A Healthy Communities Initiative in Rural Alberta: Building Rural Capacity for Health (original) (raw)
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Using a Community Health Development Framework to Increase Community Capacity
Family & Community Health, 2017
The Physical Activity and Community Engagement Project utilized a comparative case study to understand how a theoretical framework called community health development (CHD) influences community capacity. Three rural communities (cases) developed interventions using a CHD framework. Researchers collected qualitative evidence measuring capacity and the CHD process for more than 3 years. Patterns identified seven capacity constructs relevant to CHD, including community history, civic participation, leadership, skills, resources, social and interorganizational networks, and critical reflection. Community health development focuses on population health improvement and strengthening community capacity. As such, it helps communities address local priorities and equips them to address future issues.
Community Capacity Building for Health
SAGE Open, 2012
There is a great deal of literature examining the benefits and relevance of community participation and community capacity building in health promotion and disease prevention endeavors. Academic literature embracing principles and commitment to community participation in health promotion practices often neglects the complexities involved and the flexibility required to work within this approach. This article addresses some of these challenges through a case study of two projects funded by Provincial Wellness Grants in Newfoundland and Labrador, a province in Canada with a strong tradition of community ties and support systems. In addition to addressing the unique circumstances of the community groups, this research allowed the authors to examine the situational context and power relations involved in the provision of services as well as the particular forms of subjectivity and citizenship that the institutional practices support. Recognizing this complex interdependency is an import...
Integrating Community Capacity Building and Enhanced Primary Health Care Services
Australian Journal of Primary Health, 2000
The purpose of this study was to design, test and evaluate a community capacity assessment process within a Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI) in conjunction with model development for enhanced primary health care (PHC) services in small rural communities. This paper describes the HCI planning process and community capacity assessment methods and tools, in the context of a small rural community that identified enhanced PHC as a key priority area. A PHC demonstration project was developed and a model integrating community action with the PHC team and the services they provide was created. It is the community action component of the model that we highlight in this paper in order to further knowledge development of strategies to strengthen community action. The key learnings from this study are threefold. The assessment process appears to (a) be effective in raising awareness, stimulating dialogue and fostering learning about community capacity (both on the part of community participants and outside professional helpers), (b) be promising in terms of helping communities take action to build capacity in targeted areas, and (c) provide a forum for integrating the HCI and the PHC project, thereby allowing equal attention to be given to primary health care service delivery and to strengthening community action.
International Journal of Public Health, 2010
Objectives To reflect upon a population health intervention for obesity and chronic disease prevention, with specific attention to the processes of change and developing, implementing and evaluating an intervention in a community-university-government partnership context. Methods To capture the value, process and context of our interventions, we employed a multi-layered, mixed methods research and evaluation design. Guided by assumptions of community-based participatory research, and using a validated capacity-building tool, the investigators described and reflected critically upon the level and nature of capacity built (for both research and intervention) as indicators of the process and contextual influences on intervention success. Results Capacity was built in communities through collaborative approaches. We captured complexity of change in social context to advance understanding of how to intervene to transform environments. Developing novel community evaluation strategies can help to advance understanding of how environmental interventions affect health before health outcomes data demonstrate change.
Strong Rural Communities Initiative (SRCI) program: challenges in promoting healthier lifestyles
WMJ : official publication of the State Medical Society of Wisconsin, 2011
The Strong Rural Communities Initiative (SRCI) was created to address the health needs of rural Wisconsin communities through a multifaceted partnership that included the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH), the Rural Health Development Council (RHDC), and hospitals, public health departments, and businesses in 6 rural communities in Wisconsin. The SRCI provided a broad framework of leadership to assist each of the 6 rural communities in developing and implementing new, collaborative interventions that addressed the specific health needs of the community. Separate assessments were conducted for the communities that partnered with each respective medical school and focused on the processes of community collaboration and partnership function. Assessment approaches included formative and outcome evaluation. Each community independently reported positive outcomes associated with the partnership process and various asp...