Content
Discussion - Part 2
Community
Development and Mobilization
Working with
community members to assist them in the process of identifying
and addressing their shared health concerns is an important
health promotion strategy. Key conceptual documents for health promotion,
including the Ottawa Charter, have repeatedly stressed the importance
of direct community involvement in the development of health promotion
initiatives.
We will examine
several ideas in this section, as this strategy has many important
elements. These are:
 Defining
"Community"
Approaches to Community
Development and Mobilization
Community-Based vs.
Community Development Practice
Community Capacity
Building and Empowerment
Community Mobilization
and Partnerships: Some Guiding Principles
Defining
"Community"
If you were
asked to identify your "community", you might respond
by identifying the city, town or neighbourhood where you live.
But geography is not the only way of defining a community. Communities
can also evolve from a group of people with shared interests
or characteristics, such as ethnicity, occupational status
or sexual orientation (Fellin, 1995).
The most important
defining characteristic of a 'community' is a shared sense
of affiliation or 'belonging' among its members. When identifying
a community for the purposes of taking action on a health issue,
it is also important to note that individuals do not belong to
a single, distinct community; rather, most people maintain membership
in a range of communities formed around variables such as geography,
occupation, social and leisure interests (Nutbeam, 1998).
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