Community Organizing

This chapter discussed how to create and evaluate Community Organizations. It gave multiple examples and charts. There were some definitions to explain the difference between commonly interchanged words, such as goals and objectives. This chapter had a very sensible flow to it.

Chapter 5 started with information explaining that the need for organizations was now more than ever. With the increase of technology and population, communities are not as connected as they used to be. Organizations help the community come together to solve an issue. There are three main methods that an organization can use. These methods include locality development, social planning, and social action.

Organizations must follow a process in order to get mobilized and running in the community. First, the issue of main concern must be recognized. Once this is recognized, if the organization is not started in the community it must gain entry. People are then organized and assessments are made. Either mapping community capacity or doing a needs assessment must be done to determine the needs of the community. Priorities and goals are then set and the organization must arrive at a solution. Once a solution is selected the intervention strategy must also be chosed. Once the strategy is selected is must be implemented, evaluated and either maintained or reevaluated.

There are different programs that have developed for Health Promotion. Healthy People being one of these programs. To understand programs you need to understand the difference between Health education and Health promotion. To create a health program steps similar to the ones listed above are followed.

There were a few things that caught my attention in this chapter. I was suprised when I read the Assumptions that community organizations must make. One assumption was that people want to change and can change. Not all people want to change. Not everyone that smokes wants to quit. Most of the other assumptions make sense. I can understand how large groups of people need some sort of organizations to get things accomplished.

During class, our group discussed the importance of an evaluation. Without an evaluation a organization doesn't know if their strategy is working. Sometimes, this crucial evaluation can overlooked. Another point the group brought up was how different rural and city neighbors are. In most small towns people know their neighbors. In a large city however, you are very less likely to interact with your neighbors.