Abstract This paper presents a firm argument in support of the Littlejohns and Thompson’s assertion that those interventions that take in account and are founded up on the available community capacities are likely to realize the kind of change desired unlike those based up on the traditional top-down approach to community development. It addresses concepts such as self-determination, self-reliance, resilience, empowerment and socio-ecological perspective in the context of this assertion. It supports their assertion on the basis of the multi-sectoral nature of community development and capacity building in human services. Introduction Development is a multi-faceted human phenomenon that requires participation and input of every individual member and various communal groups like youth groups, women groups, charity groups and others. Development in this task will be understood as positive progress made in different spheres of human life intended to raise the living standards of all members of the society regardless of their social status, race, gender, and religion, ethnic and political affiliation Somerville (2011,p.120). It is important to note that different communities have and have had at different times unique and diverse development needs. Meaning that what is urgent in one particular region within the same country may not be a priority in another region. Consequently, development experts have put forward different approaches to community development. The top-bottom and bottom-up approaches to community development have been in application by many communities for a considerable period of time both in the developed world as well as in the developing countries Somerville (2011, p.121). However, proliferation and acceptance of values and ideals of liberal democracy have caused a shift to support and adoption of bottom-up, side in and third sectors approach to community development Somerville (2011, p.120). This change of approach to community development in many societies emanated from experience and studies that found out that the top-down approach was to a large extent an impediment to an inclusive development because majority of the masses for which development is sought are locked out from taking part in development decision making process Somerville (2011, p.121). It is worth noting that bottom-up development approach is largely informed by the principle of popular participation which is a core value of liberal democracy which many societies have been embracing in the recent past following the demise of Cold war from which capitalism and its political values reaffirmed its dominance as the ideology of the day courtesy of the Western countries led by the United States. Somerville (2011, p.121) explains that the concept of free enterprise shows the ideas behind bottom-up community development, that is, the belief that people should be at liberty to develop socioeconomically as they wish through free trade and exchange. The purpose of this paper is to discuss Littlejohns and Thompson’s assertion that interventions which considers and are founded up on available community capacities are bound to be more successful in bringing the kind of change wanted than those designed in an exclusively traditi