What do we mean by using Internet-based tools to promote community health and development?
You use Internet based tools:
___To learn how to do the work.
___To gather information.
___To communicate with others.
___To distribute educational or other information to participants.
___To conduct business.
___To engage in advocacy.
Why use Internet-based tools to promote community health and development?
___They give access to knowledge and information to everyone.
___They make it possible for people to change their lives and communities themselves.
___They help to distribute power and control more equitably throughout societies.
___They help to combat ignorance and misinformation (as well as disinformation - the intentional lies that governments, corporations, institutions, and other entities sometimes tell in order to keep control or to protect their own self-interest).
___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.
___They put people concerned with health and community development in touch with one another.
___They increase the ease and effectiveness of advocacy, particularly for those who might otherwise have no voice.
___They can ease access to elected and appointed officials.
___They can help to assure the accountability of those officials and of oversight bodies.
___They can shorten response time to community emergencies or to addressing community needs.
___They encourage and facilitate collaboration among individuals and organizations at all levels.
Who should use Internet-based tools to promote community health and development?
___Professionals and professional organizations.
___Grass roots and community-based organizations.
___Larger nonprofits and initiatives.
___Community activists.
___Political activists.
___Participants in and beneficiaries of health and community service organizations and initiatives.
___Students in disciplines related to health and community services.
When should you use Internet-based tools to promote community health and development?
___When you want to build the community's capacity to solve its own problems.
___When you're starting a program, initiative, or other effort with little information.
___When you need to communicate with a large number of people (and decide or embark on an action) quickly.
___When you need to learn about or understand laws or regulations.
___When you need information for a grant proposal or other funding possibility.
___When you want to get your own message out, or set up a place where everyone involved in your organization or effort or issue can communicate.
The logic behind the Community Tool Box as an Internet-based tool for the promotion of health and community development.
Guiding principles:
___An organization's vision, mission, and philosophy should all be consistent with one another.
___Almost any effort will benefit from a participatory process.
___Ethics are important.
Components of health and community development, with their respective core competencies:
___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 competency
___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