COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH

The World Health Organization (WHO) had shown much effort in emphasizing the extent of
promoting health, preventing illness, and rehabilitating lives of the people in a rural community does not
merely rely upon the prevailing physical and mental state of the people and the community itself.
Moreover, optimum health cannot be fully achieved without giving due consideration to the status quo of
the community in terms of the political, social, economic and cultural dimensions that may impact the
quality of life of the people.
The Department Of Health of the Republic of the Philippines had responded to the call of WHO
by establishing a process of continuous and sustained education; exertion and mobilization of community
people geared towards achieving radical and dynamic improvement of their current health status. Thus,
Community Organizing Participatory Action Research (COPAR) was commenced to relate the objectives
of the health care providers and the needs of the community people to reach their common goal which is
to attain optimum health and improve the quality of life.
In the book of Araceli S. Maglaya entitled “Nursing Practice in the Community 4th Edition” which
was published in 2004, community organizing was defined as a process whereby the community
members develop the capability to assess their health needs and problems, plan and implement actions
to solve these problems, put up and sustain organizational structures and monitor implementation of
health initiatives of people.

Phases of Community Organizing according to Andamo (1986) and Manalili (1985) restated in the
book of Maglaya (2004):
A. Preparatory Phase. The activities include area selection, community profiling, entry in the
community and integration with people.

1. Area selection – guides the nurse in choosing and prioritizing areas for community health
development by answering the following questions:
- Is the community in need of assistance?
- Do the community members feel the need to work together to overcome a specific health
problem?
- Are there concerned groups and organizations that the nurse can possibly work with?
- What will be the counterpart of the community in terms of community support,
commitment and human resources?

2. Community profiling – a contact person who is known and accepted in the community must
be identified. The contact person will identify other members of the community who can be
depended upon to initiate activities in the community and together they will assist the nurse in
doing a community profile. A community profile provides an overview of the demographic
 characteristics, community and health-related services and facilities. It will serve as an initial
database of the community and provide the basis for planning and programming organizing
activities. It can also help determine the appropriate approach and method of organizing
specific and population group or sectors that will be organized.

3. Entry in the community and integration with people – basically establishing rapport by
understanding, accepting or imbibing the community life.

B. Organizational Phase. This is consists of activities leading to the formation of people’s

organization.

1. Social preparation – the integration paves the way for the nurse to be introduced in the
community and signals the beginning of the social preparation phase. While community
learning is more about the conditions of the community, the nurse deepens and strengthens
her ties with the people.

2. Spotting and developing potential leaders – the nurse identifies people who have deep
concern and understanding of the conditions of the community. It is necessary that they will
be able to gain the trust and respect of the community members. It is not necessary that the
potential leader is highly educated or one belonging to affluent family for as long as the leader
can identify, understand and articulate effectively the problems that beset the community. It is
to his advancement to have relatively wide influence not only among the poor but also among
the elite.

3. Core group formation- this is consists of the identified potential leaders who will be tasked
with laying down the foundation of a strong people’s organization. Ideally, the core group
represents the different sectors of the community. The nurse facilitates skills development of
the core group members related to the tasks they will assume in the organization. The core
group serves as training ground for developing the potential leaders in:
- Democratic and collective leadership
- Planning and assuming tasks for the formation of a community-wide organization
- Handling and resolving group conflicts
- Critical thinking and decision-making process

4. Setting up community organization – this organization will facilitate wider participation and
collective action on community problems. The nurse ensures maximum participation and
control of the members of the organization in all its activities. The organizational structure
 must be simple to facilitate consultation and decision-making among its members. Part of the
organizational structure will be working committees specifically created to look into the
different concerns of the organization and community. One such committee is the health
committee. The nurse assists in laying out plans of the health committee that initially includes
identification of prospective community health workers (CHWs).

C. Education and Training Phase. Its purpose is to strengthen the organization and develop its
capability to attend to the community’s basic health-care needs. This can be achieved by
conducting community diagnosis, training of community health workers, undertaking health
services and mobilization and leadership skills training.

1. Conducting community diagnosis – the community diagnosis is done to come up with a profile
of local health situation that will serve as basis of health programs and services to be
delivered to the community.

2. Training of community health workers – the nurse facilitates the conduct of a training needs
assessment (TNA) to determine the level of health skills and knowledge the trainees (CHWs)
possess. The results of this assessment will serve as the basis for the health skills training
curriculum which will focus on the required competencies.

3. Health services and mobilization – the organization takes the lead in undertaking activities
that will solve the problems the community is confronted with. Engaging them in collective
works gives the people opportunities to test and strengthen collective spirit and at the same
time, build and enhance their confidence. Oftentimes, people are very eager to act without
consideration to resources needed to carry out the action. It will do well for the nurse to teach
the people how to prioritize problems that need to be addressed at a given time. This will
prevent frustration on the part of the people when they do not seem to achieve their goals
right away.

4. Leadership formation activities – the process of developing community leaders is a

continuous and sustained process. Leaders learn a lot by engaging in actual organizational
activities such as conduct of meetings, assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring,
and evaluation of activities. They can utilize these opportunities in mastering organizing skills,
human relations development or supervisory skills. In addition, personal experiences can very
well serve as bases for theory learning while undergoing formal leadership skills training.
4.1 Intersectoral collaboration. As the organization grows, its needs will also grow. The
need for resources – material, human, financial – will have to be sourced externally.
Assistance and support in any form can be funnelled into the organization through
collaboration with other organizations and communities. The nurse is in the best
position to facilitate and coordinate with institutions, agencies and other key people to
articulate the community’s need for support and assistance.

4.2 Phase-out. As the organization and the community assume greater responsibility in
managing their health-care needs, the nurse gradually prepares for turn-over of work
and develops a plan for monitoring subsequent follow-up of the organization’s
activities until the community is ready for full disengagement and phase-out.
General and Specific Objective(s)
In accordance to the mission stated by our group which endeavours to answer the health needs
of the people of Barangay Sampiruhan in terms of environmental sanitation, we aim to provide them with
enough health education and guidance regarding maintenance of a clean and healthy community and
total improvement of the quality of life of the people.

In fostering the accomplishment of the said goal, the following action is but necessary:
1. Persuading residents of the barangay to take part and initiate campaigns toward attaining a
healthier community living.
2. Proposing and conducting health-related programs and seminars that will tackle health issues in
the community and how these health issues may be resolved or prevented.
3. Imparting knowledge to the people of the community as to how they can contribute to the
maintenance of environmental sanitation through proper wastes disposal and garbage
segregation.
4. Establishing a core group which will carry on the movement en route to enthusiastic continuance
of health promotion focusing on environmental sanitation and maintenance.