HED 450

Community Organization for Health Education

Instructor: TBA

Date/Time: TBA

Office Hours: TBA

Rationale:

Health educators face unique challenges when implementing educational programs within communities. The development of community-based solutions to health concerns involves a unique and specific set of skills in community organization. Students will gain understanding and skill development in the following areas: diagnosis of health concerns, gaining community support, developing community coalitions, managing conflict and building consensus to enhance community capacity. These activities are used to facilitate health practices among individuals and social change supportive of health practice. This course introduces these skills, and encourages a critical examination of existing health agencies. To meet these purposes, a field experience is required.

Required Reading:

Readings on reserve in Library.

Required Text:

Green, G. P. and Haines, A. (2002). Asset building and community development. Sage Publications, Inc.

Kretzmann, J. P. and McKnight, J. L. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. ACTA Publications, Chicago, IL. (ISBN 0-87946-108-x)

Course Objectives:

Course participants who successfully complete this course will be able to:

1. Describe the purpose, funding, and methods of many existing health agencies.

2. Identify factors that enhance community health development.

3. Diagnose a community’s development potential.

4. Describe methods for gaining entry to and building community trust.

5. Demonstrate skills in organizing coalitions to promote individual and community health.

6. Identify factors that enhance organizational capacity for change.

7. Apply classroom theory to a real world case.

Course Assignments:

Application Papers: One-page papers are required for the readings in Closed Reserve. Specific questions to answer are distributed in class.

Exams: Short essay, focuses on synthesis and evaluation of course content. Lectures and readings will be covered.

Presentation: A 30-minute case presentation describing how the resources of various health agencies will be used to implement an health education program for your client group. The presentation will be a summary of your team project.

Group Project: Each team will be responsible for planning an health education program for a school based client group. You will be given a data set for a school. Your task is to analyze the data to determine the needs, conduct a community capacity assessment to determine the resources available to meet the needs, devise a plan for an health education intervention, and present the plan. To accomplish the task, you must visit at least three health education agencies and conduct a capacity assessment. A suggested plan for the project is:

Week 1-2 community assessment

Week 3-5 capacity assessment

Week 6-9 plan development

Week 10 presentation of plan

Tentative Topic Schedule: (Specific TBA)

Community Diagnosis

Needs Assessment

Social Marketing

Coalition Formation

Maintenance

Evaluation of Community Health Programs

Quality Plan Index

Presentations