Module 4 Promoting Community SelfHelp

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Module 4 Promoting Community Self-Help
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Community Participation

• Community participation helps establish ownership
  of support or relief initiatives and may lead to
  more sustainable recovery

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Learning Objectives

• Describe the factors that make a community
  supportive and healthy for its members
• Give details of how communities can be helped to
  use their own resources for solving problems
• Develop ideas and methods to engage people and
  achieve participation

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Defining a CommunityCommon Identity Factors

• Geography
• Language
• Values
• Attitudes
• Behavior patterns

• Interests
• Beliefs
• Culture
• Trauma/disaster experience

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Assumptions of Community Participation

• Recovery projects are based on ideas developed by
  the concerned people themselves
• A planned process exists that encourages
  community participation

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Promoting Community Self-Help

• Identify and involve community leaders or
  influential persons
• Establish a sense of ownership by the community
• Identify community resources
• Promote psychological well-being
• Mobilize resources
• Encourage joint decision making and consensus

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Identify and Involve Community Leaders

• Involvement of local leaders is an essential part
  of community participation
• Identify leaders who
• Are locally accepted, trusted and respected.
• Accurately represent their communities.
• Will work towards helping the community to
  achieve its collective goals.
• Have sufficient status to attract other members
  to be involved.

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Activity 14 Who are your leaders?

• Break into groups
• Using the following list, identify your community
  leaders
• Locally accepted, trusted and respected.
• Accurately represent their communities
• Will work towards helping the community to
  achieve its collective goals
• Have sufficient status to attract other members
  to be involved

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Establish a Sense of Ownership

• Successful community recovery programs require a
  local sense of ownership
• Solutions that come from the community are more
  likely to be implemented

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Identify Community Resources

• Knowledge of traditional and cultural resources
  in the community is important.
• Roles of social networks, families, traditional
  leaders, etc
• Culturally appropriate ways of helping and
  supporting those in distress.

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Factors Promoting Psychological Well-Being

• Belonging to a caring family or community
• Maintaining traditions and cultures
• Having a strong religious belief or political
  ideology

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Protective Factors for Children

• Stable emotional relationship with adults
• Social support both within and from outside the
  family

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Strengthening Protective Factors

• Empower people with a sense of control and
  predictability over their lives
• Encourage people to do familiar things together

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Mobilize Resources

• Mobilize resources and strengthen the communities
  own capacities
• Actively assist with transforming needs and goals
  into action

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Steps in Action Planning

• Identify the vision or goal
• Brainstorm possible actions
• Weigh advantages disadvantages
• Determine resources needed for each option

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Steps in Action Planning (cont)

• Choose an acceptable plan of action
• Decide who will do what, when, where and how
• Establish a time frame and criteria to evaluate
  success

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Encourage Joint Decision-Making and Consensus
Building

• Differences of opinion may obstruct achievement
  of a common goal.
• Be aware of conflict or tension.
• Find mutually acceptable solutions.

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Activity 15 - Coordination

• Break into small groups of 4-5 people. Imagine
  that your area has had a number of cattle die,
  and agroterrorism is suspected but not yet
  confirmed. You are all meeting to discuss the
  situation and to decide on a course of action.
• Appoint a facilitator, then give 10 minutes to
  discuss possible courses of action. List your
• Needs
• Resources
• A possible course of action
• Projected impact of the course of action
• In the large group, report your decisions and
  discuss the experience with the group.