Transcript Community Assessment and Interventions

Community Assessment and
Interventions
Community is:
• A group of people identified by shared
interest or characteristics
• May involve a geographic location, but not
always
Basic Premise of Community
Level Change Strategies
“Change will more likely to be successful and
permanent when the people it affects are
involved in initiating and promoting it”
Community Mobilization
• Community organization / mobilization is a
planned process to activate a community to
use its own social structures and any
available resources (internal or external) to
accomplish community goals, decided
primarily by community representatives and
consistent with local values.
Working in Community
• There is continuum of community work
ranging from what some might call “pure”
community development (the community
decides the issue and solution - may ask for
outside “expert” advice) to more mixed
methods in which there is some combination
of community and “expert” input.
Assuming we are working with a
community
• How do we decide the issue?
• What if we work for an agency that has
already decided (e.g., a local health
department)?
• If we already know the issue, can we get real
community participation?
No matter where on the continuum
our project falls, we must
• Involve the community as much as possible
throughout the process
• Listen to community concerns and respond to
them
• Work with the community to assess the
present situation
Community Assessment
• Most assessments focus on the “needs” of
communities
• It is important to also focus on the strengths
or assets of a community
• In almost every case, we need to do both
Asset Mapping
• All communities have assets
• These may be thought of as:
– Located in the community, under
community control
– Located in the community, under outside
control
– Located outside the community
Located in the community community control
• Individual Assets
– Skills, talents and
experience of
residents
– Individual businesses
– Home-based
enterprises
– Personal income
– Gifts of labeled people
• Organizational Assets:
– Businesses
associations
– Citizen’s associations
– Cultural organizations
– Communication
organizations
– Religious organizations
Located in the community - out of
community control
• Private and non-profit
organizations
– Higher education
institutions
• Public institutions and
services:
– Public schools
– Police
– Hospitals
– Libraries
– Social service
– Fire departments
agencies
– Parks
Located in community - out of
community control
• Physical Resources:
– Vacant land
– Vacant structures
– Vacant housing
– Energy and waste resources
Outside of Community
• Welfare expenditures
• Public information
Once we know the assets,
how do we
assess the problems
Social Assessment
• The Social Assessment is the “process of
determining people’s perceptions of their own
needs or quality of life, and their aspirations
for the common good, through broad
participation and the application of multiple
information-gathering activities designed to
expand understanding g of the community”.
Social Assessment …cont
• Requires data form several sources
• Requires community participation
Social Assessment …cont
• What are some objective indicators of quality
of life?
• Unemployment rates
• School drop-out rates
• Income levels
• Violent occurrences
Social Assessment …cont
• The subjective assessment of quality of life is
as important.
• It gives us a view of the situation through the
eyes of the community.
Social Assessment …cont
• How do get this subjective information?
• Questionnaires
• Community forums
• Key informant interviews
• Focus groups
Epidemiological Assessment
• Which health problem are important
(objectively measure)
• Which behavioral and environmental factors
contribute to the health p[problem
Epidemiological Assessment
• Most common indicators
– Mortality
– Morbidity
– Disability
– Discomfort
– Dissatisfaction
Epidemiological Assessment
– Life expectancy
– Fitness
– Years of potential life lost
Community-Based
• Community-based/owned interventions are
those primarily driven by the residents of the
community at every stage: identification or
definition of the problem or issue,
development of solutions and strategies,
implementation, and governance
Community-Based
• Operationally, they are the most often
physically located in the priority community
• Center for the Advancement of Community-based
Public Health
Community-Placed
• Community-place interventions are those that
are physically located within the given
geographic community to be served. Most
often they are planned, designed and
implemented by an outside agency or
organization. Often they will have an
advisory board that includes community
residents.
• Center for the Advancement of Community-based Public
Health
Basic Changes Strategies
• Locality Development
– Let’s get together and talk this over. An
effort to get a wide range of community
people involved in determining their “felt
needs” and showing their own problems.
“Buzz Words”
• Locality Development
– Self help
– Empowerment
– Felt needs
– Group process
– Enabler
Basic Changes Strategies
• Social Planning
– Let's get the facts and take the logical next
steps. An effort to gather pertinent facts
about the problem then decide on a logical
course of action. Experts decide the
problems.
“Buzz Words”
• Social Planning
– Administration
– Fact-gathering
– Bureaucracy
– Experts
Basic Changes Strategies
• Social Action
– Let’s organize to destroy our oppressor.
An effort to crystallize the issue so that
people know who their enemy is and to
organize mass action to bring pressure on
selected targets.
“Buzz Words”
• Social Action
– Social injustice
– Activism
– Oppressor
– Redistribution of power
Rothman
• The three models are usually mixed in
some way-these are not set in stone!
Conclusion
• Working with communities can take
many forms. In general, interventions
are more effective if the community has
been involved in their planning,
development and implementation
THANK YOU!