Session 12: Community analysis

TOTAL TIME: 2 hours, 30 minutes

OVERVIEW

During the field visit in Session 11, the participants collected a variety of information about a community. In this session they share their experiences from the field, including what they learned, how they learned it and difficulties encountered in the process. They analyze this information in terms of its accuracy, completeness, and what it suggests about factors affecting the health of the people in the community.

OBJECTIVES

· To describe the difficulties encountered in gathering information about a community. (Steps 1, 2)

· To share information collected in the community and identify three to five potential development problems perceived by community members. (Steps 1, 2, 3)

· To con pare community-level and government-level perceptions of development problems. (Step 3)

RESOURCES

Community, Culture, and Care, Chaps. 1 and 2 Participants data collected in Session 11.

MATERIALS

Newsprint, markers

PROCEDURE

Step 1 (80 min)
Work Team Presentations of the Community Investigation

Open the session by asking participants to each describe his or her experience in the community with one descriptive adjective. Move in order around the room until everyone has given their one-word descriptions.

Have the work teams give their presentations of the community investigations. Allow time at the end of each presentation for comments, questions, and feedback regarding the presentation itself and the interpretation of the data collected.

Step 2 (30 min)
Drawing Conclusions About the Community and Its Development Status

Ask the group to consider all the community's development problems (especially health-related) that have been identified during the presentations, and list five major ones on newsprint. If possible, ask participants to prioritize the five problems as they think the community would do. Then ask the group to compare these problems or perceived needs with what they have learned thus far regarding the government's perception of the community's needs particularly in relation to primary health care.

Have the group identify any projects in the community that may already be addressing some of these areas of need. Finally, ask participants to briefly examine where among these problems the health Volunteer can be of the most help.

Step 3 (20 min)
Drawing Conclusions about the Process of Analyzing a Community

Now ask the participants to examine the process of community analysis. Have them reflect on their experience in the community and use these questions to guide the discussion:

- How well did the KEEPRAH model work as a tool for this investigation?

- How well did your team's strategy work for gathering information? How did it have to be modified?

- How well did your work team function together? How did you make decisions regarding who did what? How could you have worked better together? How can you apply this experience to gathering information with your counterpart?

- What are some specific factors which affect the attitudes of the community toward the PCV as well as the PCV's attitude toward the community? What are some things the PCV can do to overcome or diminish these limiting factors?

- What are some factors that influence the PCV's ability to gather, accurately interpret, and utilize the information on the community? (e.g., language, logistics, government approval, etc.) Again, how can some of these be overcame?

- What would be several rules-of-thumb to keep in mind when you first get to your site and begin learning about the community?

Step 4 (10 min)
Summary and Closure

End the session by drawing a link to Session 13, Survey and Surveillance. Explain to participants that they have now finished an initial, broad investigation of the community. During Session 13 they will work with a RAP survey (Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice), survey and conduct a more focused investigation of one specific aspect of health practice in the community (eg., how mothers treat children with acute diarrhea).