Community Organizing Participatory Action Research (COPAR)

As a Tool for Development

Definition:

1. COPAR is 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 effective change in their existing oppressive and exploitative
conditions (1994 National Rural CO Conference).
2. 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 attitudes and practices in the community.
3. A continuous and sustained process of educating the people to understand and
develop their critical awareness of their existing conditions, working with the people
collectively and efficiently on their immediate needs toward solving their long-term
problems

IMPORTANCE OF COPAR

COPAR is an important tool for community development and people

empowerment as this helps the community worker to generate community participation
in development activities.

COPAR prepares people to eventually take over the management of a

development program(s) in the future.

COPAR maximizes community participation and involvement; community

resources are mobilized for health development 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 interests of the poorest sectors of society.
3. COPAR should lead to a self-reliant community.

PROCESSES/METHODS USED IN COPAR

A PROGRESSIVE CYCLE OF ACTION-REFLECTION-ACTION which begin with

small, local and concrete issues identified by the people and the evaluation and reflection
of and on the action taken by them.
 CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING through experiential learning is central to the
COPAR process because it places emphasis on learning that emerges from concrete
action and which encircles succeeding action.

COPAR is PARTICIPATORY AND MASS-BASED because it is primarily directed

towards and based in favor of the poor, the powerless and the oppressed.

COPAR is GROUP-CENTERED and not leader-centered. Leaders are identified,

emerge and are tested through action rather than appointed or selected by some external
force or entity.

CRITICAL STEPS (ACTIVITIES) IN COPAR

1. INTEGRATION – health worker becomes one with the people

a. immerse himself/herself in the community

b. understand deeply the culture, economy, leaders, history, rhythms and lifestyle in
the community.

Methods of integration include:

 participation in direct production activities of the people

 conduct house-to-house visits
 participation in activities like birthdays, fiestas, wakes, etc..
 conversing with the people where they usually gather such as in stores, water
wells, washing streams, or in churchyards
 helping out in household chores like cooking, washing dishes, etc.

2. SOCIAL INVESTIGATION – community study, a systematic process of collecting,

collating, analyzing data to draw a clear picture of the community.

Health Worker must remember the following during social investigation:

 Use of survey questionnaires is discouraged
 Community leaders can be trained to initially assist the community workers in doing
social investigation
 Secondary data should be thoroughly examined because much of the information
might already be available
 Social investigation is facilitated if the health worker is properly integrated and has
acquired the trust of the people
 Confirmation and validation of community should be done regularly.

3. TENTATIVE PROGRAM PLANNING- CO to choose one issue to work in order to

begin organizing the people.
4. GROUNDWORK – going around and motivating the people on a one on one basis
to do something on the issue that has been chosen.

5. THE MEETING – people collectively ratify what they have already decided
individual. The meeting gives the people the collective power and confidence.
Problems and issues are discussed.

6. ROLE PLAY – acting out and meeting that will take place between the leaders of
the people and the government representatives. It is a way of training the people
to anticipate what will happen and prepare them for such eventuality.

7. MOBILIZATION OR ACTION - actual experience of the people in confronting the

powerful and the actual exercise of people power.

8. EVALUATION –the people reviewing the steps 1-7 so as to determine whether

they were successfully or not in their objectives.

9. REFLECTION – dealing with deeper, ongoing concerns to look at the positive

values CO is trying to build in the organization. It gives the people time to reflect
on the reality of life compared to the ideal.

10. ORGANIZATION – results of many successive and many similar action of the
people, set-up with elected officers and supporting members.

PHASES OF THE COPAR PROCESS

A. PREPARATORY PHASE. The activities in the preparatory phase include area

selection, community profiling, entry in the community and integration with the
people.

1. Area selection
To guide the nurse in choosing and prioritizing areas for community health
development, the following questions must be answered:
 Is the community in need of assistance?
 Does the community members feel the need to work together to overcome
a specific health problems?
 Are there concerned groups and organizations that the nurse can possibly
work with?
 What will be the counterpart of the community in terms community support
commitment and human resources/

2. Community profiling
  community profiles provides an overview of demographic characteristics,
community and health-related services and facilities
 It will serve as initial database of the community and provide the basis for
planning and programming of organizing activities.
 It can also help determine the appropriate approach and method of
organizing specific to the population group or sectors that will be organized.

3. Entry in the community and integration with the people

Guidelines in conducting integration work:

 Recognize the role and position of local authorities

 Adapt a lifestyle in keeping with that of the community
 Choose a modest dwelling which the people, especially the economically
disadvantaged will not hesitate to enter.
 Avoid raising expectations of the people. Be clear with your objectives and
limitations
 Participate directly in production process
 Make house calls and seek out people where they usually gather
 Participate in some social activities

B. ORGANIZATIONAL PHASE. The organizational phase consists of activities

leading to the formation of a people’s organization.

1. Social preparation – the nurse deepens and strengthens her ties with people
2. Spotting and developing potential leaders – providing them opportunities that will
demonstrate their potential as leaders can test their commitment to the
community’s well-being. The nurse must consciously provide learning
experiences that will prepare them as future leaders of the community.
3. Core group formation – consist of identified potential leaders who will be tasked
with lying down the foundation of the strong people’s organization. The core group
serves as a 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 the community organization –this will facilitate wider participation of

and collective action on community problem

C. ECUCATION AND TRAINING PHASE.

The purpose of this is to strengthen the organization and develop its capability to
attend to the community’s basic health care needs.

1. Conducting community diagnosis

 2. Training of Community Health Workers
3. Health Services and mobilization
4. Leadership-Formation activities

D. INTERSECTORAL COLLABORATION PHASE – the nurse facilities and

coordinate with institutions, agencies and other key people to articulate the
community’s need for support and assistance.

E. PHASE OUT – the phase when the health care workers leave the community to
stand alone. This phase should be stated during the entry phase so that the
people will be ready for this phase.

Definitions of COPAR
 COPAR stands for Community Organizing Participatory Action Research

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).

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 attitudes and practices in the
community (Ross 1967).

A continuous and sustained process of educating the people to understand

and develop their critical awareness of their existing condition, working with the
people collectively and efficiently on their immediate and long-term problems,
and mobilizing the people to develop their capability and readiness to respond
and take action on their immediate needs towards solving their long-term
problems (CO: A manual of experience, PCPD).

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

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
 1. COPAR is an important tool for community development and people
empowerment as this helps the community workers to generate
community participation in development activities.
2. COPAR prepares people/clients to eventually take over the management
of a dvelopment.programs in the future.
3. 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

1. Integration
2. Social Investigation
3. Tentative program planning
4. Groundwork
5. Meeting
6. Role Play Mobilization or action
7. Evaluation
8. Reflection
9. Organization

4 Phases of COPAR

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

Train faculty and students in COPAR.

Formulate plans for institutionalizing COPAR.
Revise/enrich curriculum and immersion program.
Coordinate participants of other departments.

Site Selection
 Initial networking with local government.
Conduct preliminary special investigation.
Make long/short list of potential communities.
Do ocular survey of listed communities.

Criteria for Initial Site Selection

Must have a population of 100-200 families.

Economically depressed.No strong resistance from the community.
No serious peace and order problem.
No similar group or organization holding the same program.

Identifying Potential Municipalities

Make long/short list of potential municipalities

Identifying Potential Community

Do the same process as in selecting municipality.
Consult key informants and residents.
Coordinate with local government and NGOs for future activities.

Choosing Final Community

Conduct informal interviews with community residents and key informants.

Determine the need of the program in the community.
Take note of political development.
Develop community profiles for secondary data.
Develop survey tools.
Pay courtesy call to community leaders.
Choose foster families based on guidelines

Identifying Host Family

House is strategically located in the community.
Should not belong to the rich segment.
Respected by both formal and informal leaders.
Neighbors are not hesitant to enter the house.
No member of the host family should be moving out in the community.

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 commuity.

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.
- o living with the community
- o seek out to converse with people where they usually
congregate
- o lend a hand in household chores
- o avoid gambling and drinking

Deepening social investigation/community study

- o verification and enrichment of data collected from initial
survey
- o 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
- Isolates. Never or hardly consulted

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)

- o preparation of legal requirements
 - o guidelines in the organization of the CHO by the core group
- o election of officers

Research Team Committee

Planning Committee
Health Committee Organization
Others
Formation of by-laws by the CHO

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

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

4.SUSTENANCE AND STRENGTHENING phase

• it occurs when the community organization has already established and the
community members are already actively participating in community wide
undertakings.
• at this point the different committees set up in the organization building phase are
already expected to be functioning by the way of planning, implementing with
guidance from the community wide organization
Sustenance and strengthening phase

It is the end portion of COPAR but the most important phase. It is during
this phase by which the community and its people are being developed
to be self- reliant.

Part of our role in the provision of nursing care is to encourage the client’s
ability to be independent and to resume his functions with less assistance.
This was emphasized, too by Virginia Henderson in her theory. Thus, it
could be delved with that caring also does not only involve the physical
caring touch that we offer to the sick ones in the four corners of an
institution but also providing care outside it – making much more impact
to the needy and the oppressed individuals.