Empowerment And Change - Article Example

Empowerment and Change Soul Institute for Health and Development (IHDC), a South African non-governmental organization is one of the social change projects and it aims at empowering the society. It is South Africa’s leading edutainment project which was established in 1992, when the entire structure of South Africa was changing. Soul City IHDC has utilized some approaches to deal with social change among the individuals of a specified society. Media approach is one of the approaches; television series are used to portray the illustrations of booklets of social change. Six series had been produced, each to deal with various issues concerning health and development. The issues include tobacco control, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, maternal and child health, energy usage, violence among women, personal finance and many others (Frieman 2003, p.201). Effective and comprehensive communication interventions are based on some theories of knowledge and power. Sound theory creates a strategic structure that is very flexible to allow the implementation of different contexts. Another theory is the health promotion theory which deals with the health promotion planning and implementing strategies. Social change theory is concerned with the empowering people and impacting change on each individual. Through these theories, Soul City IHDC aspires to have a great positive impact on health, economical and social outcomes. The objectives are achieved by addressing general issues on immediate interpersonal environment, social and community environment, as well as having an impact on personal health and social change. Soul City IHDC has drawn models of practice that enables the empowerment of people and social change in South Africa. These models of social change represent a vibrant integration of other models of social behavior change, such as theory of reasoned action, social learning theory, social network model and behavior change model. In addition to that, the organization bases its intervention on Ottawa charter of health promotion. Ottawa charter focuses on building healthy public policy, strengthening both individual and community actions, reorienting personal and developing personal skills. The social behavior change theory clearly shows that, the environmental factors and forces contribute to the empowerment of people and impact on the behavior change process. The models emphasize change in the healthy and social processes and structures that support healthy lifestyles and policy development. Policy development and advocacy are part and parcel of intervention strategy that complements the health education (Frieman 2003, p. 112) . Soul City IHDC perceives advocacy as a fundamental process in behavior and social change. Advocacy can take place in three contexts: within communities, between individuals and at broader societal level. Advocacy between individuals is portrayed through individuals speaking out in favor of social and health behavior. On the other hand, advocacy within communities is seen through community groups and models promoting both health policies and health behaviors. Social influence is a fundamental mechanism for change. Social theories reveal the perceptions and the nature of behaviors of individuals or groups; they show the importance of social networks in behavior change by determining the possibility of exposure to new behaviors and ideas. Collective efficacy is another mechanism that is essential for change; it is the key factor for community empowerment, for instance the process of gaining an understanding of development problems enhances the ability to perform actions or tasks that lead to problem solving. Research shows that accurate knowledge is essential to facilitate behavior change. The theory on health emphasizes the importance of creating awareness as well as increasing accurate knowledge. The social processes as mechanisms of change can be illustrated by the fact that the health practitioners attribute to personal dialogue. The dialogue is emphasized and directed to behavior change; the importance of dialogue is that people talk and say about the issues, hence becomes easy to solve the problems concerning behavior change. Self efficacy is a major construct in the process of behavior change process. The social learning theory emphasizes the importance of sense of individual change. Self-efficacy is defined as the belief in the capability to execute and organize information. It also refers to individual’s confidence and judgment on the ability to perform a given task and to maintain this task in order to manage potential situations. The process of behavior change outlines basic impact on individuals behavior change. These processes include the intention, changes in knowledge, advocacy and practice. Understanding the processes of the behavior change is influenced by stages of change model. The five stages that are necessary for the behavior change are the maintenance, contemplation, decision making and determination. The four stages explain the process of individual behavior change ( Fagan 2009, p.82). . Theories of social and behavior change indicate that different people find themselves in varying situations and stages of particular model of behavior change. The process of change does not culminate in the real behavior change. Moreover, the change process is characterized by endless starts and stops, forwards and backwards, and certain processes and stages may be skipped (Feder 2008, p. 54). Soul City IHDC has a comprehensive health communication intervention that may have varying impacts on different people, depending on the meticulous issue that is addressed. The organization has developed programming theories that can be used as approaches for the required processes of the intended behavior change. These theories facilitate the edutainment reaching the audience, and enhance the fulfillment of the complementary work reaching the audience. The audience may include the people and organizations working on the sector. The power of edutainment is related to its popularity and has to be as good as entertainment in order to get the best audience. In addition to that, edutainment intervention can have an impact on individual, group or society at large. It is upon the audience to look for the right process to follow as far as behavior change is concerned (Kessler 2006, p. 111). The theories of social change support the enlightenment project. Enlightenment is the process whereby the intellectual ferment sweeps across a certain country like South Africa, through individuals or organizations like IHDC. It is clear that the process of enlightenment involve the use of essays, newspapers, pamphlets and even social networking. According to Fagan (2009, p. 57), there is only one answer to any question and that the world can be rationally controlled if we could only picture and represent it in the correct way. It is also clear that an empowering group is advocate scientific rationalism which can be applied to social improvement of behavior (Fagan 2009, p. 67) According to research information, certain paradox affecting the empowerment process is ignored. Many people, in the twentieth century believe in the social value of education; education has played a major role in the enlightenment and empowering societies, for instance in the South African societies. Policy making also affects the empowerment of a certain society; policy-making in Soul-City leads to treating social policy simply in terms of outputs like parliamentary programs that could affect behavior change. This is because policy-making involves active debate between people with different ideas on the nature of the problem being addressed. Social policy, as a discipline is related to social behavior, therefore contributes to process of behavior change. Through social-policy, researchers have developed diverse research frameworks that assist in the process of enlightenment and empowerment. Parents and states can use social policies to shape the behaviors of the children. For instance, hierarchical surveillance is one of the disciplinary mechanisms, which create an area or space where individual scan be watched and monitored. Today office supervisors supervise their subordinates using computers (Kessler 2006, p. 59). They call up on their computers to check o9n the efficiency of the subordinates. Similarly, the parents supervise their children through phones; this contributes so much to the process of empowerment and behavior change. In general terms, social policy is a political, social and health activity that contributes to empowerment of people, especially youth. Soul City was conceived as an ongoing organization that deals with development and health issues, as well as promoting empowerment processes. This is seen as an approach where Soul City is conceptualized as an ongoing vehicle. This approach is more important, since there is no audience lag in the process of empowerment. A good production will gain audience with time. If this approach is applied to edutainment, it means that subsequent series begins with credibility and popularity, hence potential impact on people is very great (Feder 2008, p. 37). It has been very possible for Soul City to deal with both simple and complex issues, concerning the empowerment and impact ion the citizens of South Africa. The initiative draws a number of models of practice on which it operates. To start with, diffusion of innovation Model is utilized to describe the process of behavior change on a macro level in communities and societies (Berger and Lackmann 2006, p. 38). The model, which is represented in form of an S-shaped curve, indicates that adoption of a specific behavior is normally slow. It goes ahead and portrays the majority rapidly accepting the behavior and eventually a slower acceptance of behavior by the minority. According to Berger and Lackmann (2006, p.40), behavior Change Model (SBC) is also used to outline the basic impact indicators of individual behavior change through each step through each step with sub indicators specific for each intervention. The basic steps are changes in knowledge, approval, intention, practice and advocacy. The stages of Change model affects Soul City IHDC’s understanding of behavioral change process. In reference to the model there are five stages in which an individual passes through so as to experience a behavior change: Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, Decision, Action and Maintenance. This involves progression from lack of awareness of the problem or issue, through thinking about change, making a plan to change, implementing the plan, and continuing the desired action. Progression through the steps model is not necessarily linearly progressive. Therefore, Soul City: IHDC often acknowledges that different people find themselves in different stages of the behavior change model. According to the model, there may be starts and stops, backward and forward movements, and all together certain phases or stages may be skipped all together. The BASNEF Model emphasizes on the role of beliefs about the consequences of performing behaviour, attitudes, social influence and subjective social norms, intention and enabling factors in the behaviour change process (Berger and Lackmann 2006, p.58). In relation to the model, Soul City IHDC hypothesizes that different components of a comprehensive health communication intervention may have a different impact on different audience segments, depending on the particular issue that is being addressed by the intervention and the stage of change in which individuals or communities find themselves in. At times, mass media may or may not bring enough observable changes. Since its inception, Soul City has developed a programming model that informs an understanding of how edutainment can be developed and used for social change. The model is divided into inputs and outputs. The inputs include the edutainment vehicle, the audience and expert centered formative research process, forging partnerships, promoting and marketing, while the outputs include impact, potential opportunities and evaluation. In reference to the model, the edutainment vehicle is normally a core strategy which could be any popular form of entertainment which has been chosen as a vehicle for social messaging. It could either be a radio drama or a multi media as it is with Soul City. On the other hand, the audience and expert centered formative research process tends to be extensive and central to the edutainment process. It involves a process in which the messages for inclusion into the edutainment are developed in consultation with members of the target audience, experts in the field and other significant stakeholders. The messages are integrated into the edutainment vehicle once it is defined. It is then tested with people from similar groups in order to check its accuracy and its ability to entertain. Apart from increasing the likelihood of message impact, it also brings the role players on board. In terms of forging for partnerships, Soul City IHDC depends on two kinds of partnerships. The first category of partners includes researchers, script writers, funders, marketers and actors. The second group includes the people or groups affected by the issue and who can facilitate the edutainment reaching the audience, and ensures that it complements work happening on the ground. Gate keepers and people working in the sector fall in this category. Soul City IHDC also uses promotion and marketing as a one of the inputs. This is due to the fact that the power edutainment is linked to its popularity. In order for the edutainment vehicle to get the best audiences, then it has to better than the local entertainment. An excellent promotion and marketing strategy maximizes the popularity of the vehicle hence its enhancing its impact. Soul City has there found competitions as a critical mean of keeping its audience interest and also linking the different media to each other. According to the model, an edutainment can have an impact on individuals and society in a variety of ways. It may either increase awareness and knowledge or shift attitudes and practices. Popular edutainment affords numerous opportunities to have a further impact on the issue being addressed at the level of the individual, the community and the society at large. Soul City IHDC regularly contracts external evaluations of the edutainment vehicle and its components. The Soul City IHDC has given rise to various educational packs that have promoted the empowerment process in the societies of South Africa. It has been working in the edutainment field for many years; twelve years to demonstrate changes in health and to impact knowledge that is necessary for social behavior change. The changes demonstrated are related to attitudes, social norms, and behaviors the model is dynamic and complex and depends mostly on the process of development (Feder 2008, p. 95). The organization faces challenges that ensure that the change and dynamism continues as well as tracking the impact of social change in every individual. We can therefore learn that models and theories that are used to approach the process of empowerment are very essential. Challenges are very important because they ensure the continuity of dynamism and change. Furthermore, claims and cultural meanings play a very important role in the process of behavior change. References Singhal, A R 1999 Entertainment Education: a communication strategy for social change EA, Mahwah. Singhal Berger, P L.and Luckmann, T 2006 Behavior change models. Penguin, London. Fagan, B M. 2009 Soul City: theories of social behavior change, Thames & Hudson, California Feder, K L.2008 promoting health in South Africa. Mayfield Publishing Company, New York. Frieman, M J 2003 Latest assessment and health strategies. Schwartz, Sidney. Publishing Kessler, R.A. 2006. Health and behavior change among societies. Lulu press, inc, London. Read More