Community Organizing and Health Promotion Programming Page 1 of 7

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
o It is not a SCIENCE but an art

Other terms:
1. Community capacity
2. Empowered community
3. Participation and Relevance
4. Social capacity

COMMUNITY SELECTION
Criteria:
1.
2.
3.



4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

THE PROCESS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING OR BUILDING

1. RECOGNIZING THE ISSUE
 Community organizing starts when someone recognizes that a problem exists in a community and decides
to do something about it

2. GAINING ENTRY INTO THE COMMUNITY

 Critical step in the process / most CRUCIAL step in the process

3. ORGANIZING THE PEOPLE

It is best to begin by organizing those who are already interested in seeing that the problem is solved.

Considerations on Recruitment of members:

(1) identify people who are impacted by the problem that they are trying to solve,
(2) provide “perks” for or otherwise reward volunteers,
(3) keep volunteer time short,
(4) match volunteer assignments with the abilities and expertise of the volunteers, and
(5) consider providing appropriate training to make sure volunteers are comfortable with their tasks.

COALITION
- is “a formal, long-term alliance among a group of individuals representing diverse organizations, factors
or constituencies within the community who agree to work together to achieve a common goal

Notes prepared by: EJDD, RMT

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4. ASSESING THE COMMUNITY: COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT

NEEDS ASSESMENT-

PRIMARY PURPOSE OF NEEDS ASSESMENT: is to determine whether the needs of the people are being
met
COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT:
is a process that:
A.
B.
C.

STEPS OF COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1.


2.
3.
4.
5.

WHY DO IT?
IT WILL ENABLE CHW's:
 plan and deliver the most effective care to those in greatest need;
 apply the principles of equity and social justice in practice;
 ensure that scarce resources are allocated where they can give maximum health benefit
 work collaboratively with the community, other professionals and agencies to determine which health
issues cause greatest concern and plan interventions to address those issues.

Defining “health” and “need”

 Holistic model of health, emphasizing the social, economic and cultural factors that affect health as well
as individual behaviour.
 The concept of “need” incorporates those needs felt and expressed by local people as well as those
defined by professionals. It moves beyond the concept of demand and takes account of people’s capacity
to benefit from health care and public health programmes.

Health is affected by a number of factors:

o
o
o
o
o
HEALTH MODEL
1. BIOMEDICAL
2. SOCIAL
3. HUMANIST
BRADSHAW’S MODEL OF NEED
1. NORMATIVE NEED
2. FELT NEED
3. EXPRESSED NEED
4. COMPARATIVE NEED
Notes prepared by: EJDD, RMT
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PROCESS IN COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESMENT

STEP 1: DETERMINING THE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF NEED ASSESSMENT

1. What is the goal of the Health Needs Assessment?

2. What does the planning committee hope to gain from the needs assessment?
3. How extensive will the assessment be?
4. What kind of resources will be available to conduct the needs assessment?

*****ONCE THIS QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED, THE PLANNERS ARE READY TO GATHERING DATA

STEP 2: DATA GATHERING

Data can be categorized in two groups:

1. PRIMARY DATA-
2. SECONDARY DATA-

STEP 3: ANALYZING THE DATA

Collected data can be analysed in:

 FORMAL ANALYSIS
 INFORMAL ANALYSIS

"EYEBALLING THE DATA"-

STEP 4: IDENTIFYING THE FACTORS LINKED TO THE HEALTH PROBLEM

Planners need to identify and prioritize risk factors that are asscociated with the health problem

STEP 5: IDENTIFYING THE PROGRAM FOCUS

A. RISK FACTORS IDENTIFIED AND PRIORITIZED

B. Planners need to identify those PREDISPOSING, ENABLING AND REINFORCING FACTORS

STEP 6: VALIDATING PRIORITIZED NEED

To double-check or to confirm that the identified need and resulting program focus indeed need to be addressed
in the priority population.
At the conclusion of the COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT planners should answer the following
questions:
1. Who is the priority population?
2. What are the needs of the priority population
3. Which subgroups within the the priority population have the greatest need?
4. What is currently being done to resolve identified needs
5. How well have the identified needs been addressed in the past?

5.DETERMINING PRIORITIES AND SETTING OF GOALS

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT DATA should result in the identification of the problems to be addressed.

Notes prepared by: EJDD, RMT

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PROCESS:
1. PROBLEMS MUST BE PRIORITIZED
FIVE CRITERIA THAT COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN SELECTING A PRIORITY ISSUE
OR PROBLEM
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
2. GOALS NEED TO BE IDENTIFIED
The GOAL will be the foundation for all the work

6.ARRIVING AT SOLUTION A ND SELECTING INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

A solution involves selecting one or more intervention strategies
 Health communication strategies-
 Health education strategies-
 Health policy/ enforcement strategies:
 Environmental change strategies:
 Health-related community services:
OTHER STRATEGIES:
 BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION ACTIVITIES-
 COMMUNITY ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES-
 ORGANIZATIONAL ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES-
 INCENTIVES AND DISINCENTIVES-
 SOCIAL INTERVENTION ACTIVITIES-
 TECHNOLOGY DELIVERED ACTIVITIES-

7.IMPLEMENTING, EVALUATING, MAINTAINING AND LOOPING BACK

*implementing the intervention strategy and activities
*evaluating the outcomes of the plans of action
*maintaining the outcomes over time
*Loop back-

Notes prepared by: EJDD, RMT

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Summary of community organizing

HEALTH PROMOTION PROGRAMMING

 Health education-

 Health promotion-

 Program planning

CREATING A HEALTH PROMOTION PROGRAM

A. Understanding the Community and Engaging the Priority Population
 The first step in the generalized model is to understand the community and engage the PRIORITY
POPULATION (AUDIENCE),
Notes prepared by: EJDD, RMT
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B. Assessing the Needs of the Priority Population

 These procedural step is referred to as a NEEDS ASSESSMENT.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

C. Setting Appropriate Goals and Objectives

 Once the problem has been well defined and the needs prioritized, the planners can set goals and
develop objectives for the program.
 The goals and objectives should be thought of as the foundation of the program.
 The words goals and objectives are often used interchangeably, but there is really a significant
difference between the two.
o Goal
o Objectives
 To further distinguish between goals and objectives, McKenzie and colleagues have stated that goals:
(1) are much more encompassing and global than objectives
(2) are written to cover all aspects of a program
(3) provide overall program direction
(4) are more general in nature
(5) usually take longer to complete
(6) are usually not observed but inferred
(7) often are not easily measured.

 To deal with these different types of programs, McKenzie and colleagues adapted a hierarchy of program
objectives first developed by Deeds and later updated by Cleary and Neiger

Notes prepared by: EJDD, RMT

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D. Creating an Intervention That Considers the Peculiarities of the Setting

 The next step in the program planning process is to design activities that will help the priority
population meet the objectives and, in the process, achieve their goals.
 This intervention or treatment constitutes the program that the priority population will experience.
 The size of the ‘dose’ is important in health promotion programming.
 It stands to reason that ‘hitting’ the priority population from several angles or through multiple channels
should increase the chances of making an impact.

Ecological perspective,

 This perspective includes five levels of influence on health-related behaviors and

conditions. These levels include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

E. Implementing the Intervention

 Implementation
 It is at this point that the planners will learn whether the product (intervention) they developed will be
useful in producing the measurable changes as outlined in the objectives.

F. Evaluating the Results

 The final step in the generalized planning model is the evaluation.
 It is very important that planning for evaluation occur during the first stages of program development,
not just at the end.
 Evaluation is the process in which planners determine the value or worth of the objective of interest by
comparing it against a standard of acceptability.
 Evaluation can be categorized further into summative and formative evaluation.

Notes prepared by: EJDD, RMT