Community Development

You work for your state health department in the Community Development bureau. You have decided to work with the Robert Wood John Foundation’s Roadways to Health to see how you can use their national county health rankings, combined with a community development strategy to affect a particular health problem. You like Roadways because they have documented successes, what increases/decreases inequities in health, and what is strongly or not so strongly supported by the science to inform you whether it is a good intervention to benefit your community’ health. Familiarize yourself with the County Health Rankings here: The County Health Rankings Model: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/resources/county-health-rankings-model Check how healthy your own county is here in case that gives you inspiration in choosing a health behavior: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/ Then go to Decision-makers/community development here: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/policies?f%5B0%5D=field_program_decision_makers%3A29394 Under community development as decision-makers, choose a health factor you want to create your program about. For example, if I choose access to places for physical activity as a goal for the health department to focus on, how would I use community development approaches—discussed in class—to make it happen? You have a selection of possible strategies to create your community development approach to the problem you have chosen. Choose one or more strategies and develop and expand your program to include some of the approaches we’ve discussed in the course, including Policy, Participatory Evaluation, Using the Arts and the Internet, and more. Describe how your approach and your health problem will be addressed. What is the public health problem (use data to define the problem)?(no more than 1 page) What does your literature review tell you about whether your problem has been addressed this way before?(no more than 1 page) What steps would you take to address the problem? Use Roadways for ideas. Who would you engage? Why? How? What community organizing theory/theories would inform your approach? What strategies would you implement to address the problem? What problems and barriers do you foresee? How would you evaluate your program? What would indicate success? Respond to at least 4 of the following questions: a. Does the program build on the community’s assets? b. How will the community help shape the program? More important, has the community helped identify the most important health concerns? c. How can the community be a part of a process that assists them in finding leverage points in which they organize themselves? d. Have you and program staff thought about ways to create opportunities for empowerment and leadership development in the program? e. When looking at current programs that address your health issue, are they more a “band-aid” vs. a long term solution to the health concern? f. Is your program culturally sensitive, humble, and does it build on community diversity as assets rather than problems? g. Does it dive deep–to find upstream problems, root problems, and does it do this with the community’s voice and skills? This assignment should be 8-10 pages. All papers should be doubled-spaced, 1” top/bottom and left/right margins using 12 point font. The pages of the paper should be numbered. Tables and graphs may be included with the paper. The paper should have a cover page with the following information: title, your name, date, and class. Your papers should be properly and consistently referenced. Use references from peer-reviewed journals in addition to the Roadways to Health website.