TOPIC 2: COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AND
CONSULT (RECEIVER+FEEDBACK) PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
EMPOWERMENT IN HEALTH
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
− Social movement that aims to transform
current realities affecting people health.
− “A shared vision and action from across all
levels of society.”
− Health professionals, experts and agencies
have the critical role.
CONTEXT AND CONCEPTS
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 1997
defines community engagement as “the process
of working collaboratively with and through
group of people affiliated by geographic
proximity, special interest, or similar situations to
address issues affecting the well-being of those
people.
Also viewed as STRATEGY AND CONTINUUM
Strategy - it requires a systematic approach to
bring people, structures, and resources together
Continuum - it shows trajectory that focuses on
active participation of all stakeholders that
ultimately ends in shared leadership
CONTINUUM OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
as cited by CDC(2011)
−increasing level of community involvement,
impact, trust, and communication flow
1. OUTREACH (SENDER)
• Some community involvement
• Communication flows from one to the other, to
inform
• Provides community with information
• ENTITIES: coexist
• OUTCOMES: Optimally, establishes
communication channels and channels for
outreach.
2.
• More Community Involvement
• Communication flows to the community and
them back, answer seeking
• Gets information or feedback from the
community.
• ENTITIES: share information.
• OUTCOMES: Develops connections
3. INVOLVE
• Better Community Involvement
• Communication flows both ways, participatory
form of communication
• Involves more participation with community
on issues.
• ENTITIES: cooperate with each other.
• OUTCOMES: Visibility of partnership
established with increased cooperation
4. COLLABORATE
• Community Involvement Communication flow
is bidirectional
• Forms partnerships with community on each
aspect of project from development to
solution.
• ENTITIES: from bidirectional communication
channels.
• OUTCOMES: Partnership building, trust
building
5. SHARED LEADERSHIP
• Strong Bi-directional Relationship
• Final decision marking is at community level.
• ENTITIES: formed strong partnership
structures.
• OUTCOMES: Broader health outcomes
affecting broader community. Strong
bidirectional trust built
(CDC,2011)
−Involvement of the people at all stages of
development is the key ingredient to make
community engagement successful.
1. Clarity of purpose
2. Knowledge
3. Relationships
4. Respect for Self-Determinations
5. Partnership
6. Diversity
7. Community assets
8. Flexibility/ Sharing Control
9. Commitment
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
1. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
− a concept that can be viewed as a process
and an outcome.
− as a process, it entails people's active
participation in bringing about solutions to
problems collectively identified.
− as an outcome, it speaks of a state in which
people enjoys better health through their
own efforts or to a broader sense better
quality of life.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT, 2016
Community Development
− practice-based profession and an academic
discipline
− promotes what:
• participative democracy
• sustainable development
• rights
• economic opportunity
• quality and social justice
− promote how: organization, education, &
empowerment of people within their
communities
(whether these be of locality, identity or interest,
in urban and rural settings)
MORTON AND GLASGOW
cited by bezboruah, 2013
The bottom line of Community Development can
be summed up into four characteristics:
(a) process for implementing change
(b) program of specified activities
(c) outcome
(d) ideology of action
2.COMMUNITY ORGANIZING (CO)
− form of community engagement that seeks
to:
• rally people to work together
• act on issues owned, identified, and
solved thru and by the people's own
efforts
As a process, CO goes through two broad
phases:
(1) educating the people
(2) mobilizing all stakeholders to address
problems
Bracht (1999)
“A planned process to activate a community to
use its own social structures and any available
resources to accomplish community goals that
are decided on primarily by community
representatives and generally consistent with
local values"
ESSENCE OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
PROCESS: FACES
1. Focus of Community Organizing is to achieve
self-reliance
2. Aim of community Organizing is community
development
3. Concept of Community Organizing is
teamwork
4. Element of Community Organizing is
participation of people
5. Strategies of Community Organizing are
teaching, training, and transfer of technology
ORIGIN AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Minkler (2012)
Community Organization/Organizing
− first used by the social workers in the United
States during the late 1800's in reference to
their initiative to facilitate services for
immigrants and the poor
GANDHI, ALINSKY, AND FREIRE
− Famous personalities were instruments in
shaping the philosophy and methodology of
community organizing and empowerment.
Mahatma Gandhi
− activist, writer, and reformer
− devoted his life fighting apathy,
discrimination, and social ills in India.
Goswami (2009)
− “To give our external actions, an internal
moral basis and to use the outcomes of
external actions for conscious internal
growth-this is the primary lesson that Gandhi
has for today’s community organizers.”
Saul Alinsky
− a labor leader in the United States in the
1960's
− father of modern community organizing.
− "people must be reformed-so they cannot be
deformed into dependency and driven
through desperation to dictatorship and the
death of freedom" (Alinsky, 1989)
Paulo Freire
− theorist and educator from Brazil
− advocated for a shift in educating people and
communities.
− His critically acclaimed work "Pedagogy of
the Oppressed” provided a new perspective
in working with communities through the
application of conscientization.
PHILIPPINES
− The most documented community organizing
initiatives occurred during the martial law
regime under the dictatorship of Ferdinand
Marcos from 1972 to early 1980's.
VALUES AND ASSUMPTIONS
− Community Organizing is a value-based
process tracing its roots in
• HUMAN RIGHTS
• SOCIAL JUSTICE
• SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
MODELS/TYPOLOGY OF COMMUNITY
ORGANIZING
1. LOCALITY DEVELOPMENT
− Classic form of community organizing where
people living in the same area bound by the
same issues and problems develop their
capacities in dealing with their own concerns.
→ Villages, Resettlement sites, areas
characterized by homogeneity of inhabitants
→ CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF CO
• INPUT—to organize people
• PROCESS—organizing people
• OUTPUT—community organization
2. SOCIAL ACTION
− Involves sectors of a population that are
disenfranchised and clamors for social justice
− Not limited to communities bound by
location but more commonly involves people
of same social class, occupation, or ideology
3. SOCIAL PLANNING
− Highly technical solutions to problems of
society at large define
− Government agencies from both national and
local levels employ this mode
→ EX: Communicable disease-control program
for tuberculosis and HIV
PHASES OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
1. SOCIAL PREPARATION
− Initial steps involved in:
• establishing a partnership with the people
• identifying the needs, problems, issues
affecting the community.
a. SITE SELECTION
− Community Organizing is primarily meant as
a tool to liberate the marginalized in society.
− Establishing an organization in communities
that will serve as a venue for people to talk
about their concerns and formulate solutions
for collective action.
− BEGINS: identifying communities in need.
− Activities during this step include:
a.) formulating criteria for selection,
b.) performing an ocular visit,
c.) initiating contact with the community
"GIDA or geographically inaccessible
disadvantaged areas"
→ Criteria:
(1) Community with a population of 100 or
more families;
(2) Marginalized or in need;
(3) Peace and order situation is generally safe:
(4) People are receptive and willing to
participate.
b. ENTRY & INTEGRATION
− Formal entry: when the organizer is
endorsed and is introduced by local leaders
to the residents of the community.
− Integration: crucial step in grounding the
organizer to the realities of the community.
− On the part of the people of the community,
integration will provide them to opportunity
to get to know the organizer and build more
than rapport but trust.
Techniques of Integrating with the Community
Manalili (1990)
• Performing home visits.
• Informal conversations in places where
people usually gather.
• Participation in livelihood activities.
• Participation in social gatherings.
• Forms of community integration that should
be avoided by Community Organizers
according to Manalili as cited by Cruz (2013)
o "now you see, now you don't".
- the organizers visit the community
occasionally but fails to engage the people.
o "Boarder of the community"
- renting a house in the community rather
than staying with the families prevent
genuine interactions and sharing.
o "Elitists"
- Staying with a person of authority in the
community creating a barrier between the
people and the organizers.
c. SOCIAL INVESTIGATION
− Collection of information in a systematic
manner to generate community profile.
→ TECHNIQUES: surveys, interviews, or
participatory methods like a transect walk.
For health sciences, a community diagnosis is
frequently used.
− Process of collecting, analyzing, and
interpreting data to identify needs and
problems of the people in the community.
2. SOCIAL MOBILIZATION
− Referred to as organizational phase and
primarily characterized as the point in which
greatest participation of the people is
encountered.
− Directed towards establishing the
community organization and undertaking
solutions for collective action.
a. IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL LEADERS
The criteria for selecting potential leaders in the
community are as follows:
(1) A resident of the community in good
standing
(2) Has moral ascendancy
(3) Influential and respected by the people
(4) Currently not holding a leadership post in
other organizations like the barangay
(5) willing to work for the community.
b. FORMATION OF CORE GROUP
− CORE GROUP: foundation of the organization.
− Executive committee or council of elders in
indigenous communities.
c. ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
− AGENDA: to formulate a vision, mission, and
goals of the community organization
Sample structure and community organization
HINAUT UNTA MAKA PASAR