Community Participation Strategies Research Articles

Empowered women from rural areas of Bolivia promote community development

Abstract: The United States Agency for Development in Bolivia (USAID/Bolivia) created in 2002 PROSALUD- Partners for Development Project (PfD) with the aim of improving the population's well-being. The project used three components: small grant scheme, technical assistance and database system management. Through the small grants scheme, the PfD supported a Community Participation Strategy (CPS) project over a three year period. The project involved the rural areas of six Bolivian departments and suburban areas of three Bolivian cities. The main objective was to increase health service utilization with a particular emphasis on empowerment of women, strengthening of local organizations and increasing the demand for health services. Women from both the urban and rural areas, and from different indigenous groups, were trained in project management, health promotion, reproductive health and family planning, advocacy and community participation. Participatory methodologies have allowed empowering women in decision making and capacity building throughout the entire project process. The experience shows that it is important to work with formally established grass-root community organizations and strengthen leadership within them. Additionally, the sub-projects demonstrated that interventions are more successful when promoters speak and write native languages, women are more motivated and empowered, projects are designed to be responsive to daily necessities identified by the communities and health services are culturally suitable. A preliminary evaluation, in both quantitative and qualitative terms, shows an overall improvement in health knowledge and practice, and utilization of health services.

Descriptive Model of Community Participation: Delivering Urban Services

Community participation means readiness of both the government and the community to accept certain responsibilities and activities. It also means that the value of each group's contribution is seen, appreciated, and used more tokenism or propaganda will not make participation meaningful. The honest inclusion of community representative as partners in decision-making makes for successful community participation. Basic urban services in India are inadequate to meet the needs of the population in low-income areas. This is evident from past studies undertaken at both the macro and micro level. Furthermore, the situation will continue unchanged in the future despite government agency efforts to improve the infrastructure and service delivery, as projected capabilities will not meet projected needs for services. There is a need, therefore to extend services through community participation strategies. Community involvement has been sought in the past through certain government projects. Therefore, is a model that will describe an approach to service delivery of a participatory nature? This should be considered not only as an option but also as a recommended approach in future plans for urban development. Therefore, this paper describe that the participatory management model and some policy implication towards community participation.

The development of a Health Promotion Community Participation Framework

This paper reports on research conducted through Monash University located in the state of Victoria, Australia. The outcome of the research was the development of a Health Promotion Community Participation Framework, providing guidelines for health professionals in community health centres and services to assist them with facilitating community participation in health promotion. A literature review was conducted and information collected from health professionals working in metropolitan and rural community health centres and services across the state of Victoria, Australia. The Framework does not emphasise levels of community participation as a hierarchy, but instead proposes using the levels or types of participation across a continuum. This has been done to encourage the use of appropriate transparent strategies that will enable both individual community members and different sections of communities to participate in health promotion activities. This is particularly important where government policies dictate the direction of health promotion, as this "top down" approach can lead to the community being excluded for health promotion processes. The use of a continuum promotes the concept that participation can be effective at different levels, even when the issue to be addressed has already been identified. The Framework also proposes that in order for community participation strategies to take place, there needs to be capacity building at both the organisational level and the community level.

Community participation in externally funded health projects: lessons from Cambodia.

This article provides lessons learned on establishing effective community participation in two externally funded, NGO-implemented health projects working at district level in Cambodia. The first project was implemented in accordance with the Cambodian national guidelines on community participation. The second - using lessons and experiences gained as a result of the first project - worked with Buddhist pagoda volunteers. Primary research was conducted in both settings to assess the effectiveness of the two participation strategies. The article concludes that the success of community participation in externally funded health projects with relatively short implementation timeframes requires engagement with existing community-based organizations and agencies. In Cambodia, where Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion, pagodas and associated volunteers appear to represent such an organization. Community participation structured around pagoda volunteers - who are held in high esteem within their local communities - is more effective and sustainable than newly (and externally) established community structures with formally elected representatives. Pagodas and associated volunteers in rural Cambodia offer the advantages of effective leadership, local organization, resource mobilization and management. It is recommended that programmes and agencies wishing to adopt community participation strategies in health utilize participatory research to identify the most appropriate local organization to lead such initiatives.

Effective community health participation strategies: a Cuban example.

Since the decade of the 1970s health promotion has been an integral part of most primary health care strategies. This article examines some community participation strategies adopted in the health promotion in Cuba and the policies which enable such strategies. This is done in the context of health promotion theory and also examines the concept of direct involvement by the political directorate in health promotion. The article is written from a reflexive perspective following the author's visit to Cuba as member of a health study tour in March 2002.

Strategies for community participation in developing countries.

Community participation has been hailed as the panacea for most community programmes. Community participation at high levels empowers communities, increases self-reliance, self-awareness and confidence in self-examination of problems and seeking solutions for them. Behavioural changes are promoted and utilisation and support of services is facilitated, which are of great importance to all community health efforts, especially in areas where the incidence of HIV/AIDS is high or increasing. The purpose of this article is to explore community participation strategies adopted in different countries for providing community health care services. Recommendations are provided for enhancing community participation in developing countries.

9. Health services

NSW Health provides a range of health care services to New South Wales residents that are delivered across a variety of settings. In 2004, the New South Wales Population Health Survey included a range of questions that addressed access to and satisfaction with health care services. Measuring consumer satisfaction with health care services is part of the process of monitoring the success of community participation and quality improvement strategies. Questions focused on difficulties getting health care when needed, admission to hospital or attendance at an emergency department, or use of community health centres or public dental services.

Promoting the Use of Insecticide Treated Materials at the Community Level: Experience from the ITN-Oriade Initiative

A survey of 4,309 respondents from the local community was conducted. There was a high level of poor access to sanitary methods of refuse disposal with 63.1 percent disposing their refuse in open dumps and 35.3 percent obtained their water from streams, rivers, and rain. More than two-thirds of respondents accepted environmental control methods as a feasible strategy for organized community participation in malaria control. Insecticide treated bed nets (ITN) were introduced for personal protection. Although the nets were accepted, the high cost of initial purchase limits its use. local strategies for participatory control of malaria include environmental methods, home based management of simple malaria, with referral capacity for the management of complicated and severe malaria built and/or strengthened at facility level. Furthermore, personal protection using ITN may be enhanced with higher subsidy for the initial purchase of the nets and the establishment of community-managed treatment centers.

Youth action strategies in violence prevention

Purpose: To describe a school-based youth-driven violence prevention project. The objectives were to provide opportunities for students to plan health-related activities, develop their awareness of the importance of violence prevention, and identify ways to cope with and influence their environment with respect to this issue. Methods: This project was initiated in three Canadian high schools with noon-hour discussions and a television talk show as the selected activities. Three hundred forty-eight students’ perceptions of violence and the effectiveness of the noon-hour discussions were evaluated by use of a questionnaire. Feedback on the talk show was obtained from viewers’ calls. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Chi-square and Student’s t-test were calculated to compare boys and girls on variables measuring their perception of violence, as well as to compare those who attended the noon-hour sessions and those who did not. Results: The majority of students (86.4%) believed that the noon-hour discussions increased their awareness of violence prevention and that the information provided was useful (83.6%). Nearly two-thirds (63.8%) of the students reported that attending the discussions changed their understanding of violence. The numerous calls received from viewers suggest that the talk show was effective in increasing public awareness. Conclusions: Youth-led health promotion activities provide excellent opportunities for youth to become involved and empowered. While adolescents need guidance to initiate activities, their creativity and energy must be acknowledged. The success of the noon-hour discussions and talk show demonstrates the importance of exploring and developing novel community participation strategies with youth.

Murals in Latino Communities: Social Indicators of Community Strengths

The professional literature on Latinos has generally focused on the socioeconomic challenges facing this community. Latinos consistently have a disproportionate number of families in poverty; high rates of school dropout; alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse; and HIV/AIDS, to list just four social problems (Chachkes & Jennings, 1994; Holmes, 1996; Mayers, Kail, & Watts, 1992). They, in turn, generally reside in sections of areas that are often referred to as ghettos, barrios, slums, inner cities, or euphemistically are called distressed. Social workers and other helping professionals quickly learn to identify social indicators related to urban despair, for example, billboards selling alcohol and tobacco, large numbers of bars and liquor establishments, vacant lots, boarded-up buildings, abandoned cars, and so forth. Although the concept of strengths and assets has emerged slowly in the professional literature (Delgado, 1997a, 1998, in press; Logan, 1996; McKnight & Kretzmann, 1991; Saleebey, 1992a, 1992b), not enough attention has been paid to indicators of community health. A social-political appreciation of murals can help social workers and other helping professionals better understand Latino communities from an asset perspective. According to Holscher (1976-77): Murals . . . are newspapers on walls and a wealth of information is contained in them. They can be valuable to educators, politicians, sociologists, political scientists, architects and planners (p. 45). Social workers can also be added to Holscher's list. Diego Rivera, arguably the most famous muralist in the Western hemisphere, summed up the importance of murals quite well when stating mural painting must help in [a person's] struggle to become a human being, and for that purpose it must live wherever it can; no place is bad for it, so long as it is there permitted to fulfill its primary functions of nutrition and enlightenment (Rivera & Wolfe, 1934, p. 13). This article provides social workers with a multifaceted perspective on Latino murals and the important functions they serve for youths and their community. It is critical for social workers to view murals from an asset perspective to better understand community strengths and the issues and struggles of its residents. For community revitalization, for example, social workers must systematically consider the role murals can play in bringing a community together (Herszenhorn & Hirsh, 1996). The article presents and analyzes a case study, drawing on themes and competencies social workers can translate into strategies for community (youth) participation. Concept of Free Space and Strengths The theoretical work by Evans and Boyte (1986) and Saleebey (1992a, 1992b) set an excellent foundation from which to analyze the importance of murals in Latino and other communities of color across the United States. Evans and Boyte (1986) developed the concept called to explain places where community residents can come together and articulate common concerns, hopes, and shared values. According to the authors: The central argument . . . is that particular sorts of public places in the community, what we call free spaces, are the environments in which people are able to learn a new self-respect, a deeper and more assertive group identity, public skills, and values of cooperation and civic virtue. Put simply, free spaces are settings between private lives and large-scale institutions where ordinary citizens can act with dignity, independence, and vision. (Evans & Boyte, 1986, p. 17) Applying the concept of free spaces to Latino communities highlights numerous institutions and places controlled by and for the community. These places can be beauty or barber shops, grocery stores, social clubs, fundamentalist houses of worship, and parks, to list but a few types (Delgado, 1996, 1997b). Free spaces vary according to the community. …

The role of Latino/Hispanic communities in health services research: Strategies for a meaningful partnership

This paper critically assesses the important elements of the Latino/Hispanic community's participation in health services research and the known barriers to effective collaboration, and provides suggestions that may contribute toward a meaningful partnership among health care providers, researchers and the community. The discussion focuses on central strategies for community participation to help improve existing health care services' effectiveness, specifically for low-income Latino/Hispanic groups. It reviews current approaches for including communities in health care delivery and health services research and draws examples from the author's experiences of working with Latino/Hispanic communities for almost 20 years. The data implies that mutual benefits can be derived from forging alliances and meaningful partnerships between the health services research community and the Latino/Hispanic community.