The internet can function as an invaluable resource in community health and development. In this section, you will learn how to use online tools to gather and distribute information, communicate effectively with others, and gain support and credibility in conducting community projects. What do we mean by using online tools to promote community health and development? The internet provides access to an enormous storehouse of information and knowledge, as well as a global communication network. With a computer or smartphone, you can post on social media or send a message and reach people across the globe. You can also work collaboratively with someone you may never meet in person, read an article on almost any subject, or search the contents of some of the world's largest libraries. You can also find a huge array of false or misleading information. It's important to be aware of the reliability of the source of any information you get online. If you have any question about it, check the information with other sources before you assume that it's accurate. Even reliable sites -- major news organizations or universities, for instance -- make mistakes from time to time. The difference is that reliable sources generally correct themselves when they find an error, while less reliable sources may intentionally persist in error or simply may not bother to change their information once it's posted. University libraries and other research institutions provide useful guidance for evaluating the credibility of online information. When using information you find online, consider the reliability of the source and verify questionable information with other credible sources. There are different kinds of online tools you might use, and different purposes you might use them for: To learn how to do the work. The Community Tool Box is an example, but there are many others that can provide guidance as you plan your work, start a coalition, raise money, gain participation, etc. To gather information . This obviously includes a broad range of possibilities -- not only websites, but also online forums, digital publications, library catalogs, databases, and other online resources. Some of the most common types of information you might be seeking: Demographics (age, gender, race, ethnicity, income, etc.). The most common source of this data in the U.S. is the Census Bureau, but much may also be found on state, county, municipal, and federal and state government agency and department websites. Equivalent data for Canada can be found through Statistics Canada and provincial and ministry websites. Laws and regulations. Laws can be found on a number of websites for both the U.S. and Canada. These include U.S. state laws; Uniform Commercial Code, U.S. federal laws, and the General Laws of Canada. Regulations of municipal, county, state, and federal agencies can generally be found on agency websites. Funders and funding opportunities. A well-defined web search will turn up the names of foundations that are interested in your issue, and their websites will tell you whether you're a good candidate for funding by them or not. State and other government agency websites will also give information about what they fund, how much is available, and usually include copies of current Requests for Proposals (RFPs). The websites of state and national coalitions and organizations may also have funding information or opportunities. Best practices. Many U.S. and Canadian state/provincial and national government agencies (e.g., the U.S. National Institutes of Health) have on their websites lists and descriptions of successful programs and approaches (sometimes called "best practices," sometimes identified as successes or effective programs). Professional organizations, coalitions devoted to your issue, and organizations that run successful programs are all likely to have online information about best practices. New methods, ideas, theory, or research in the field. Academic papers and journal articles, online discussions, and digital versions of newspapers, journals, and other media may all make this kind of information available online, or at least tell you where you can find it. Online publications may also include contact information for the author or another expert so that you can discuss the ideas more fully. Information to use for education or other program purposes. Biographical data, historical facts, scientific principles or formulas, and the text of important historical or government documents (the U.S. Constitution, for example). To communicate with others. The internet allows you to communicate with people from all over the world in a short time through email, video conferencing, social media, messaging platforms, and other online tools. Among the reasons you might want to do so are: To share and discuss information and advice on your work, or on political or social factors affecting it, in online forums, discussion groups, and other spaces. To communicate directly with colleagues, participants, funders, collaborators, and others. You might also use email or other digital communication to ask members or supporters for contributions; advertise programs or events; discuss individual cases or situations with others involved; ask questions of colleagues or experts; or organize and engage in advocacy. To use a website or other online platform to get your message out, advertise your services, and post messages and other important material for participants, members, board members, staff, and others. To distribute educational or informational material to participants . Many university courses use the Community Tool Box as text, for instance, or send students directly to the Community Tool Box site for course reading. To conduct business . Nonprofit and grassroots organizations, like many individuals, use the internet to find and contact suppliers; comparison shop; order materials, equipment, and supplies; pay bills; advertise positions; and sell or publicize services and products. To engage in advocacy . Online tools can be invaluable to an advocacy effort. Email, websites, social media, online groups, and other communication tools allow an advocacy group to organize, mobilize members for action, contact policymakers, conduct advocacy research, and educate a constituency, as well as the general public, about an issue. Why use online tools to promote community health and development? First, the scope: the internet is truly international and crosses geographic borders. Mobile and satellite technologies have extended opportunities for internet access to places where traditional infrastructure may be limited. This means that people in widely separated places may be able to access information and communicate with one another in ways that were once difficult or impossible. Such reach can be misused, but it can also create tremendous opportunities for economic, social, political, intellectual, and human development. There are, of course, important limitations. Access to devices, reliable connectivity, and affordable internet service remains uneven, particularly in communities and countries with limited economic resources. People may have access through schools, libraries, community organizations, government programs, or other channels, but access remains a significant issue for many people. Literacy and language can also create barriers. People who have limited literacy or who do not read languages commonly used in online materials may not be able to take full advantage of available information. Translation can help, but the volume of online material makes complete translation difficult. That said, billions of people can benefit directly from internet access, and many others can benefit indirectly from information and resources that are shared through it. Second, the internet can be a highly participatory medium. Access to a great deal of online information is free, and people who can get online may find information, communicate their ideas, connect with others, and participate in discussions that once would have been difficult to access. Furthermore, the nature of the medium makes it possible for a message to be transmitted to someone anywhere in the world, or for that same message to reach thousands or even millions of people in a very short time. Online communication can reduce many physical barriers of time and distance and can create opportunities for people who otherwise might never encounter one another to exchange ideas. At the same time, differences in access and influence remain, and not everyone participates online on equal terms. Governments in some countries monitor or limit internet use for political reasons. Restrictions can include blocking websites or services, monitoring online activity, or limiting access to parts of the internet. These restrictions can affect people's ability to communicate and obtain information freely. Given these characteristics of the internet -- its enormous reach and its ability to connect people -- there are a number of reasons why online tools have enormous potential for health and community development. They broaden access to knowledge and information -- including for people who may not have ready access to libraries, universities, or other traditional sources of information. Thus, they can build capacity for people to work out solutions to their concerns. They make it possible for people to change their lives and communities themselves , without having to depend entirely on outside experts to solve problems for them. They can help distribute access to knowledge and information more equitably throughout societies. If knowledge is power -- and the one certainly has a lot to do with the other -- then access to knowledge and accurate information can help people participate more fully in decisions that affect them. They can help combat ignorance and misinformation, as well as disinformation (false information deliberately spread by governments, corporations, institutions, individuals, or other entities in order to influence others or protect their own interests). They make it easier for people to understand how they can effect social change , and therefore to be more willing to attempt it. They give people models to follow. This is true in several senses: online tools can help people discover best practices and processes that are likely to work in their communities. They can, by exposing people to a range of possibilities, change their goals and sense of the possible. And they can present individual role models -- either people with whom internet users might establish direct contact, or profiles of people like themselves who have been able to accomplish good things. Many websites of NGOs and development organizations -- Oxfam America comes to mind -- profile people who have made a difference in their communities. They put people concerned with health and community development in touch with one another, so they can support one another and spread their own knowledge and experience farther. They increase the ease and effectiveness of advocacy, particularly for community members whose perspectives have been underrepresented. As discussed above, online tools can mobilize and instruct people in action, provide information on issues, and facilitate strategic planning for policy change. They can ease access to elected and appointed officials. Many officials maintain websites, email addresses, online contact forms, or other digital channels through which they can be contacted. They can help to ensure the accountability of those officials and of oversight bodies. Proceedings of governmental and legislative sessions and hearings, legislators' voting records, political contributions, and a great deal of other information relating to official accountability are available online, as well as information about public-records laws such as the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. They can shorten response time to community emergencies or to addressing community needs. Online communication can mobilize volunteers, supplies, funding, and information to respond to disasters or address community issues. The international response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, for example, demonstrated the potential reach of online communication and fundraising. They encourage and facilitate collaboration among individuals and organizations at all levels. Online tools make it easier for individuals and organizations to work together, especially if they are geographically separated. A collaborative funding proposal, for instance, can be worked on by many different people without requiring everyone to be in the same place. Who might use online tools to do health and community work? The short -- and accurate -- answer here is everyone. The internet is particularly useful for those who want to reach out to many people in a short time. Some examples: Professionals and professional organizations use online forums, websites, and other communication tools to discuss issues, conduct advocacy, plan and organize conferences (including virtual conferences), and collaborate on research and other work. Grassroots and community-based organizations use online tools to inform the community about their services, communicate with one another, search for best practices, seek and apply for funding, and keep current on political situations that affect them. Larger nonprofits and initiatives use online tools to publicize their issues, highlight their challenges and successes, and raise money. Oxfam America's response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami illustrated the potential reach of online fundraising. The organization experienced a rapid surge in donations following the disaster, demonstrating how online tools can help organizations reach large numbers of supporters quickly. Community activists use online tools for organizing and for researching their issues. Political activists use online tools to mobilize for or against candidates and issues they care about. Participants in and people served by health and community service organizations and initiatives use online tools to communicate, learn about political and social issues that affect their organizations, and practice advocacy, such as contacting legislators. Students in disciplines related to health and community services use sites like the Community Tool Box to learn about their fields, find practicum and job opportunities, and communicate with others with similar interests. Community members with an interest in a topic or issue, like parents concerned about alcohol use among adolescents, can use online tools to learn more about it and make connections with others with similar interests. When might you use online tools? There are times when online tools are particularly helpful. When you want to build the community's capacity to solve its own problems. A site like the Community Tool Box can help community activists, grassroots groups, and interested community members gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence necessary to create locally developed solutions to community problems, and to do the long-term work of social change that leads to better lives for everyone. When you're starting a program, initiative, or other effort with little information. The vast information resources available on the web can help you assess your community's needs, learn about your issue, find best practices, determine what's worked elsewhere, etc. When you need to communicate with a large number of people (and decide or embark on an action) quickly. Email, websites, social media, messaging platforms, or online groups make it possible to communicate with and mobilize large numbers of people quickly. When you need to learn about or understand laws or regulations. Whether it's a matter of checking on the amount of lobbying your tax-exempt organization may legally engage in, or on the environmental obligations of that smoke-belching factory on the edge of town, much of this information can be found online. When you need information for a grant proposal or other funding possibility. Statistics, the history of your issue, and information about what a funder has previously supported may all be helpful, and much of it can be found online. When you want to get your own message out, or set up a place where everyone involved in your organization, effort, or issue can communicate. You can accomplish both goals by creating a website or online community space that includes discussion or communication features. You, or someone else who's qualified, might serve as a moderator or expert in the field in order to answer questions and guide discussion in productive directions. The logic behind the Community Tool Box as an online tool for the promotion of health and community development: Since 1995, the University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development has been building the Community Tool Box as a free, online resource for health and community development. In order to create as nearly complete a resource as possible, the Tool Box team first tried to understand the building blocks of health and community work. What do you have to know and do first, and where do you have to go from there, in health and community work, in order to foster change that will lead to an improvement in the quality of community members' lives? We came up with a framework for health and community work that includes five components: Understanding the context of the work and collaborative planning Community action and intervention Community and system change Widespread behavior change and improvement in population-level outcomes Sustaining the effort Each of these five components is in turn split into a number of core competencies (a total of 16 in all) that further define each component and divide the work into manageable elements. We'll look at each of the five components and its core competencies separately, but first, we'll call attention to three basic assumptions -- guiding principles -- that run through the Community Tool Box. An organization's vision, mission, and philosophy should all be consistent with one another. Any effort -- whether an intervention or service, a push for change in behavior or policy, an advocacy campaign, or a protest against current or planned action -- must have a clear vision, a mission that supports that vision, and a philosophical base that reflects the vision and mission. The vision, mission, and philosophy should guide every decision the organization makes, from what funding to pursue to how staff and participants are treated to relationships with other organizations and the community. Almost any effort will benefit from a participatory process. Such a process involves all stakeholders -- particularly those who are the focus of your work -- in the planning and implementation of anything that affects them. That often means providing the information they need to understand clearly the possibilities and limitations of the effort you're embarking on so they can make informed decisions. There might be various levels of involvement, from consultation to full partnership. There are two excellent reasons for employing a participatory process: It's respectful and fair. It's arrogant and disrespectful, as well as patently unfair, to make decisions for other people without consulting them, no matter how well-meaning those decisions may be. It's more effective. You're far more likely to be successful if people buy into and feel ownership of a plan, a program, an initiative, an intervention, or a policy than if they feel it's been imposed on them. There are, realistically, times when a participatory process simply isn't possible. Time may be too much of the essence -- people's lives may be at stake, as in an emergency relief effort or a military operation. In other situations, some people may be unwilling to consider the possibility that other ideas or positions might be legitimate. In those circumstances, a participatory process may not be the best approach. Servant leadership and collaborative leadership both assume the leadership of a participatory process. Ethics are important. This not only means adhering to the professional ethics of your field, if that's relevant, but behaving as you would have others behave toward you. As an organization and as an individual, you should treat others with respect and fairness, and acknowledge their work and contributions. You should never abuse whatever power you have, and should instead use it to further your cause and your work. An ethical stance should carry over into your dealings with participants; collaborators and other organizations and institutions; staff, board members, and others within your organization; funders, contributors, and members; policymakers; and the community. The components of health and community development, and their respective core competencies Understanding context and collaborative planning The context of a health or community issue encompasses the history, culture, character, and economic, social, and political makeup of the community itself; the nature of the issue and its relevance to and frequency in the community or population in question; the culture, size, attitudes, and other characteristics of the population of focus; and the people involved in all these areas, and their relationships to one another.Six core competencies, or fundamental abilities, contribute to the work of understanding context and collaborative planning: Creating and maintaining coalitions and collaborative partnerships is a way to engage a variety of sectors, such as government agencies and faith communities, in a common purpose; to hear the concerns and needs of all sectors; and to gather a broad range of ideas and perspectives. Assessing community needs and resources, such as the need for more accessible health services or the presence of grassroots advocacy groups, grounds the work in what is locally important and available. Analyzing community-identified problems and goals with community partners helps pinpoint the personal and group factors -- knowledge and skills, or history of care or discrimination -- and environmental factors -- access and barriers, support and resources, broader policies -- that may affect the current problem and future prospects for goal attainment. Developing a framework or model of change helps define how the community intends to go from the current situation, such as low rates of childhood immunization, to sustained improvements in population-level outcomes. Developing strategic and action plans sets the blueprint for getting from a community's vision (Healthy Youth Program) to improvements in population-level outcomes (changes in rates of pregnancies among adolescents or substance use disorders). Building leadership helps ensure that the community itself can continue to generate a team of people to develop and sustain relationships and transform conditions necessary for community change. Community action and intervention. Once you've engaged in community assessment and used the results to formulate a plan, you have to take action in order to effect change. Action plans should flow from the overall strategy you've come up with, and should be aimed at producing the outcomes that a collaborative planning process has identified as important. Your action should, to the extent possible, involve all sectors of the community, and encompass the diversity of the community. To these ends, three core competencies fall under this component of health and community development: Developing an intervention involves selecting and using intervention components based on an analysis of contributing factors and available resources. For example, a comprehensive intervention to increase childhood immunization might include such elements as providing information and enhancing skills (educating parents about how vaccination works and what it protects children from); modifying access, barriers, and opportunities (expanded outreach, provision of transportation); and modifying policies (offering vaccinations as part of other clinic visits). Increasing participation and membership brings in the voices of those who have the most experience of the issue (young people, people from underrepresented language communities), but who may face barriers to involvement, as well as involving as many sectors of the community as possible. All of this increases the sense of ownership of any action by those involved. Enhancing cultural competence makes it possible for people of diverse backgrounds to work together, and to understand and respect one another's cultural beliefs and practices. Such understanding and respect increases community coherence, and aids efforts to improve the quality of life for everyone in the community. Cultural competence, through improved communication and recognition of others' abilities, also contributes to the attainment of such other competencies as building community leadership and developing strategic and action plans. Community and system change. Bringing about permanent change in a community entails more than simply creating and running an intervention. The intervention may have an immediate effect on the issue you're concerned with, but that's rarely enough. In order to bring about permanent change, you often have to change both the systems that affect it -- e.g., policies, funding mechanisms, education, etc. -- and the community itself -- attitudes, social customs...the things that people take for granted. In order to make these kinds of changes, you may have to take a multi-pronged approach, working with several sectors of the community at once. Three core competencies help in this endeavor: Advocating for change. Advocacy can range from trying to convince a local merchant not to sell tobacco to minors to organizing a national campaign against a proposed military action. It may target individuals, corporations, institutions, legislators or other public officials, or be aimed directly at public opinion through use of the media. Effective advocacy takes an orchestrated effort that pulls in as many people as possible, takes into account and counters opposition, and uses a variety of strategies and tactics. Influencing policy development. Both formal and informal policies may need to be rethought in order to bring about long-term change. Creating a safer environment for children, for instance, may involve a restructuring of drug laws (allowing for more prevention education, and more emphasis on treatment as opposed to imprisonment); a change in workplace policies (on-site or subsidized childcare, flexible schedules, etc.); expanded nutrition education and food programs; more structured activities for children and young people in the community; community policing strategies; etc. Changing those policies may require a combination of direct legislative advocacy, working with the business community, conducting a media campaign, and negotiating with community agencies and officials. Evaluating the initiative. Evaluation makes it possible to see (and enhance) the effects of your work over time, and to understand their impact on indirectly related community indicators of change. Not only does it enable you to make changes that reflect ongoing changes in the population and that respond to what you've learned, but it shows you to what extent you're addressing community and system change. Thus, an evaluation of an initiative to reduce smoking among people who are pregnant that showed a significant number of participants quitting during pregnancy might be related to a subsequent decrease in the expected number of infants with low birth weight. Widespread behavior change and improvement in population-level outcomes. How do we affect the behavior of enough people in enough places to improve overall outcomes? Changing population-level outcomes requires changing the behaviors of large numbers of people. In order to accomplish this, states, communities, and organizations may employ social marketing efforts that include promotional messages, and that incorporate environmental changes that make the desired behaviors easier and more rewarding. To increase civic engagement, a campaign might include media messages that emphasize the beneficial consequences of community participation, easier access to voting (through simplified registration, more neighborhood polling places, free transportation to the polls, etc.), and greater opportunities for public participation in policy processes. One core competency supports this component: Implementing a social marketing campaign. Social marketing applies the techniques of commercial marketing to social goals, "selling" behavior change in much the same way that manufacturers sell products. Social marketing surveys potential "customers" -- those whose behavior needs to change -- segments the market (decides whom to appeal to and how), carefully crafts and places messages to speak to the intended audience, maximizes benefit and minimizes cost to the customer, supports change, and continually evaluates and readjusts the campaign to make it as effective as possible. Sustaining the effort. As the Community Tool Box continually emphasizes, the work of health and community development is never really done. Once an intervention is launched, it has to be maintained over time for as long as it's needed. Real community change -- change that involves system and attitude changes, policy change, etc. -- may take years or decades. Even once it's accomplished, it still needs to be maintained if you don't want to lose ground. Both the work and the funding have to continue, or you'll never reach your ultimate goal of an improvement in the lives of community members. The final three core competencies are aimed at keeping it all going indefinitely, or for as long as is necessary. Applying for grants. As much as we might wish things were otherwise, money is necessary for almost any health or community effort. Understanding where to look for both public and private funding, and how to write a successful grant proposal, are essential skills for any organization that wants to do community work. Improving organizational management and development. If you're going to sustain your work over a long period, your organization has to be well-managed and structured for the long haul. There are different models you can choose from, but regardless of which you use, you have to be able to pay bills and staff on time, deliver services effectively, recruit participants, deal with internal and external problems, use your assets well, work with other organizations, and develop systems that make it easy to get things done. In short, you have to be able to manage work, staff, external relationships, and money as efficiently and gracefully as possible. Sustaining the work or initiative. All too often, funding from a particular source is time-limited. People -- founders and key staff members of organizations -- come and go, creating shifts in organizational patterns and gaps in organizational memory. Communities change, requiring changes in services or goals. New research pushes the work in an unexpected direction. Despite these disruptions, the organization and its work have to continue if you want to effect real change. You have to find ways to keep going -- to replace lost funding, to institutionalize your work in the community, to continue to hire people who'll do an excellent job, and to respond to changes in the population or the community. Sustaining the effort becomes part of your work at a certain point, and will remain so throughout the life of the organization. We believe that the Community Tool Box is the most comprehensive capacity-building tool available online, both in the breadth of its vision and in the sheer volume of the information it provides. However, as we've discussed in this section, there are countless other tools of various types available online, and many of them provide information or services that the Community Tool Box doesn't. Explore the CTB, but explore other options as well, especially if you're looking for specific information -- census data, methods of doing your work, research results, etc. Much of the early public internet was shaped by ideals of cooperation and broad access to information. In that spirit, our goal is not to compete with other websites, but rather to help your organization become the best and most effective practitioner of health and community development possible. If we all work together, and use online tools well, we can help make the world a better place, one community at a time. In summary The internet is a vast source of information and expertise, where community builders can find instruction, data, connections to others with similar concerns, funding possibilities, and much else they need to engage in their work. Online tools for health and community development -- websites like the Community Tool Box that provide information and instruction; university sites; government sites; newspaper and other media sites; online encyclopedias and databases; email groups; online forums; and other tools that allow communication among community builders -- can all contribute mightily toward doing the work. They can transcend geographical boundaries and make it possible for communities to find information and develop their own answers to problems, while recognizing that access to online resources is not universal. The Community Tool Box is an online resource that aims to build the capacity of community-based and grassroots groups and organizations to act effectively on health and community issues, and to bring about positive social change in their communities. To this end, we have identified five basic components of health and community work, each with its own core competencies, and have organized accordingly: Understanding the context of the work and collaborative planning Creating and maintaining coalitions Assessing community resources Analyzing community-identified problems and goals Developing a framework or model of change Developing strategic and action plans Building leadership Community action and intervention Developing an intervention Increasing participation and membership Enhancing cultural competence Community and system change Advocating for change Influencing policy development Evaluating the initiative Widespread behavior change and improvement in population-level outcomes Implementing a social marketing campaign Sustaining the effort Applying for grants Improving organizational management and development Sustaining the work or initiative The Community Tool Box is, we believe, the most comprehensive capacity-building tool online, with thousands of pages of how-to information for health and community activists. But it's not the only valuable or useful online tool. There are thousands of sites that might be helpful, providing additional information or expertise that the Community Tool Box doesn't. The internet is one of the most powerful communication media and sources of information ever developed; if health and community builders take full advantage of it, we can change the world...for the better. Contributor Phil Rabinowitz Resources Online Resources The list below, although fairly long, is hardly comprehensive. It's simply meant to give a taste of what's available. For every site listed, there are probably thousands more that could be found with similar or better information. For each U.S. government site, for instance, there is likely to be an equivalent site for most other western governments, at the very least. Use search engines, links, and your ingenuity, and there's almost no limit to what you can find. The Canadian Encyclopedia - all about Canada, in French and English Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Information on a variety of topics related to disease and epidemiology, prevention techniques and programs, best practices, etc. "Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources" Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - The agency of the United States Government that enforces the federal employment discrimination laws. The General Laws of Canada It's All About the Base: A Guide to Building a Grassroots Organizing Program Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. Links to the statutes of all states, listed by topic and by state. You can find any US state law here - a tremendous resource. The Library of Congress. An enormous reservoir of information, which contains the texts of pending and newly-passed bills and laws, as well as a great deal of other information useful to political activists. The LOC site also includes American Memory, which contains the full texts of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and many other American historical documents. The Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia, from the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. The National Institutes of Health - The website often lists best practices or describes successful programs and efforts. Oxfam America, an international development organization whose website often profiles "local heroes" - ordinary people who accomplish extraordinary things for their communities. "Ten C's for Evaluating Internet Sources," from the library of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire. The text of the Uniform Commercial Code, from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell. Links to state statutes that correspond to the articles of the Uniform Commercial Code. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Census Bureau - Census data for all areas of the U.S., including demographics, economic data, education, housing, etc. The U.S. Department of Agriculture - Information on agriculture, rural development, food products, land use, the environment, etc. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Department of Education - Information on government policy. U.S Department of Energy U.S. Department of Labor - Labor laws and regulations. U.S. Department of Justice - Civil rights, immigration, the federal court system, etc. U.S. Department of State - Foreign policy. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Information on environmental topics, and on government environmental policy and initiatives, as well as EPA regulations. U.S. Food and Drug Administration - Information on drugs and foods, warnings and safety alerts, FDA policy and regulations, etc. U.S. government grant site - Information on grant availability, guidelines, applications and application procedures, etc. U.S. House of Representatives - Connections to all Congresspersons and their websites, information on legislation, schedules, committees, links, and more. U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration - Workplace safety regulations. The text of the Uniform Commercial Code, from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell. Links to state statutes that correspond to the articles of the Uniform Commercial Code. The U.S. Senate - Senate rules, voting records and contact information for all Senators, glossary of terms, etc. Wikipedia, a user-generated on-line encyclopedia. Print Resources Fawcett, S., Schultz, J., Carson L,, Renault, A,, Francisco, V. (2003) Using Internet Based Tools to Build Capacity for Community Based Participatory Research and Other Efforts to Promote Community Health and Development. In Minkler, M., N. Wallerstein (Eds), Community Based Participatory Research for Health, (pp. 155-178). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Schlein, M. (2004) Find It Online: The complete guide to online research (4th ed.). Tempe, AZ: Facts on Demand Press.
