Community-based empowerment: Assessing the social capital of local stakeholders

The first step in institutionalizing community-based approaches to development is to examine the status of society in terms of participation in development projects. Therefore, this research was conducted to evaluate the status of actors and social capital of stakeholders in order to assess the readiness for participation in local development programs and projects in the Kourin section of Zahedan city functions. The research is from an objective perspective, applied and methodically descriptive-survey. The studied population includes all residents of Sarjangal village, covered by the socio-economical project of pistachio processing, by the Blessed Foundation in the Kourin district of Zahedan, with a population of 1790 people. Based on the Cochran formula, 316 were considered as a statistical sample. To analyze the data in the descriptive section, the mean and standard deviation were used and in the inferential part, t-test with constant value and repeated measures test were used. The findings show that the existing status of components of social trust, social participation and social awareness is undesirable and the status of the component of social cohesion is acceptable at the acceptable level.