COPAR • Consciousness raising involves perceiving
Community Organizing Participatory Action
Research
Establishing a Good Working Relationship
• Build relationships one at a time
• Be friendly and make a connection
• Ask people questions
• Tell people about yourself
• Go places and do things
• Accept people the way they are
Establishing a Good Working Relationship
• Assume other people want to form
relationships, too
• Overcome your fear of rejection
• Be persistent.
• Invite people to get involved
• Enjoy people
• Identify Key Community Officials
• Conducting Community Organizing Meeting
COPAR or Community Organizing Participatory
Action Research
is a vital part of public health
nursing. COPAR aims to transform the
apathetic,individualistic and voiceless poor
into Dynamic, Participatory and Politically
responsive community.
• A process by which a community identifies
its needs and objectives, develops confidence
to take action in respect to them and in doing
so, extends and develops cooperative and
collaborative attitude and practices in the
community (Ross 1967).
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.
Structure
    • Refers to a particular group of community
members that work together for a common
health and health related goals.
Emphasis of COPAR
• Community working to solve its own problem.
• Direction is established internally and
externally.
• Development and implementation of a
specific project less important than the
development of the
capacity of the community to establish the
project.
health and medical care within the total
structure of society.
Importance of COPAR
• COPAR is an important tool for community
development and people empowerment as this
helps the community
workers to generate community
participation in development activities.
• COPAR prepares people/clients to eventually
take over the management of a development
programs in the future.
• COPAR maximizes community participation
and involvement; community resources are
mobilized for community services.
Principles of COPAR
1. People especially the most oppressed,
exploited and deprived sectors are open to
change, have the capacity to change and are
able to bring about change.
2. COPAR should be based on the interest of
the poorest sector of the community.
3. COPAR should lead to a self-reliant
community and society.
Critical Steps in COPAR
• Integration
• Social Investigation
• Tentative program planning
• Groundwork
• Meeting
• Role Play
• Mobilization or action
• Evaluation
• Reflection
• Organization
Phases of COPAR
COPAR has four phases namely:
I. Pre-Entry Phase
II. Entry Phase
III. Organization-building phase
V. Sustenance and strengthening phase
1. Pre-Entry Phase
• Is the initial phase of the organizing process
where the community organizer looks for
communities to serve and help.
Preparation of the Institution
Preparations:
1. Train faculty and students in COPAR.
2. Formulate plans for institutionalizing
COPAR.
3. Revise/enrich curriculum and immersion
program.
4. Coordinate participants of other
departments.
Site Selection:
1. Initial networking with local government.
2. Conduct preliminary special investigation.
3. Make long/short list of potential
communities.
4. Do ocular survey of listed communities
Criteria for Initial Site Selection
1. Must have a population of 100-200 families.
2. Economically depressed. No strong
resistance from the community.
3. No serious peace and order problem
4. No similar group or organization holding the
same program.
Identifying Potential Municipalities
• Make long/short list of potential
municipalities
Board Exam Question!!!
• Which is the primary goal of community
health nursing?
Answer: To enhance the capacity of
individuals, families and communities to cope
with their health needs.
1. Do the same process as in selecting
municipality.
2. Consult key informants and residents.
3. Coordinate with local government and NGOs
for future activities.
Choosing Final Community
1. Conduct informal interviews with community
residents and key informants.
2. Determine the need of the program in the
community.
3. Take note of political development.
4. Develop community profiles for secondary
data.
5. Develop survey tools.
6. Pay courtesy call to community leaders.
7. Choose foster families based on guidelines
Identifying Host Family
1. House is strategically located in the
community.
2. Should not belong to the rich segment.
3. Respected by both formal and informal
leaders.
4. Neighbors are not hesitant to enter the
house.
5. 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
1. Recognize the role of local authorities by
paying them visits to
inform their presence and activities.
2. Appearance, speech, behavior and lifestyle
should be in keeping
with those of the community residents
without disregard of their
being role model.
3. 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 alcohol
• 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
• Approached by key persons
• A person with expertise or has
influence in a specific area
• Isolates
• Never or hardly consulted
Training of the Core Group
3. Organization-building Phase Linkage Committee
• Entails the formation of more formal Disaster preparedness Committee
structure and the inclusion of more formal Youth Development Program
procedure of planning, implementing, and
evaluating community-wise activities. It is at 5. Exit or Expansion Phase
this phase where the organized leaders or • Also called as Phase Out phase
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
    • Peace and Order Program.
    • Disaster Preparedness.
    • Youth
Development Program
• 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 committees
setup in the organization-building phase
are 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
1. Training of CHO for monitoring and
implementing of community health program.
2. Identification of secondary leaders.
3. Linkage and networking.
4. Conduct of mobilization on health
and development concerns.
5. Implementation of livelihood
projects.
Livelihood Committee