Abstract
The importance of community empowerment has been strongly emphasized in health promotion publications in Western societies. Only a few studies exist to highlight the empowerment processes in countries in transition in Eastern Europe. A multi-stage study was designed to develop a context-specific survey instrument appropriate for evaluating the changes in the community empowerment process within the context of health promotion programs in Rapla, Estonia. The current study comprises the first stage, which aims to identify and systematize empowering domains and activities perceived by community members during the empowerment evaluation process. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with sixteen participants from three health promotion programs. Purposive sampling was used, and data were analyzed using constant comparison. The findings suggest that there are four key organizational domains that characterize the community empowerment process in Rapla: activation of the community, competence development of the community, program management development, and creation of a supportive environment.
Highlights
IntroductionEmpowerment is a widely used concept in development policies and programs in many societies
The findings indicate that empowerment process, as identified by Rapla community members, comprises four domains—community activation, community competence, management skills and the creation of a supportive environment
The findings indicate that organizational domains of community empowerment are context specific
Summary
Empowerment is a widely used concept in development policies and programs in many societies. Approaches that aim to empower communities to assess their own needs and facilitate ways to address those needs have gained broad acceptance in the health promotion world [1,2]. Empowerment is identified as a central theme of quality of life discourse [3] and is understood as the expansion of assets and capabilities of people, from disadvantaged groups, to participate in, negotiate with, control, and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives [4]. Empowerment has been suggested as offering the most promising approach to reducing health inequalities [2,5,6,7]. The central idea of community empowerment is that local communities can be mobilized to address health and social needs and to work inter-sectorally on solving local problems [8]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
