Table of Contents >
Chapter 2. Some Other Models for Promoting Community Health ... >
Section 3. Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities >
Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities |
Tools & Checklists | Contributed by Phil Rabinowitz Edited by Bill Berkowitz |
Checklist
Here you will find a checklist summarizing the important points of the section.
What is Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities?
__ Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities provides an intellectual and philosophical framework for an inclusive, participatory process of developing a healthy community.
The two basic premises upon which Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities rests are:
__ A comprehensive view of health.
__ A commitment to health promotion.
Why use Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities?
You use Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities because:
__ It takes a community perspective on issues and health promotion.
__ It brings a sense of community ownership to any initiative.
__ It provides a broader range of ideas.
__ It gives access to citizens’ knowledge of the community.
__ It encourages community-wide ties.
__ It assumes participatory planning.
__ It sets achievable goals.
__ It asks for the identification and use of community assets and resources.
__ It establishes a community commitment to the process over the long term.
__ It creates a healthy community self-image.
Who should participate in Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities?
__ You try to engage everyone in the community.
You make particular efforts to engage:
__ Local officials.
__ Target populations.
__ Anyone who implements or administers, or whose life or job will be changed or affected by, the initiative.
__ All the agencies, organizations, and institutions that will need to cooperate or collaborate in order to realize goals.
__ Local opinion leaders.
How do you use Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities?
You include the necessary components of a successful Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities initiative by encouraging the community to:
__ Create a compelling vision based on shared values.
__ Embrace a broad definition of health and well-being.
__ Address quality of life for everyone.
__ Engage diverse citizen participation and be citizen-driven.
__ Encourage multisectoral membership and widespread community ownership.
__ Acknowledge the social determinants of health and the interrelationship of health with other issues (housing, education, peace, equity, social justice).
__ Address issues through collaborative problem-solving.
__ Focus on systems change.
__ Build capacity using local assets and resources.
__ Measure and benchmark progress and outcomes.
To approach a Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities process, you:
__ Assemble a diverse and inclusive group.
__ Generate a vision.
__ Assess the assets and resources in the community that can help you realize your vision, and the issues that act as barriers to it.
__ Choose a first issue to focus on.
__ Develop a community-wide strategy, incorporating as many organizations, levels, and sectors as possible.
__ Implement the plan.
__ Monitor and adjust your initiative or intervention.
__ Establish new systems that will maintain and build on the gains you’ve made.
__ Celebrate benchmarks and successes
The Community Tool Box is a service of the
Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas.
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by the University of Kansas for all materials provided via the World Wide Web in the ctb.ku.edu domain.
