Title: Principles of community participation
Course: Level 3 - Health Education and Promotion > Section: Community participation

Participation is a process in which people have to think through their health felt needs, a possible solution of to their problems and work together to achieve expected result. Creating healthy environments for people of all ages will require their active involvement at the grassroots level.Health extension workers will need to work together to make the changes that will allow such environments to be well. Community participation is with clear principles to guide and assess their collaborative efforts.

Because community participation processes can be complex, challenging, and labor-intensive, however, these health extension workers and others require dedicated resources to help ensure their success. The principles are organised into three sections: issues to be considered before engagement, at engagement time and for engagement to be successful. These principles are:-

Develop Clear Purpose or Goal

Those wishing to engage the community need to be able to communicate to that community why their participation is useful. The processes for involvement and participation must be appropriate for meeting the overall goals and objectives of the engagement. Ask community members to specify their health-related concerns, identify areas that need action, and become involved in planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating appropriate programs.

It is equally important to be clear about who is to be engaged. The goal established will guide you which member of the community to be involved in your program.

Understand Communities' Socio-Cultural and Political Conditions

It is important to learn as much about community's culture, economic conditions, social networks, political and power structures, norms and values, demographic trends before you plan to engage them.

Understanding the community will help health extension workers in the engagement effort to map community property and develop a picture of how it is done. It also helps you to identify the individuals and groups whose support is necessary.

For example, if you want to participate community members on health promotion on combating substance abuse. You should know which member of the community are exposed to such practice and who are part of the solution.

Establish a Good Relationship

A good relationship with all the members of the community is a base for working together. This could be based on respecting each other dignity. If you didn't respect them most likely, they would not be voluntary to work with you. Failure to act ethically is not an option; it should be a must.

You have to the community, establish relationships, build trust, work with the formal and informal leadership, and seek the commitment from community organisations and leaders to create processes for mobilising the community.

Community Participation Aims at Improving Health Status

The relationship between individuals or groups that is characterised by cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal is called partnership. Community mobilisation that is a partnership between health extension workers and different community members should bring an improvement health status of the community.

Recognise and Respect the Diversity of the Community

Diversity may be related to economic, educational, employment, or health status as well as differences in culture, language, race, ethnicity, age, gender, mobility, literacy, or personal interests.

All aspects of community engagement you must recognise and respect the diversity of the community. Awareness of the various cultures of a community and other factors affecting diversity must be paramount in planning, designing, and implementing approaches to engaging a community.

Identify and Use Community Assets

Community assets include the interests, skills, resource and experiences can be mobilised for increasing community health decision-making skill and action. The major aim of community participation is to mobilise existing community asset to solve overall health problem of their community. Health extension workers should collect and analyse data on community assets to understand their community's status and to use for community participation throughout their work.

These above-discussed principles of community participation help you to guide you community participation activities. However, certain challenges such as competing priorities, the difference among community members and maintaining community involvement may exist.

Give Appropriate Feedback and Recognition

On all products generated from community participation activities must be checked with a presated goal. Based on the evaluation feedback and acknowledgement shall be given to the contribution participants in the intervention.

Health extension workers will be able to insure dissemination of lesson learned from that specific activity other activities and areas.

Figure 4.2. In an effective community participation, the community should be involved from problem identification to program sustainability.