Phase One

Community Assessment

During this phase, community members determine priority health problems, the risk factors that contribute to the health problems, and the influences on risk factors in their community. Community leaders and community resources are identified. CHS agencies will have already completed substantial steps in this phase through the community assessment portion of their CHS planning process. However, special applications or refinements may be useful for program planning for health promotion.

1- Define the Community.

The term "community" has multiple meanings. In order to complete a community assessment and determine the health of a community, decisions must be made about the following questions:

  • How large is it? (A neighborhood, a city, or a county?)
  • What are its major social institutions or sectors? (Education, health,
    recreation, business, faith, media, civic organizations,
    government, etc.
  • What are the patterns of social interaction? (Clubs and networks)
  • Where is the social control? (Influence groups, key decision-makers,
    power structures)
  • Involving Community Leaders
  • Identifying Opinion Leaders (PDF: 8 KB 1 page)

  • Who constitutes the community? (Special populations as high
    percentage of teens or elderly)
2- Collect or Review Data that will help identify key community health problems related to chronic diseases.

Examples of the types of data to be collected could include morbidity and mortality data, key demographic data and health status data. 3- Identify the risk factors that contribute to chronic diseases and their prevalence in the community.

The statewide behavioral risk factor survey data (BRFSS, www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/brfss) can be helpful. Some communities may choose to conduct a community-wide behavioral risk factor survey of their own. This takes a significant amount of time to conduct properly, but can be accomplished with technical assistance. The Minnesota Department of Health, Center for Health Statistics may be helpful. www.health.state.mn.us/stats.html4- Examine other factors in the community that influence risk factor behavior.

For example, such things as the availability of exercise facilities; location, accessibility and number of cigarette machines; and number of grocery stores with a low fat meat labeling program all influence an individual's behaviors. 5- Begin a public awareness campaign.

The use of the media throughout this process is critical to the success of the effort. The purpose of this initial campaign is to generate awareness and understanding of the planned effort in the community. It will raise the awareness of local leaders to the issues of health in the community and "set the stage" for recruiting volunteers for the program. 6- Conduct a Community Opinion Survey and/or a Community Resource Inventory.

A community opinion survey helps determine what is perceived to be the major community health problems, while a resource inventory identifies what resources exist in the community to meet health needs. The procedure for both includes interviews with identified community leaders.

These interviews are "tools" for analyzing the community, identifying community leaders, and are one of the first steps in the community organization process. They are also the introduction of the project to important community leaders and begin to build support for later program activities.

The opinion survey and the resource inventory data will provide information on the level of awareness of people in the community, indicate allies, and suggest how to approach the community.

7- Analyze the collected data.
Collect as much community specific data as possible. Organizing and summarizing data into charts and graphs that are easily viewed and understood by others is important.

8- Formulate Initial Goal Statements.

Using all the data, begin to formulate ideas for potential goals for the project. These goals will be presented, along with supporting data, to the core group and/or community coalition for further discussion and development.

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