What is community readiness?
___Community readiness is the degree to which a community is ready to take action on an issue.
Community readiness is:
___Issue-specific.
___Measurable.
___Measurable across multiple dimensions.
___Variable across dimensions.
___Variable across different segments of the community.
___Able to be increased successfully.
___Is essential knowledge for addressing an issue.
What is the community readiness model?
___The community readiness model has six dimensions and nine levels.
Dimensions of community readiness:
___Community efforts.
___Community knowledge of the efforts.
___Leadership.
___Community climate.
___Community knowledge about the issue.
___Resources related to the issue.
Levels of community readiness:
___No awareness.
___Denial/Resistance.
___Vague awareness.
___Pre-planning.
___Preparation.
___Initiation.
___Stabilization.
___Confirmation/Expansion.
___High level of community ownership.
Why use the community readiness model?
___It conserves valuable resources (time, money, people) by guiding the selection of strategies that are most likely to be successful.
___It is an efficient, inexpensive, and easy-to-use tool.
___It promotes community recognition and ownership of the issue.
___Because of strong community ownership, it helps to assure that strategies are culturally congruent and sustainable.
___It encourages the use of local experts and resources instead of reliance on outside experts and resources.
___The process of community change can be complex and challenging, but the model breaks down the process into a series of manageable steps.
___It creates a community vision for healthy change
When should you use the community readiness model?
___In the course of an ongoing effort.
___Each time you tackle a new issue.
___When several different communities, or different segments of the community, are involved.
___When you’re planning an effort that involves a participatory process.
___When you’re engaged in a community or neighborhood planning effort.
Who should be involved in using the community readiness model?
___Who should consider using the model and/or administering the assessment?
- Policymakers and planners.
- Community activists.
- Health and human service organizations.
- Coalitions.
- Anyone else interested in community or social change.
___Who should be surveyed when the model is being applied?
- Schools/Universities
- Municipal/county/tribal government
- Law enforcement
- Health & medical professions
- Social services
- Mental health & treatment services
- Clergy or spiritual community
- Community at large
- Youth
- People on fixed incomes
How do you use the community readiness model?
Administering and scoring the community readiness assessment:
___Choose and train interviewers.
___Choose and train scorers.
___Revise the assessment tool, if necessary, to reflect the issue you’re concerned with.
___Select four to ten people to interview.
___Contact the people you have identified and see if they would be willing to discuss the issue.
___Conduct your interviews.
___Score the interviews.
Using community readiness information:
___Initiate a participatory planning process, if possible.
___To move ahead, readiness on all dimensions must be at about the same level.
___Begin with strategies appropriate to the community’s stage of readiness.
___Stick to it – the job’s never really done.