Community Organizing Participatory Action Research

**Community Organizing Participatory Action Research** **Community Organizing** Process by which health services, agencies, and people of the community are brought together to: - Identify/learn their own problems - Plan activities - Act on this basis - Evaluate **Community Organizing...

**Community Organizing Participatory Action Research** **Community Organizing** Process by which health services, agencies, and people of the community are brought together to: - Identify/learn their own problems - Plan activities - Act on this basis - Evaluate **Community Organizing Emphasizes:** - Problem-solving skills - Decision-making skills\ *(Necessary for self-reliant development)* **Roles and Responsibilities of a Community Health Nurse** - Manager - Guide - Advocate - Coordinator, Counselor, Change Agent - Health Care Provider - Nurse Trainer - Researcher - Organizer - Leader - Educator -- Primary role, Primary responsibilities → promotion of health and prevention of illness - Supervisor **Community Organizer\ Person who mobilizes:** - Individuals - Families (Sick or Well) - Community **To come together in unity and collectively address given:** - Issues - Needs - Problems ***Assess by way of research.*** **Participatory Action Research Investigation on problems and issues of the community by way of research.\ Representatives of the community participate in the actual research.** - Local Researcher - Outside Researcher = Community Health Nurse ** Act as researchers themselves, doing research of their own problems.\ The essential element of Participatory Action Research is participation.** **Participatory Action Research Objectives:** - **Encourage consciousness of the suffering** - Empower people to determine the cause of their own problem - Analyze these problems - Develop competence for changing their own situation - Act by themselves in responding to their problems **Ideal Participatory Research Process involves the community in all research aspects:** 1. Identification of research problem 2. Formulation of research design 3. Data gathering 4. Validation of research 5. Data presentation 6. Recommendations 7. Action of activities **COPAR Phase/Process** **1. PRE-ENTRY PHASE\ At the NGO Level:** - Formulation of institutional goals, objectives, and targets for the program - Revision of curriculum - Training of faculty for COPAR - Coordinate participation of other departments within the institution ** At the Community Level:** - Community consultations/dialogues - Setting of issues related to site selection - Development of criteria for site selection **Criteria for Selecting a Community:** - Site must be: - Depressed and underserved - Oppressed - Poor - Exploited - Struggling - Area must not have serious peace and order problems - Willingness to be organized - Community needing health assistance: - Check vital health statistics → can determine general health status - Malnutrition rate - Lack of health facilities/health care providers - Counterpart of the community (support, commitment, resources) - Accessible to transport and communication **Activities at Community Level in Pre-Entry Phase:** - Site selection - Preliminary Social Investigation (PSI): - Identify contact persons - Gather an \"overview\" of demographic characteristics, health services, and facilities of the community - Networking with LGUs, NGOs, and other departments **2. ENTRY PHASE\ Integration with the community → Main objective: Gain Trust** - First task → Courtesy call to the Barangay Captain - Establish rapport (house calls, joining social activities) - Imbibe their lifestyle - Immerse yourself - Live with them - Reside in the area (*live in the center/modest dwelling*) ** Sensitization of the community → Social preparation** - Information campaign on health services ** Continuing/Deep Social Investigation:** - Collecting, collating, analyzing data to draw a clear picture of the community ** Core Group Formation (CG):** - Consists of identified potential leaders 1. Respected community members 2. Responsible/committed 3. Willing to work for a desired change 4. Good communication skills 5. Wide \"influence\" over elite/poor community members - Self-awareness and leadership training (SALT) - Coordination with other community organizations **3. COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS/STUDY PHASE (Research Phase)\ Activities:** - Selection of the research team - Training on data collection - Planning for actual data gathering - Data gathering - Training on data validation - Community validation - Presentation of community study/diagnosis and recommendations - Prioritization of community needs/problems for action **4. COMMUNITY ORGANIZING / CAPABILITY BUILDING PHASE\ Activities:** - Community meetings to draw up guidelines for the organization - Election of officers - Development of management systems: - Delineation of Roles, Functions, and Tasks of Officers - Training of leaders - Team-building exercises → Enhance cohesiveness - Action-Reflection-Action-Session **5. COMMUNITY ACTION PHASE\ Activities:** - Organization and training of Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) → Village or Grassroots Workers - Project Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation (PIME) **Resource mobilization (5 M\'s):** 1. Manpower 2. Machine 3. Material 4. Method 5. Money 6. Space **Setting up linkages, networks, and referral systems** **6. SUSTENANCE AND STRENGTHENING PHASE\ Activities:** - Formulation and ratification of the constitution and by-laws - Identification and development of \"secondary\" leaders - Setting up a financing scheme - Continuing education and training of BHWs - Development of long-term community health development plans - Formalizing linkages, networks, and referral systems 7. **TURNOVER / PHASE OUT\ **-Transfer of community organizer roles, responsibilities, and documents\ -Subsequent follow-up **[Main Goal of COPAR:]** - **Attain Community Development → Better Quality of Life** - Basic needs are met - Equal rights - Self-reliance - Active participation Essence of Community Organizing Process: ***F.A.C.E.S*** **F**ocus of Community Organizing is to achieve **self-reliance.** **A**im of Community Organizing is **Community Development** **C**oncept of Community Organizing is **Teamwork** **E**lement of Community Organizing is **participation of people** **Guidelines in filling up the Survey forms & in tabulating the Data** 1\. Interviewee should also be included in the list of family members. 1. Members are only applicable to those who are at present residing with the family, and this will include relatives and helpers. I. **Record marital status:** - Single (S), Married (M), Common-law (CL), Widowed (W), Separated/Divorced (Sep). Marital Status a\. **Single (S)-** a person who is not and has never been married b\. **Married (M)-** a person living with another as a couple married by legal rite/s. c\. **Common-law (CL)-** a person living with another as a couple not married by legal rite/s. d\. **Widowed (W)-** a person whose spouse is dead and who has not remarried. e\. **Separated/ Divorced (Sep)-** a person legally separated from his/her spouse because of marital discord or similar reason/s. a person whose bond of marriage has been dissolved and can therefore re-marry. II. Age classification (Erikson\'s Stages of Development and DOH standards). a\. Birth to 18 months- infancy b\. 18 months to 3 years- early childhood c\. 3-5 years- late childhood d\. 6-12 years (11 years and 11 months)- school age e\. 12-18 ( 17 years and 11 months) school age f\. 18-35 years ( 34 years and 11 months)- young adulthood g\. 35-65 years- adulthood h\. 65 years to death- maturity **DOH:** - 10-24 years- young person - 25-59- adults - 60 & up- older person III. **Types of work (Full-time, Part-time, Casual, Contract, Self-employed).** IV. **Educational attainment (elementary, high school, college, degree holders).** - **Highest Educational Attainment-** Refers only to the highest level completed in the regular and formal system of education, **i.e.** elementary, high school and collegiate education. Excluded are attendance in nursery and kindergarten schools and in purely vocational courses such as dressmaking or carpentry. Enter only the last level of education completed and the one the person is in at the time of assessment. **a. For the Elementary level**, write G-1 to G-6 (Grade 1-VI) **b. For High school**, HS-1 to HS-4 and **c. For College education**, C-1 to C-4, as the case maybe. For degree holders, write the V. **Religion: Islam, Christians (Catholics, Protestants, etc.).** a\. Islam b\. Christians 1\. Christian denominations 1.1 Catholics 1.2 Protestants \- Baptist \- etc VI. **Immunization: Fully Immunized Child (FIC), complete, incomplete, none.** **a. Fully immunized child (FIC)-** a child who received one dose of BCG; 3 doses of OPV; 3 doses of DPT; 3 doses of HB and one dose of measles before a child's first birthday **b. Complete-** a child who received all required vaccine based on his/her age **c. Incomplete-** a child who has incomplete required vaccine based on his/ her age. **d. none** VII. **Nutritional status** a\. Normal b\. Underweight c\. Overweight **VIII. Housing and Community Characteristics** - Construction materials: Light, Mixed, Strong. - **Toilet facilities: Open pit privy, Closed pit privy, Water-sealed latrine, Flush type, Antipolo type, etc.** a. **Overhung latrine-** the toilet house is constructed over a body of water (Stream, lake or river) into which excreta is allowed to fall freely b. **Open pit privy-** consists of a pit covered by a platform with a hole. The hole is not usually not covered. The platform may, in its simplest form, consists only of two pieces of wood or bamboo.  I. **Antipolo type-** the toilet is elevated and the shallow pit is extended upwards to the platform (toilet floor) by means of a chute or pipe made of clay, metal, aluminum or board. A nonwater carriage type toilet facility where pit is dug to a depth of 4-6 feet large enough to hold wastes for several years.  **IX. Storage of water** a. large- contain 4 gallons or more b. **open dumping-** refuse and or garbage is piled in a dumping place (w/or w/o pit) with no covering  c. **Open burning-** regularly piles refuse/garbage piled in a dumping place \[w/ or w/o pit) with no soil covering then burns them  e. **composting-** involves burying or stacking of alternating layers of organic based refuse/garbage and "treated coil" arranged so as to hasten rapid decay and decomposition into compost. This organic mixture can later be used as fertilizer. f. **garbage collection-**refuse/garbage collected by garbage truck or any type of garbage collection in the community.  **REMINDERS:** Survey forms Submit with the list of households surveyed in alphabetical order Arrange the forms per purok/sitio Number the forms based on its number in the spot map Summarize the data using the guide below **SPOT MAP/ COMMUNITY HEALTH DATA SHEET** (whole purok and per block) Individual households, locations and distances from each other Physical characteristics of the community such as: The community health datasheet is like a spot map. It gives you an idea about the health status of families and guides community managers in planning projects needed by the community. The health indicators are provided on the datasheet. The color-coding stand for health status or condition of each household The household datasheet. Individual presentation of every household presented as data matrices that contain information. \- health programs (columns) \- Colors in the cells (value-entry)  **Meaning of the colors:** \- Red (Stop, danger) \- Yellow (needs improvement, caution) \- Green (go, safe) \- Blue (None, not applicable) **Community health plan and GANNT chart GANNT chart** Visual representation of a project schedule A type of bar chart that shows the start and finish dates of the different required elements of the project Typically, tasks are shown on the vertical axis, and the project time span on the horizontal axis Each task has a corresponding bar that shows the time span required for the task Developed by Henry Laurence Gannt, an American mechanical engineer **Example of GANNT chart:**  The health datasheet keep an eye on at least seven(7) public health programs in the households of a community. **This programs are the health indicators:** \- Immunization \- Prenatal \- Family planning \- Nutrition \- Water \- Garbage disposal \- toilet **3. Spot Map and Community Health Datasheet** - Household locations, waterways, land use, public services, non-residential structures. - Immunization, Prenatal, Family Planning, Nutrition, Water, Garbage Disposal, Toilets. - Red: Stop/danger - Yellow: Needs improvement - Green: Safe - Blue: None/not applicable. **4. Visual Tools for Project Management** - Bar chart showing project schedules and timelines. - Tasks on vertical axis, time span on horizontal axis. - Helps in planning and managing community health projects.