COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

DEFINITION:
A process of educating and mobilizing members of the community to enable them to resolve community
problems. It is a means to build the community capacity to work for the common good in general and
health goals in particular.

Basic values:
▪ Human rights – based on the worth and dignity inherent to all human beings
 Right to life
 The right to development as person as a community
 The freedom to make decisions for oneself
▪ Social justice – entails fairness in the distribution of resources to satisfy basic needs and to maintain
dignity as human beings.
▪ Social responsibility – is premised on the belief that people as social beings must no limit themselves
to their own concerns but should reach out to and move jointly with others in meeting common needs
and problems; society has the responsibility to ensure an environment for the fullest development of
each members.

Core Principles:
▪ People centered – any community endeavor is that the people are the means and ends of
development, and community development is the process and outcome.
▪ Participative – participation of the community must be ensured. Community is considered as the
prime mover rather than beneficiaries and recipients, of development efforts including health care.
▪ Democratic – should empower the disadvantaged population. This allows majority of the of people to
recognize and critically analyze their difficulties and articulate their aspirations.
▪ Developmental – should be directed towards changing current undesirable conditions.
▪ Process oriented – the goals of empowerment and development are achieved through a process of
change. Organizers must diligently and patiently follow the community organizing process to achieve
its goals.

Most effective approaches in terms of development and empowerment are COPAR and Community Based
Participatory Research (CBPR).

COPAR or Community Organizing Participatory Action Research is a vital part of public health nursing.
COPAR aims to transform the apathetic, individualistic and voiceless poor into dynamic, participatory and
politically responsive community.

Definition
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).

ELLA B. AALBURO
CHN Instructor
▪ 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
▪ Community working to solve its own problem.
▪ Direction is established internally and externally.
▪ Development and implementation of a specific project less important than the development of the
capacity of the community to establish the project.
▪ Consciousness raising involves perceiving health and medical care within the total structure of society.

Importance
▪ COPAR is an important tool for community development and people empowerment as this helps the
community workers to generate community participation in development activities.
▪ COPAR prepares people/clients to eventually take over the management of a development programs
in the future.
▪ COPAR maximizes community participation and involvement; community resources are mobilized for
community services.

Principles
▪ 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.
▪ COPAR should be based on the interest of the poorest sector of the community.
▪ COPAR should lead to a self-reliant community and society.

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

ELLA B. AALBURO
CHN Instructor
9. Reflection
10. Organization

Phases of COPAR
COPAR has four phases namely: Pre-Entry Phase, Entry Phase, Organization-building phase, and
sustenance and strengthening phase.

1. Pre-Entry Phase
▪ Is the initial phase of the organizing process where the community organizer looks for
communities to serve and help. Activities 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
▪ 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.

ELLA B. AALBURO
CHN Instructor
 ▪ 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 community.

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. Approached by key persons
 Isolates. Never or hardly consulted

3. Organization-building Phase - This is also known as community involvement.

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

ELLA B. AALBURO
CHN Instructor
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.

Facilitators (or outsiders) withdraw from self-reliant groups who will now continue to implement the
cycle of direction setting, organizing, planning implementation, and review for the benefit of the
community members.

Determining factors to ensure sustainability

1. Structure. It refers to the organizational structures both in the partnerships and in the
communities. The capability of the people and the viability of the organization as a whole will
greatly influence sustainability.
2. Skills development and technology transfer. The skills required to carry out the project activities
must be fully developed and integrated in the partnership before the end of the project life. This
should be preserved in the memory of the organization which eventually will help sustainability.
3. Systems. It includes the systems and procedures needed to formulate policies, plan, and make
decisions on the day-to-day operation of the system. Consensus among the members and their
responsiveness to the changing times will determine the prospects of sustainability.
4. Commitment. Participation in planning and decision making fosters greater commitment in the
community. This is because it gives community members a true sense of ownership of the
program as well as a sense of self-respect that flows from self-governance.

When to phase out

1. When the objectives have been attained
2. When the impact of the project has become visible or change has been made
3. When the members of the community can take over the planning, implementation, monitoring,
and evaluation of the project
4. When the community resources can already be maximized by the people
5. When a viable community-based organization has been established

Phase out strategy

1. Conduct of an impact assessment
2. Preparation of a comprehensive phase out action plan
3. Gradual pull-out of intervention
4. Institutionalization of the community organization with other agencies who provide support
5. Provision of consultancy services

Steps in phase out

1. Determine factors to ensure sustainability

ELLA B. AALBURO
CHN Instructor
 2. Determine when to phase out
3. Identify which strategy plans to phase out
COMPARISON OF TRADITIONAL RESEARCH TO COPAR
Points of Comparison Traditional Research
Decision Making / ▪ Top – down
Emphasis ▪ Expert/nurse driven process
▪ Much premium is placed on the
data and output
Roles ▪ Nurse as researcher: the
community members are subjects
or objects of research, usually
respondents ot the research
instrument.
▪ Data analysis is done by the nurse,
and then presented to the
community.
Methodology ▪ Research tools and methodologies
are predetermined/ prepackaged
by the nurse organizer.
Output ▪ Upon completion, the study is
packaged, submitted to the agency,
and published.
▪ Recommendations are made by the
researcher based on the findings of ▪ The whole research cycle continues
the study.
COPAR
▪ Bottom-up.
▪ Community-driven process
▪ Premium is placed on the process
▪ Community members as
researchers: the nurse is a
facilitator and recorder.
▪ Data analysis is done collectively by
the community.
▪ Research tools and methodologies
are identified and developed by the
community.
▪ Conclusions and recommendations
are made by the community.
▪ These will lead to agreed
community actions/projects.
until it becomes part of community
life, leading towards community
development.
▪ Community members formulate
the recommendations.
ELLA B. AALBURO
CHN Instructor