2. Objectives
•By the end of session participants will be able to:
•Define a community
•Define a community mobilization
•State the role and importance of community mobilization
•List steps involved in community mobilization
•Discuss the factors that influence acceptance of health services
•Explain the strategies that we can use to mobilize the community
•Discuss the effects of community mobilization
•Explain common barriers to community mobilization
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4. What is a Community?
•A community is a set of people living together with common interest.
•We all live in a community. There are different things that bind us together.
Let us try to identify them.
• Territory
• Sharing resources
• Language
• Religion
• Culture
• Occupation
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5. Community Mobilization
•Community Mobilization refers to the process of building social relationships
in pursuit of common community interests.
•Community mobilization is seen as being the foundation of the community
development process.
•Community development seeks to empower individuals and groups of
people by providing these groups with the skills they need to affect change
in their own communities.
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6. Community Mobilization
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Explore the
common issues &
Set priorities
Plan together
Act together
Evaluate together
Prepare to scale up
Prepare to mobilize
Organize the
community for
mobilization
7. Key Steps in Community Mobilization
•Create awareness of the health issues
• motivate the community through community preparation, organizational
development, capacity developments and bringing allies together.
•Share information and communication
•Support them, provide incentives and generate resources.
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8. Prepare to Mobilize
•Identify a common issue that the whole community can get involved
•Gather information about the issue and the community
•Identify resources and constraints
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9. Selecting Core Areas
•Identify core Areas of community development
•Poverty
•Health – Maternal and child mortality, HIV/AIDS, Malaria
•Education – Pre-primary, primary, secondary
•Woman empowerment
•Water and sanitation
•Prohibition of HIV/AIDS
•Agriculture and allied sector
•Skill Improvement
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10. Select a strategy
•Depending on problem, plan for community dialogue and select a strategy.
•Some problems:
• Require sensitization on the issue
• Call for mobilization of community
• Need interaction with individual family members.
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11. Mobilization at Various Levels
• Mobilization is initiated and can occur at various levels so long as both the interest
and values of the particular issue.
• Political mobilization
• Government
• Community
• Beneficiary (Families)
• Identify the target group e.g. HIV/AIDS diseases prevention and control;
• All persons who are sexually active
• Those who require special attention e.g. youth in and out of school
• women of child bearing age (15-49) years.
• HIV/ AIDS infection men and women couples.
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12. Advantages of Community Mobilization
•Helps local ownership and the sustainability of the health programs.
•Help to motivate people in a community and encourages participation and
involvement of everyone.
•Helps build, community capacity to identify and address community needs.
•Promotes, sustainability and long-term commitment to a community change
movement
•It motivate a community to advocate for policy changes and respond to
health needs.
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13. EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
•As a means to influence individual/couple behavior;
• Decrease morbidity/mortality,
• Increase in health seeking behavior or health status
•As a process to influence community/social change:
• Increase in individual self-reliance,
• Increase in community self-reliance.
•Both purposes can influence
• Social norms
• Availability and access to services
• Human resources development
• Sustainability of local, regional and national commitment
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14. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ACCEPTANCE OF HEALTH SERVICES
•These vary from community to community, however in general they include;
• knowledge
• believes
• Values
• Attitude
•Other factors
• Influence by other people
• Availability and accessibility of health
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15. Strategies we can use to mobilize the communities
•Advocacy
•Behavior Change Communication (Information, education and
Communtication)
•Social Marketing
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16. Effects of Community Mobilization
•Decrease in disease prevalence
•Increase in acceptance of services
•Increase individual self-esteem
•Increase community self-reliance
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17. Barriers to Community Mobilization
•Rivalries and power struggles
•Hidden Agenda
•Lack of time
•Lack of material and human resources
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