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

– Hospitals

– Social service

agencies

• Public institutions and

services:

– Public schools

– Police

– Libraries

– Fire departments

– 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!