Planning Healthy Communities: The Importance of Social Capital and Civic Management - Research Paper Example

 PLANNING HEALTH COMMUNITIES The Importance of social capital and civic management in the creation of a healthy community Introduction Creating healthy communities is a responsibility of every community member as health challenges that arise from the environment can bring about negative effects to everyone without discrimination. This is the reason why everyone should play an active role in making decisions that advocate for healthy communities. There are different resources that can be useful when coming up with various activities and processes to advocate for healthy communities, however, effectiveness of these practices depend on activity involvement by all community members. Social capital refers to the anticipated shared or fiscal profits got from special conduct and collaboration that exists amid persons or members of a certain community (Portes & Patricia, 1996; Bourdieu & Loic, 1992). Social networks have a lot of value to individuals who make them up; it leads to increased productivity of group members in many activities that they involve in. When someone has a misfortune, he can easily call friends to provide support, and the same case happens when there is a communal issue to be shared (Woolcock and Narayan, 2000). On the other hand, civic management extends beyond participation of citizens; it encompasses all deliberate, consistent and result-oriented outreach, done to create an environment where all people feel at home, and have a role and voice in making decisions and actions that affect their lives in a special way. Establishment of a healthy community The central argument behind social capital is that every member of the community is an important resource in establishing important decisions regarding various community processes. Every member of the community can tap into this resource in order to survive a crisis, improve his current economic status or achieve important goals in life (Putnam, 2000.). Communities that have a rich multiplicity of social networks as well as civic associations are usually less vulnerable and are in a better position to handle various problems that occur. When social capital is missing in a certain community, evidence is clear, there is confusion and conflict of interest in activities that people do as no one is usually concerned about collective community affairs and when challenge arises, it is not collectively tackled. Social capital and civic engagement can all be used to enhance a community’s health planning. Effective management of these two aspects can bring different people in the community to participate in various voluntary activities. For instance, community members can engage in community clean-up activities in different places, in so doing, they will teach other people about better ways of disposing wastes and keeping the environment clean. Social capital and civic engagement are both valuable and essential in a community’s daily life since they both influence the quality of personal as well as community life. These two aspects can be engaged fully according to the following diagram Source: (University of Minnesota Extension, 2014) Capacity Building Secondly communities can enahnce health practises through capacity building forums, here a lot of individuals as well as the organisation at large can gain effective control and influence to become major players and partners in making important decisions and actions that enhace better health practices. Thrugh capacity building, they can develop important resources, knowledge and skills for solving different problems within, it is only in collaboration through capacity building that these skills and more can be developed However, the kind and extend to which capacity building should go in order to have effective community health programs may not be known. For this reason, community leaders should set clear targets on the actions and efforts that they do, for instance, the community may require education and train gin certain areas like securing resources, conflict management among others. Efforts by its leaders should therefore focus on these particular aspects, this makes is possible to evaluate the process and progress being undertaken. Coalitions and partnerships Another Important way of how social capital and civic engagement can be useful in creating health communities is through establishment of coalitions and partnerships. In this regard, a community coalition can be regarded as formal partnership of various organizations, groups of people as well as like-minded agencies that work together for a common goal. It is important to point out that there are different kinds of agencies existing in the community whose activities may be related to health aspects of the community. It is only through social capital and civic engagement activities that such organizations and agencies can be realized and collaborative efforts done. Such collaborations make it easy to plan, co-ordinate and advocate for healthy communities. In addition, they are important in maximizing on new resources, reduction in duplication efforts and us of individuals influence to create positive contributions towards healthy aspects of the community Empowerment The fourth important aspect of social capital and civic engagement is the ability to create empowerment initiatives to community members. Empowerment in this respect can be achieved through community and individual mobilization programs at the grass roots and community-based level as well as in other institutions. It is only the community and the elements within that can define ways in which they will engage in actions that improve its health and other related aspects. Empowerment process enables members to make their own decisions pertaining how to take care f the environment. When every member of the community is empowered, he is able to make useful decisions that can better his life, while at the same time gaining mastery over their lives. Cost-Benefit analysis Another important and essential role played by social capital and civic engagement initiatives is by effective analysis of costs and benefits pertaining different actions that people take part in. People’s ability to participate in various activities within the community depends on the benefits that they are deriving from such actions. Some of the prospective benefits that are associated with these processes include abilities to network and right to use fundamental information and other resources, personal acknowledgment as well as enhancement of knowledge and skills. If community members realize that there are more benefits that costs in participating in community health practices, they are motivate to join such efforts and the community benefits. Community Organisation Lastly, civic engagement and social capital enables a community effectively organisation itself for achievement of set goals. This is done through activities where members are assisted to identify common goals, problems and mobilization of resources to address them effectively. Effective organisation of such activities is a way of activating a community to encourage social and behavioral change; it is usually based on values of empowerment, community competence as well as active involvement in community activities. Conclusion The community needs to come up with different ways of creating and sustaining its social capital as well as strengthen its civic engagement programs with its members. One way of doing this is by bonding, bridging and linking all the various networks that exist in the community. Members should devise various health campaign plans in order to make and participate in different activities that enhance the health of all the community members. How planners can promote healthy places through education programs, social marketing plans and research. Introduction Everyone loves and cherishes staying in a healthy and safe environment; this means that those people in charge of creating health campaign and environment management should factor the contributions of everyone in participating towards healthy environment. So far, education seems to be the only successful means by which people can be taught and made to participate in plans geared towards ensuring a healthy community. Importance of educational programs, social marketing plans and research in creating healthy communities Education is the process by which an individual interacts with various programs that influence his cognitive processes towards different aspects of life. Education about various subjects impacts people with values that they can uphold and guide their decisions over important personal and communal activities and processes. Health planners can develop programs, set their goals and objectives and engage community members in their active implementation. In this manner, they have to devise health campaign plans where they can train community members on various health plans and practices. One of the ways to ensure proper implementation of such plans is to create volunteer programs and enhance teambuilding with emphasis on social capital as well as active civic engagement (DeFilippis, 2001). In training community members, health planners should emphasize on the fact that a healthy community needs to be a safe place for everybody. One of the modern approaches to successful public campaign for different community issues is social media. At present, there are very many active social media users (Ochman, 2009; Chell, 2007). If health planners use social media to educate people about important health practices and sustainable environment conversation, there are high chances that the information can reach many people in different places within a short period. One advantage of the social media platform is the ability of people to share information with ease; in fact, social marketing has become an integral part of modern marketing practices in many companies and business activities. Many organizations have always used social media to create awareness campaigns for various social, economic as well as political issues. Achieving long term health goals Education, social networking and research can only be useful in contributing to health communities if an effective plan is developed to use them. There are different models and approaches that can be used to make good use of these three aspects, one of them is the ADDEA model. The ADDEA model can be used in the following way to come up with an effective plan to better the health of the community. Sample plan of how community health practices can be achieved Analysis Here, community leaders will need to search through all aspects of community health practices and establish frameworks where research and education will need to be inculcated. The community has to look and establish the people that will be helpful in enabling it create and use social media platform to create awareness about various activities and programs being implemented. In addition, such an analysis will also come up with the expected costs and benefits that will arise from such initiatives, recommending ways of minimizing on costs to maximize on the expected results. Design and development After analyzing the viability of the various activities and programs being implemented, leaders will be in a better position to design the implementation process of the programs. They have to ensure that they incorporate all resources and reliable stakeholders in order to maximize on their skills and knowledge. The plan that is designed should put into consideration the contribution of all community members. This is because; it is only the community that understands its problems and ways of solving them, no external member can come and create a change that is in tandem with the community’s preferences. Evaluation The final and essential part of the ADDEA model is the evaluation part; here the leaders have to assess the effectiveness of the educational, social media approaches as well as research activities that have been carried out with the aim of enhancing a community’s health. Effective evaluation has to establish recommendations into how the community should improve its future its future process of creating healthy communities. They have to make use of scientific tests as well as get feedback from community members concerning the activities done, this way they are able to make objective recommendations into ways of improving community health and other related aspects. Conlusion Education has so far stood out as one of the effective methods of alleviating most problems and challenges in different aspects of the community. Effective education is always supported by factual evidence which can only be made available my through research forums. Through research, various theories and assumptions can be tested and effective models established for enhancing community health programs. The community should engage resourceful persons, research institutions as well as those of higher learning in order to create sustainable healthy campaign plans. Thereafter, the information should be channeled to all community members for full implementation. Health Impact assessment Introduction Many programs can be developed within the community and used to create awareness about various health practices. These programs are always geared towards facilitating effective health campaign practices, ensuring that the community is a safe and healthy pace for its inhabitants. A reliable program should always be in a position to meet its set goals and objectives both in the short term as well for long-term purposes. However, an effective program should be assessed and evaluate in the course of its functioning so that necessary changes can be made where needed. Health Impact assessment in practice Health impact assessment refers to mixture of various procedures, methods, approaches and tools in which a particular guideline or program can be judged in order to determine its ability to meet the set expectations on the health of a group of people. In addition, it should explain about the distribution of particular effects within populations as well as their special features. It also gives room for important inputs that can be made in order to enhance the effectiveness of a certain health program. In the US, Health Impact assessment is usually conducted with an aim of establishing particular organizations and agencies involved in creating health plans and the way in which such organizations obtain their funding for the programs. In addition it aims at finding the types of decision that are usually made in the effectiveness of such programs, this is by evaluating the tool used, data as well as models which are usually relied on. The level of engagement by community stakeholders is usually keenly observed, with specific reference to their pathways and endpoints in the particular programs. The outcomes of the decision that are made by stakeholders and implementers of the programs are assumed to be key towards effectiveness of health assessment programs. In this health assessment, their recommendations towards these programs are given consideration, including their follow-up mechanisms. In doing these, health planners are able to ascertain the effect of health campaigns in different states in the United States (Cnaan, 2002). The pathways that are usually examined in this health assessment are diverse, ranging from common ones like those of human safety to less common pathways like culture and climate. All these pathways have a great effect on the environment as well as social aspects of life within the community. After making an analysis of the various programs used in creating healthy environments, Health Impact Assessment makes its recommendations about the general progress of health campaigns; these recommendations have to be implemented by all parties who are involved in processes of creating health campaigns in one way or another. It is the role of HIA to develop effective strategies that can be applied in the promotion of positive health impacts in the process of alleviating health impacts. When not effectively addressed, negative health impacts are usually adverse and disturb normal process of life in different sectors. When making recommendations to be implemented by all parties, Health Impact assessment gives various alternatives to a particular decision, so that those implementing it can easily contextualize it to fit their prevailing situations, they also make changes to different policies and establish new ones to guide effective health campaign and practices at different levels in the community. Health Impact Assessment gives due preference on its different recommendations, it does this by prioritizing them in a way that makes it easy to implement and evaluate them. It creates a plan and a framework that can easily be applied, with specific timelines for achievement of the goals and objectives in the programs. With the many recommendations and an improvement in health campaign, it is possible the future of health status looks to have a new phase. If all organizations and involved stakeholders will keep to active and maximum implementation of all the recommendations, residents will co-exist harmoniously in healthy environments, which is the central concern in public health programs. The improved communication framework will make it easy to assess the progress of various health programs as well as other efforts to ensure a safe environment for all people in the community. Case study – Bernalillo Community A case in point where effective Health Impact Assessment has been used effectively is the Bernalillo community. This community brought together various experts from its community alongside guidance from the Mountain View community. The aim was to improve safety issues for the Mountain View residents, this involved physical improvements on pedestrian paths. By creating these physical improvements on the roads, children and people with disabilities would find it convenient to use the road with other people. Motivated by their drive, community residents mobilized themselves and worked alongside Place Matters Team to come up with an analysis of the specific areas on the streets that required physical improvements to enhance their safety while traveling. This analysis presented nine impact Questions that led to findings that supported improvements on the projects that were suggested in the plan as well as other important recommendations suggested for the areas as shown in the table below Source (Bernalillo County, New Mexico, n.d) Implementation of these changes was an important development in the residents attitude towards use of the road. This meant an increase in the number of road because of the enhanced safety measures. Conclusion In conclusion, it is important to appreciate efforts of Health impact Assessment at various levels within the community, this is because they harmonise various approaches used by different stakeholders in ensuring the health of all people. Health Impact assessment also gives recommendations and valuable inputs towards funding criteria that can be used towards the effectiveness of different health practices. It is the duty of everyone in the community to actively contribute towards establishment of a healthy community. This responsibility should not be left in the hands of health practitioners alone, if everyone’s efforts are factored in, overhead costs in implementation of certain programs reduces considerably. References Bernalillo County, New Mexico, n.d. Accessibility and Safety on Mountain’s View second street. Retrieved on 25 April 2014 from Bourdieu, P & Loic J. D. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chell, E. (2007). Social enterprise and entrepreneurship. Management Decision 25(1): 5–26. Cnaan, R, A. (2002). The invisible hand: American congregations and the provision of welfare. New York: New York University Press. DeFilippis, J. (2001). 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