GSPH 461 Principles and Practice of Community Organization

Community involvement in the implementation of health interventions has become an important part of intellectual discourse. This course aims at providing a general understanding of the basic principles behind community organization for health. It is also intended to expose students to community entry processes towards community organization for health.

It will deal with the following: definition of terms and concept (Community, organization, community entry, community organization), the concept of community, types of community (geographical, professional, etc), principles of community organization, steps in community organization (stages of community organization), community analysis (strengths, weaknesses, available resources, potentials, etc), major stakeholders in the community (governmental and nongovernmental agencies, traditional institutions, youth, religious and other identifiable groupings), importance of community entry for health intervention (identification of community and group leadership, social marketing.