Community Health Promotion
Mobilizing Your Community to Promote Health

The Minnesota Department of Health developed the Community Health Promotion Kit in 1993. The Kit was distributed to communities in Minnesota to assist in developing health education and health promotion strategies within those communities. The Kit was made possible through the support and funding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This website has been adapted from the original Community Health Promotion Kit to be more accessible to the communities of Minnesota. The Chemical Health Promotion Guide has been added to give additional examples of how to use the information provided within Community Health Promotion Guide. When you see the words, CHEMICAL HEALTH, throughout the guide, you will be able to access the example from the Chemical Health Promotion Guide that fits within that particular subheading.


NOTE: Many of the Tip Sheets, Worksheets, and Samples are saved in Adobe PDF format . This is a free download. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here.

• Why a Community-Based Health Promotion Approach?
  
• Why a Community Health Promotion Guide?
  
• Why a Chemical Health Promotion Section?

Community Health Promotion Guide

• 5 Phases of Community Health Promotion and Corresponding Activities

• Community Health Check
• Involving Community Leaders
  
• Finding Resources
• Building a Team
  
• Developing a Plan of Action
  
• Choosing Programs
  
• Designing Your Message
  
• Communicating Your Message: Working With the Media
  
• Evaluating Your Program
  
• Where Do We Go From Here?
  

• CHEMICAL HEALTH
  Community Chemical Health Promotion Guide

Why A Community-Based Health Promotion Approach?

Community-Based Health Promotion
A comprehensive, systematic, coordinated approach to affecting long-term health behavior change by influencing the community (cultural) norms through education and community organization.

Studies show that most Americans want to lead healthy lives and are eager to improve their lifestyles. In fact, many continuously attempt to change unhealthy behaviors, only to fail. Most health promotion strategies assist individuals in changing health risk behaviors: self-help pamphlet distribution, individual counseling, group education classes, support groups, and health risk appraisals. Careful evaluation of these strategies has shown that long-term behavior change is very difficult for most participants. The failure rate can be 80% or more.

The best predictor of health behavior and long-lasting successful behavior change is often the "culture" in which a person lives. Health promotion programs need to make it possible for the community to support healthy behaviors. To do this successfully, the community and its leadership must be mobilized to provide community-based health promotion programs.

Community-based health promotion targets the whole community.
Changing habits may begin at the individual or family level, but maintaining change relies on reinforcement and approval at the community level. Program efforts need to focus on the whole community so that it becomes positive and enabling, one in which the family, the media, employers, educators, faith communities, voluntary and professional organizations, health care institutions and government all take an active and positive role in changing those factors in the community which continue to place people at risk.

• Community-based health promotion requires action at many levels.
  Well-planned and coordinated actions from many segments of the community are necessary for health behavior change. Strategies must provide people with health information, develop opportunities for people to make and practice healthful choices, encourage those choices through community support and provide economic and other incentives and policies that promote healthy choices.
  
  
• Community-based health promotion has many educational components.
  Individual, group, and community-wide education initiatives are needed to influence health behavior change.
  
  
• Community-based health promotion aims at effective public participation.
  People need to be involved in the decision-making process, coming together to determine the appropriate strategies for their community.
  Involving all segments of the community in the planning and implementing of programs insures cooperation and coordination and is a key to the success of health promotion efforts.
  
  
• Community-based health promotion's focus is on basically healthy people.
  Health promotion needs to reach people before they are symptomatic, and at a time when changing health behaviors can prevent illness, disability and death. The goal is to encourage people, through lifestyle changes, to improve their overall health and well being.

Why A Community Health Promotion Guide?

Throughout Minnesota, communities are continuing to initiate health promotion programs. Programs have been developed, implemented, and evaluated to determine what programs are successful within communities. Public Health Agencies are building partnerships with businesses, schools, organizations, faith communities, worksites, and retailers to make their community a healthier place to live. Coalitions and task forces are coming together to solve problems, funding sources are being tapped, and communities are willing to share their experiences and knowledge.

Most communities like to know what other communities have done to promote health:

• What resources did they use?
  
• What materials did they develop?
  
• What programs worked?
  
• What samples do they have?

In a time when the field is continuing to expand, and everyone is looking for resources, being able to review and use already developed, proven materials may give you the information and motivation to get a health promotion program started in your community.

This Community Health Promotion Guide is a collection of resources, tip sheets, tools, information sheets, samples, worksheets, and web sites that have been developed and used by communities throughout the United States.

We recognize that all communities are different, and it is not our intent to show you the only way to do a program. In fact, we want you to take the material and adapt it to fit your own community. Some of the material will be applicable to your project, while other material will not. Pick and choose what works best for your group. Most materials can be revised for any health promotion activity.

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Why a Chemical Health Promotion Section?

Throughout this section, you will find tools and resources you can use in your community to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use problems.

The use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs contributes to many important public health problems in our communities. For example, chemical use is associated with chronic diseases, infant mortality, unplanned pregnancies, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, unintentional injury, violence, and the spread of AIDS/HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as morbidity and mortality.

Throughout Minnesota, communities are recognizing that use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs affects the health and social well-being of their citizens and their communities as a whole. They are actively responding to this challenge by creating partnerships between businesses, schools, religious groups, worksites, and other organizations in order to change the environment and make their communities healthier and safer places to live.

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5 Phases of Community Health Promotion
The Community Health Promotion Guide was built upon the framework of the 5 phases of Community Health Promotion defined in A Guide for Promoting Health in Minnesota: A Community Approach. If you are just venturing into the field of health promotion, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the process.

Phase 1: Community Assessment

Phase 2: Community Organization

• Understanding Diversity . 6KB (1 page)
  
• Five Ideas That Motivate People to Join a Coalition . 4KB (1 page)
  
• Typical Tasks of the Coalition . 5KB (1 page)
  
• Guidelines for Effective Coalitions . 4KB (1 page)
  
• Reaching Consensus . 5KB (1 page)
  
• Typical Task Force Activities . 5KB (1 page)
  
• Tips on Working With Volunteers . 6KB (1 page)

Phase 3: Program Design and Implementation

• Target Groups, Settings, Possible Programs . 8KB (1 page)
  
• Budget Sheet . 5 KB (1 page)
  
• Program Budget . 6KB (1 page)

 

Phase 4: Evaluation

• Health Goals Worksheet (SAMPLE)

Phase 5: Sustaining the Effort

This process will help communities plan, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs. The phases are organized into steps; however, phases and steps overlap one another.

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Go to Center for Health Promotion Home Page

See also > Center for Health Promotion > Health Promotion and Chronic Disease