COPAR NURSING

Community Organizing Participatory Action Research (COPAR)

Definitions of COPAR:
· A social development approach that aims to transform the
apathetic, individualistic and voiceless poor into dynamic, participatory
and politically responsive community.
· A collective, participatory, transformative, liberative, sustained
and systematic process of building people’s organizations by mobilizing
and enhancing the capabilities and resources of the people for the
resolution of their issues and concerns towards effecting change in their
existing oppressive and exploitative conditions (1994 National Rural
Conference)
- is a continuous and a sustained process of:
1. Educating the people - to understand and develop their critical
consciousness
2. Working with people - to work collectively and effectively on their
immediate and long-term problems
3. Mobilizing with people - develop their capability and readiness to
respond, take action on their immediate needs towards solving the long-
term problems
The process and structure through which members of a community
are/or become organized for participation in health care and
community development activities
COPAR Process:
- the sequence of steps whereby members of a community come
together to critically assess to evaluate community conditions and work
together to improve those conditions.
· A progressive cycle of action-reflection action which begins with
small, local and concrete issues identified by the people and the
evaluation and the reflection of and on the action taken by them.
· Consciousness through experimental learning central to the
COPAR process because it places emphasis on learning that emerges
from concrete action and which enriches succeeding action.
Structure:
- refers to a particular group of community members that work
together for a common health and health related goals.
Emphasis of COPAR:
1. Community working to solve its own problem
2. Direction is established internally and externally
3. Development and implementation of a specific project less important
than the development of the capacity of the community to establish the
project
4. Consciousness raising involves perceiving health and medical care
within the total structure of society

Importance of COPAR:
• COPAR maximizes community participation and involvement
• COPAR could be an alternative in situations wherein health
interventions in Public Health Care do not require direct involvement of
modern medical practitioners
• COPAR gets people actively involved in selection and support of
community health workers
• Through COPAR, community resources are mobilized for selected
health services
• COPAR improves both projects effectiveness during implementation.

Phases of COPAR Process:

1. Pre-Entry Phase
- is the intial phase of the organizing process where the
community organizer looks for communities to serve and help.
Acitivities include:
Preparation of the Institution
o Train faculty and students in COPAR.
o Formulate plans for institutionalizing COPAR.
o Revise/enrich curriculum and immersion program.
o Coordinate participants of other departments.
Site Selection
o Initial networking with local government.
o Conduct preliminary special investigation.
o Make long/short list of potential communities.
o Do ocular survey of listed communities.
 Criteria for Initial Site Selection
o Must have a population of 100-200 families.
o Economically depressed.
o No strong resistance from the community.
o No serious peace and order problem.
o No similar group or organization holding the same
program.
Identifying Potential Municipalities
o Make long/short list.
Identifying Potential Barangay
o Do the same process as in selecting municipality.
o Consult key informants and residents.
o Coordinate with local government and NGOs for
future activities.
Choosing Final Barangay
o Develop community profiles for secondary data.
o Develop survey tools.
o Pay courtesy call to community leaders.
o Choose foster families based on guidelines
Identifying Host Family
o House is strategically located in the community.
o Should not belong to the rich segment.
o Respected by both formal and informal leaders.
o Neighbors are not hesitant to enter the house.
o No member of the host family should be moving out
in the community.

2. Entry Phase
- sometimes called the social preparation phase. Is crucial in
determining which strategies for organizing would suit the chosen
community. Success of the activities depend on how much the
community organizers has integrated with the community.
Guidelines for Entry

 Recognize the role of local authorities by paying them visits to

inform their presence and activities.
 Her appearance, speech, behavior and lifestyle should be in
keeping with those of the community residents without
disregard of their being role model.
  Avoid raising the consciousness of the community residents;
adopt a low-key profile.
Activities in the Entry Phase
 Integration - establishing rapport with the people in continuing
effort to imbibe community life.
 living with the community
 seek out to converse with people where they usually
congregate
 lend a hand in household chores
 avoid gambling and drinking
 Deepening social investigation/community study
 verification and enrichment of data collected from initial
survey
 conduct baseline survey by students, results relayed
through community assembly

Core Group Formation

Leader spotting through sociogram.
Key persons - approached by most people
Opinion leader - approach by key persons
Isolates - never or hardly consulted

3. Organization-building Phase
-Entails the formation of more formal structure and the inclusion
of more formal procedure of planning, implementing, and evaluating
community-wise activities. It is at this phase where the organized
leaders or groups are being given training (formal, informal, OJT) to
develop their style in managing their own concerns/programs.
Key Activities

 Community Health Organization (CHO)

 preparation of legal requirements
 guidelines in the organization of the CHO by the core group
 election of officers
 Research Team Committee
 Planning Committee
 Health Committee Organization
  Others
 Formation of by-laws by the CHO

4. Sustenance and Strengthening Phase

-Occurs when the community organization has already been
established and the community members are already actively
participating in community-wide undertakings. At this point, the
different committee’s setup in the organization-building phase is
already expected to be functioning by way of planning,
implementing and evaluating their own programs, with the overall
guidance from the community-wide organization.

Key Activities

 Training of CHO for monitoring and implementing of

community health program.
 Identification of secondary leaders.
 Linkaging and networking.
 Conduct of mobilization on health and development
concerns.
 Implementation of livelihood projects.
Schematic Presentation of Nursing Care Plan

Functions of a Health Worker

 Community Health Service

provider carries out health services contributing
to the promotion of health, prevention of illness,
early treatment of illness and rehabilitation.

Appraises health needs and hazards (existing or

potential)

 Facilitator
helps plan a comprehensive health program
with the people continuing guidance and
supervisory assistance

 Health Counselor
provides health counseling including emotional
support to individuals, family, group and
community
  Co-researcher
o -provides the community with stimulation
necessary for a wider or more complex
study or problems.
o -Enforce community to do prompt and
intelligent reporting of epidemiologic
investigation of disease.
o -suggest areas that need research (by
creating dissatisfaction) participate in
planning for the study in formulating
procedures
o -assist in the collection of data
o -helps interpret findings collectively act on
the result of the research

 Member of a Team

 in operating within the team, one must be willing to

listen as well as to contribute, to teach as well as to
learn, to lead as well as to follow, to share as well
as to work under it
 helps make multiple services which the family
receives in the course of health care, coordinated,
continuous and comprehensive as possible
 consults with and refers to appropriate personnel
for any other community services

 Health Educator

health education is an accepted activity at all levels of

public works. A health educator is the one who improves the
health of the people by employing various methods of
scientific procedures to stimulate, arouse and guide people
to healthful ways of living.

She takes into consideration these aspects of health

education:

 information - provision of knowledge

 education - change in knowledge, attitude and
skills
 communication - exchange of information
COPAR IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

By: Janette H. Malata-Silva | ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement

| Volume 1, Number 1, 2017

Following objectives:
(1) to assess the educational needs of the Lumad and peasant
communities in light of the implementation of Republic Act
10533, and
(2) to develop a curriculum that addresses the needs of the Lumad
and peasant communities considering the learning competencies
stipulated by RA 10533

 Elementary and secondary schools for the country’s indigenous

communities are usually located far from their communities. In
order to reach these schools, the learners need to endure long and
tiresome walks. These learners have long been deprived of
education and 90% of them have never attended school (Save Our
School Network, 2016).

 The most common means to educate the children is through adult

community members, who had the chance to attend school,
sharing their knowledge to the young ones. They have long
practiced the art of sustainable living through the passing of local
knowledge from generation to generation, also commonly known as
‘traditional wisdom’ or ‘traditional science’.

 However, with the implementation of the Republic Act 10533, most

commonly known as K+12 program, it became imperative for these
schools to adhere to the new curriculum. Fortunately, Republic Act
8371 or the ‘The Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997
acknowledges the IPs right to self-determination, which allows
them to freely determine and exercise their socio-economic,
political, and cultural rights. The Expert Mechanism on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) (2009) argues that it is through
education that IPs, particularly the children, learn to take part in
activities that enable them to practice their civic rights and take
part in policy-making processes that result in the protection of
their human rights.
  With the implementation of Republic Act 10533, or the K+12
program in the Philippines, it is necessary to ensure that the
transition from the old curriculum to the new will bring inclusive
change to all learners. After all, the shift to K+12 program aims to
meet the UNESCO-led global movement Education for All (EFA)
(Department of Education, 2013). With these considerations, this
study focused on designing a curriculum for the Lumad and
peasant communities in Mindanao. Specifically, the objectives of
the study are:

(1) to assess the educational needs of the Lumad and

peasant communities in light of the implementation of
Republic Act 10533, and
(2) to develop a curriculum that addresses the needs of the
Lumad and peasant communities considering the learning
competencies stipulated by RA 10533.

4. Result and Discussion

In order to achieve one of COPAR’s principles that is for
communities to solve their own problems, the community members
were first given the venue and opportunity to reflect on the main
issues they are facing through an FGD. The community learners
and volunteer teachers were briefed on the goal of the project and
were asked to orient the other participants. The researcher took on
the role of session facilitator whose role involved contextualizing
issues that are related to curriculum development when access to
education was raised. To maximize community involvement, which
is the basic principle of COPAR (Jimenez, 2008), the participants
were encouraged to use the language they are comfortable with
and were asked to elaborate their input using real-life examples of
events that can clarify their claims. After giving a significant
number of detailed real-life experiences, their input was mapped
and categorized accordingly. In order to follow the internal to
external direction, which is COPAR’s emphasis (Vera, 2012), the
issues were summarized first and the solutions on how to address
them were identified. Suggestions for possible solutions were also
sourced from the participants.

Conclusion:

The community embraces its role as active participants in

decision-making in the continuous development and
implementation of the new community-based alternative
curriculum. The learning process, thus, begins not only in the
implementation of the intended curriculum but in its actual
development, which puts the community and its needs at the
center of every decision-making process. The execution of COPAR
ends neither after the intended curriculum is developed nor after
the implemented curriculum is observed. It goes on until the
achieved curriculum is assessed and the goal of enabling
community members to know and to fight for their rights is
realized.

COPAR FORMAT