Fred M. Cox, John L. Erlich, Jack Rothman and John E. Tropman (eds), Community – Action, Planning, Development: A Casebook, F. E. Peacock, Itasca, Illinois, 1974. v + 218 pp. $4.25;

Initiated in response to community concerns about high levels of air pollution and asthma, the Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Project was conducted as a collaboration between a community-based organization, a non-governmental environmental health program, and academic researchers. This community-engaged research project aimed to produce real-time, community-level air quality information through the establishment of a community air monitoring network (CAMN) of 40 low-cost particulate matter (PM) monitors in Imperial County, California. Methods used to involve the community partner organization and residents in the development, operation, and use of the CAMN included the following: (1) establishing equitable partnerships among the project collaborators; (2) forming a community steering committee to guide project activities; (3) engaging residents in data collection to determine monitor sites; (4) providing hands-on training to assemble and operate the air monitors; (5) conducting focus groups to guide display and dissemination of monitoring data; and (6) conducting trainings on community action planning. This robust community engagement in the project resulted in increased awareness, knowledge, capacity, infrastructure, and influence for the community partner organization and among community participants. Even after the conclusion of the original research grant funding for this project, the CAMN continues to be operated and sustained by the community partner, serving as a community resource used by residents, schools, researchers, and others to better understand and address air pollution and its impacts on community health, while strengthening the ability of the community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from harmful air pollution.

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Community Engagement during outbreak response: standards, approaches, and lessons from the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone

10.1101/661959 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jamie Bedson ◽

Mohamed F. Jalloh ◽

Danielle Pedi ◽

Saiku M. Bah ◽

Katharine Owen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Engagement ◽

Sierra Leone ◽

Action Planning ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Community Action ◽

Social Mobilization ◽

Theory Of Change ◽

List Type ◽

Time Data ◽

Outbreak Response

Summary pointsThe Social Mobilization Action Consortium (SMAC) was Sierra Leone’s largest coordinated community engagement initiative during the 2014 - 2016 Ebola outbreak. It worked in all 14 districts in Sierra Leone across >12,000 communities (approximately 70% of all communities), through 2,466 trained Community Mobilizers, a network of 2,000 mosques and churches, and 42 local radio stations.We describe SMAC’s Theory of Change and utilization of the Community-Led Ebola Action (CLEA) approach. We present an extensive dataset of community engagement and monitoring with a focus on over 50,000 SMAC weekly reports collected by Community Mobilizers between December 2014 and September 2015.Community engagement and real-time data collection at scale is achievable in the context of a health emergency if adequately structured, managed, coordinated and resourced.We describe a correlation between systemic community engagement, community action planning and Ebola-safe behaviors at community-level.The SMAC integrated approach demonstrates the scope of data – including surveillance data - that can be generated directly by communities through structured community engagement interventions implemented at scale during an Ebola outbreak.We highlight important insights gleaned over time on how to informally integrate social mobilization into community-based surveillance of sick people and deaths.

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Saving Shimla, North India, From the Next Earthquake

Open House International ◽

10.1108/ohi-01-2006-b0011 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 90-97

Author(s):

Manu Gupta ◽

Anshu Sharma ◽

Rajesh Kaushik

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Risk Reduction ◽

Action Planning ◽

Community Action ◽

North India ◽

Earthquake Risk ◽

Community Based ◽

Sustainable Environment ◽

The North ◽

Ecological Development

Shimla is a teeming city, with a population of 140,000. It is located in the north Indian Himalayas, in an area of high seismicity that was rocked by a devastating earthquake a hundred years ago. However, it is oblivious of the ticking time bomb below its foundations. Initiating risk reduction in this fast growing urban economic hub is an enormous challenge. A national non-governmental organisation (NGO) called SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) started working in the city just before the earthquake centenary, with the aim to identify ways of reducing earthquake risk through actions that could be carried out by the citizens and the local government. The experience has been unique, and has led to further refinement of the community action planning approach that SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) has picked up and worked with over the last ten years in different vulnerable communities in the region. What emerges from the experience is a mix of tools for the improvement of technical aspects, community-based working approaches and governance for risk reduction. It is evident that community-local government-NGO partnerships are the key to solving such acute problems as earthquake safety in a resource strapped, vulnerable city. The assessment and planning phases initiate the building of these partnerships in the early stages of the process. This paper is an attempt to share the experience of developing and testing a community based urban risk reduction approach for a city at extreme earthquake risk.

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Psychologists Encounter Community Action

Contemporary Psychology ◽

10.1037/0013109 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 133-134 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J. R. NEWBROUGH ◽

MICHAEL BERGER

Keyword(s):

Community Action

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