations were analyzed using a hybrid framework of Reflexive Thematic Analysis and Colaizzi’s method to ensure the findings remained anchored in the farmers' lived realities.
Findings reveal that while participation in training acts as a gateway for skill expansion, it does not automatically lead to empowerment unless it is supported by deep-rooted social capital. Trust in leadership emerged as the critical backbone of resilience, allowing groups to rebuild after climate disasters and bypass predatory middlemen through collective marketing. Farmers’ narratives reveal that practices such as bayanihan (communal work), damayan (mutual aid), and kapwa (shared identity) are not peripheral cultural traits but foundational mechanisms of resilience and cooperation. These practices, when aligned with institutional support, enable communities to transition into social enterprises that balance livelihood improvement with social justice and ecological sustainability. A comparative analysis shows a distinct contrast between the two study groups: SAAD associations benefit from structured state facilitation but often face the risk of coordinator dependency, whereas independent farmer groups demonstrate high operational autonomy and broader community service but suffer more direct exposure to macroeconomic shocks and cheap imports.
By comparing SAAD-assisted groups with independent farmer groups, the study demonstrates that authentic development is measured not by short-term outputs but by the collective capacity of communities to shape their own futures. Ultimately, it argues that sustainable agricultural transformation is a social process cultivated through participation, solidarity, and shared responsibility. In doing so, the study contributes to the discourse on participatory development and solidarity economy, offering insights into how smallholder farmers in Sorsogon are planting the seeds of change for resilient and flourishing rural communities.
Ultimately, this study contributes to Social Development Theory by proposing the Participatory Capability–Solidarity Pathway Model. This framework illustrates that sustainable agricultural development is not a linear economic progression, but a non-linear social process driven by the institutionalization of solidarity. The model is an empirically grounded, dynamic, and community-centered framework that explains how marginalized farming communities transition from structural vulnerability toward sustainable well-being. The results suggest that the Filipino tradition of bayanihan serves as a functional economic mechanism that converts individual participation into collective agency. For

development to be sustainable, the focus may pivot from simple asset distribution toward fostering mentor-protégé networks and protecting emerging community-led enterprises from systemic market inequities.

Caregiving for children with disabilities is often treated as a private family responsibility. However, caregiving is gendered, and shaped by broader sociocultural, structural, and institutional realities that influence how families access support, navigate services, and understand disability in everyday life. This study explored the lived experiences of Filipino caregivers of children with disabilities and examined the relational conditions through which emerging spaces for organizing may develop.
Guided by Community Development, Critical Disability Studies, Sikolohiyang Pilipino, and Critical Pedagogy, the study employed a qualitative and interpretive research design. Data were generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews, accompaniment and observation, naturally occurring conversations, reflexive journaling, and field notes. Five mothers whose children were receiving free occupational therapy services at the Center
for Habilitation and Neurological Training of Emilio Aguinaldo College–Manila contributed to the study. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis, with attention to the meanings caregivers constructed from their experiences and relationships.
Four interconnected themes emerged: (1) Carrying More Than the Child: The Hidden Labor of Caregiving, which highlighted the emotional, physical, financial,
organizational, and logistical demands of care; (2) Learning to Become a Caregiver, which described how caregivers developed practical knowledge, confidence, and agency through everyday experience; (3) Building Relational Spaces of Care, which emphasized mutual understanding, shared learning, and reciprocal support among caregivers; and (4) “Hindi Lang Pala Ako Nag-iisa”: From Personal Burdens to
Shared Realities, which showed how caregivers began recognizing that difficulties experienced within their households were also encountered by others and shaped by broader social conditions.
The findings demonstrate that caregiving is not solely an individual or familial responsibility but a gendered, relational, and socially situated form of labor. Caregivers for children with disabilities developed situated knowledge through practice and formed meaningful relationships through which experiences could be validated, compared, and understood collectively. Although no formal caregiver organization or coordinated
collective action emerged during the study, everyday encounters revealed early processes of trust-building, mutual support, shared learning, and collective recognition.
The study concludes that emerging spaces for organizing may develop through ordinary relational encounters rather than through formal structures alone. Such spaces may create conditions through which caregivers recognize common concerns, imagine responses beyond individual coping, and gradually develop possibilities for collective engagement. The study contributes to Community Development and disability scholarship by showing how caregiving may become a site of reflection, solidarity, and emerging organizing potential.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a social phenomenon that often leads survivors to seek custody in residential care facilities (RCFs), as their families may be unable to adequately safeguard their welfare and best interests. Survivors frequently experience low self-esteem due to the effects of the abuse, making social work interventions in shelters essential for strengthening this psychological construct, which is crucial for their healing and recovery. Previous research indicates that social work interventions, including individual and group sessions in RCFs, have helped survivors regain their self-esteem.
This study explores current interventions in private RCFs in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. Specifically, it aims to identify social work interventions targeting survivors' self-esteem, determine stakeholders' perceptions of survivors' biopsychosocial and spiritual aspects, and explore the strengths and challenges affecting these interventions. The study utilizes key informant interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders, including survivors, social workers, houseparents, psychologists, and administrators. Moreover, it develops an indigenized self-esteem self-assessment scale to measure changes in survivors' self-esteem from pre-admission to the final phase of the healing program at the shelter.
The findings reveal that group therapy sessions and therapeutic activities are the most effective interventions for strengthening survivors' self-esteem, followed by traditional individual and family interventions. The study also identifies indicators of both low and strengthened self-esteem among Filipino survivors. These indicators give stakeholders practical tools to assess the appropriateness of their interventions and track progress toward healing and recovery. With the help of this research, RCFs and stakeholders can view survivors' self-esteem as an important determinant for their healing and recovery from CSA.

Isa ang Lungsod ng Naga sa Camarines Sur, Bicol sa mga masiglang syudad ng Pilipinas. Mayaman ang kultura; kilala sa mga magagandang polisiya at programa ng lokal na pamahalaan. Sa kabila nito, may mga sektor pa rin sa lungsod na araw-araw na pinapasan ang kahirapan at sistemang patriyarkal. Isa rito ang mga babaeng padyak drayber. Matapang silang tumutugon sa pangangailangang pangkabuhayan sa kabila ng iba’t ibang mukha ng diskriminasyon. Sinusuri ng pananaliksik na ito ang kanilang karanasan sa pamamadyak at pakikilahok sa mga samahan upang mabigyang-boses ang kanilang sektor sa pormal na adbokasiya.
Tumuntong ang mananaliksik sa kumbinasyon ng ilang mahahalagang konsepto na nakaugat sa interseksyunalidad o intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), mobility justice (Sheller, 2018), at transport justice (Martens, 2017) para usisain ang sitwasyon, danas, pangarap, at pagkilos ng 15 babaeng padyak drayber sa Naga. Iniugnay ang mga ideyang ito sa balangkas nina Fraser (2005) at Rivera (2018) na nagbibigay diin sa halaga ng pamamahagi (redistribution), pagkilala (recognition), at pagrepresenta (representation) bilang sandigan ng malalim na pag-unawa sa sitwasyon, pangarap, at pagkilos ng mga babaeng padyak drayber sa Naga.
Ang mga kababaihang padyak drayber sa Naga ay maituturing na mga "mid-life breadwinners" na pumapasada sa gitna ng patung-patong na pasanin (multiple burden) at diskriminasyon upang matiyak ang pagkain (food security) at edukasyon ng kanilang pamilya. Sa kabila ng pagiging "invisible" sa mga tradisyunal na polisiya at programa, ang kanilang paghawak sa manibela ay paggiit ng awtonomiya sa isang industriyang dominado ng kalalakihan. Gayunpaman, ang mga sistematikong hadlang tulad ng korapsyon sa prangkisa at patronage politics ay nagpapanatili sa kanila sa isang pamamaraan ng pakikibaka at

istruktural na kawalan ng katarungan. Ang pagtugon sa mga balakid na ito, kasabay ang pagkilala sa kanilang ambag at redistribusyon ng kapangyarihan, ay kritikal upang ganap na maisulong ang kanilang karapatan at mapalakas ang boses sa ekonomiya ng lungsod.
Tinatalakay din sa pag-aaral na ito ang mga aspirasyon at konkretong mungkahi ng mga kababaihang padyak drayber upang gawing mas inklusibo, ligtas, at progresibo ang sektor ng transportasyon sa Lungsod ng Naga. Binibigyang-diin ang pangangailangan sa istruktural na hustisya sa pamamagitan ng reporma sa prangkisa (socialized franchising), pagtatatag ng mga daycare center sa mga terminal, at pagkakaroon ng kinatawan ng kababaihan sa pamunuan ng PODA. Gamit ang lente ng katarungang panlipunan, iminumungkahi ang paglipat mula sa indibidwal na pagtitiis patungo sa sistemikong suporta na kumikilala sa kanila bilang mga katuwang sa lokal na ekonomiya at hindi lamang pasibong benepisyaryo ng ayuda. Sa huli, ang mithiin ay muling idisenyo ang kalsada at lungsod ng Naga bilang isang demokratikong espasyo kung saan ang bawat padyak ay simbolo ng dignidad, awtonomiya, at tunay na pagkakapantay-pantay.

Sa kasalukuyan, patuloy ang paglala ng epekto ng HIV at ang pagtaas ng bilang ng mga taong apektado nito sa lipunang Pilipino. Ipinapakita ng mga naunang pananaliksik na nakatuon pa rin ang pagtugon sa aspektong pangkalusugan, habang napapabayaan ang panlipunang dimensyon ng HIV, na lalo pang nagpapalala sa epekto nito. Sa kabila ng mga programa at pananaliksik, nananatiling limitado ang pananaliksik sa karanasan at kolektibong pagkilos ng mga apektadong tao at pamayanan.
Tinutugunan ng pananaliksik na ito ang puwang na ito sa pamamagitan ng pagtatampok sa kanilang kuwento at karanasan, at ipinapakita kung paano nagiging daluyan ng kapangyarihan, kamalayan, at pag-abante ng pagtugon sa HIV ang pag-oorganisa at kolektibong aksyon. Nakapundasyon ang pananaliksik sa kwalitatibo at exploratory na pamamaraan, kung saan itinampok ang sampung (10) samahang pampamayanan mula sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng bansa at tatlong (3) indibidwal na may direktang ugnayan sa mga ito. Nakalap ang datos sa pamamagitan ng tsikahan at litratalk, at sinuri gamit ang tematikong at komparatibong pagsusuri.
Lumitaw sa pananaliksik na ang pag-oorganisa ng mga tao at pamayanan ay nakaugat sa kanilang personal at kolektibong karanasan sa HIV. Dahil dito, pinili nilang kumilos upang tugunan ang kanilang mga pangangailangan at ipaglaban ang kanilang mga karapatan.
Ipinapakita ng pag-aaral na ang tao at pamayanan ang sentro ng epektibong pagtugon sa HIV. Binibigyang-diin din nito na ang pag-oorganisa ay mahalagang salik sa pagpapaunlad ng pambansang pagtugon at sa pagpapalakas ng boses ng mga taong apektado. Sa huli, ang sama-samang pagkilos ng mga taong apektado ang nagbibigay mukha at buhay sa datos at nagsisilbing tulay tungo sa mas inklusibo at positibong bukas.