COMMUNITY ORGANIZING THROUGH PATICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH(CO-PAR)

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING THROUGH PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
(CO-PAR)

The Philippine Center for population and Development in its effort to support the Department of Health in the implementation of Primary Health Care (PHC), designed the Health Resource Development Program (HRDP) to enable the health training institution e.g. school of medicine, nursing, and midwifery to effectively implement their community-based health programs. HRDP sees Community Organizing (CO) as a tool for people's empowerment in health. It is used to generate community participation and involvement in health activities and to prepare communities to set up their own health programs.

Specifically, community organizing is important in Primary Health Care (PHC) in the following contexts:

1. CO maximizes community participation and involvement
2. CO could be an alternative in situations wherein health interventions in PHC do not require direct involvement of modern medical practitioners.
3. CO gets people actively involved in selection and support of community health workers
4. Through CO, community resources are mobilized for selected health services.
5. CO improves both project's effectiveness during planning, implementation, and ultimate impact.
6. CO is critical in achieving the PHC goal of self-reliance and self-awareness

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING (CO)

General

1. People, especially the oppressed and exploited sectors are most open to change and are able to bring about change. Along this line, community organizations should be based on the following. a. Power must reside in the people.
   b. Development is fro the people to the people.
   c. People's participation should always be present.
2. Community organization should be for the interest of the poorest sectors of the society. The solutions of problems commonly shared by these sectors must be focused on collective organizations, planning and action.
3. Community organizations should lead to self-reliant communities.

WHEN PEOPLE LEAD, THE LEADERS FOLLOW...

Specific

Community Participation - active involvement of community members in decisions about how to improve the existing conditions or the mobilization of community people to take active part in the delivery of health services.

Levels of Community Participation

Level I

- The people are just physically involved in the implementation of programs designed by the organizing agency.

Level II
- When the people are involve in making a "yes-no" decision to the plans or programs presented by the organizing agency.

Level III
- When working committees are created to make decisions for the community.

Level IV
- Requires the active involvement of the majority of community members in making decisions throughout the entire problem solving process.

Reasons:
- To develop the capability of the people in solving problems.
- To let people acquire people acquire a sense of commitment and ownership/projects implemented.

Indigenous Leadership

Means recognizing the significance of the role of the existing leaders for effective community organizing.

Reason: the leaders have considerable influence in the acceptance of programs/projects.

Intragency Collaboration

Establishing intrasectoral and intersectoral linkaging with other agencies

Reason: the problems affecting the community are so varied and touch on the different aspects of life and no single agency possess all the resources and capabilities to respond to all of these needs/problems.

FIVE CRITICAL DIAGNOSIS

1. Community Diagnosis

It is both a profile and a process.

As a profile, it is a description of a community's state of health as determined by its physical, economic, political, and social factors. It is a definition and statement of problems of the community.

As a process, it is a continuous learning experience for the program coordinator and his/her staff and the community as they analyze and draw action plans regarding their identified problems. With the community diagnosis results, the staff may adjust or after the program for optimum effectiveness.

Community diagnosis can lead to a good start as basis for program planning, implementation and evaluation. it can help prepare the community to prioritize the multiple needs and tasks at hand.

When a program is being set up, a community diagnosis can assist in planning a series of health trainings wherein knowledge and skills are built up at the time that health education activities and medical services are undertaken.

2. Leaders Identification / Core Group Formation

Different leaders are needed in different tasks.

3. Community Mobilization / Organization

Organizing people to act on the identified problems on a sustained level.

4. Resource mobilization / Project Management

The process of systematic identification, selection, acquisition, and utilization of resources towards attainment of project objectives. These resources include the 5M's: Money, Manpower, Man-hour, Materials, and Machine.

5. Value Formation / Clarification and Capability Building

Unjust structures are the creation of people and are products of the greed and egotism that are deeply embedded in human nature, the human spirit, the human spirit must be strengthened to the point that greed and egotism play a less dominant role, this will be done through Self Awareness and Leadership Training(SALT) and Action Reflection in Faith-Action(ARFA).

Consciousness raising and skills enhancement are considered crucial fr the projects / programs' sustainability. This will be achieved by conducting health and research trainings, refresher courses, meetings, seminars, conferences and through guided practice.

PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH

Results in a community diagnosis can best be obtained through the participatory research approach. It is defined as an investigation on problems and issues soncerning the life and environment of the underprivileged, whose representatives participate in the research process as equal partners - that is as researchers themselves, rather than outsiders doing research upon them or upon their problems.

-central element: PARTICIPATION



Phases of COPAR Process:

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.

Identifying Potential Barangay

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

Choosing Final Barangay

• 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.

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

• 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 - approach by key persons
  Isolates - never or hardly consulted

3. 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)
  • 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
• 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

• 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.