COPAR Student
COPAR Student
I. INTRODUCTION:
B. COMMUNITY AS CLIENT
a. COLONIAL PERIOD (15th Century- WWII): Development was defined as relief and
rehabilitation work just to patch up the damages brought about by the war.
It was indeed a social work but it was a temporary nature of development.
PROCESS - development is defined as a “planned change” on a slow step by step and committed
pursuit of problem resolution from the point of view of individual, family, community or nation in
order to move away from a life situation that is considered to be unsatisfactory to a situation that is
satisfactory.
E. COMPONENTS OF DEVELOPMENT:
1. Social development
2. Political development
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3. Economic development.
4. Cultural development
1. CD is concerned with all the people of the community, rather than any particular or
segment of the population.
2. CD is concerned with the whole of community life instead of any one specialized
aspect.
3. CD is concerned with bringing about social change in the community
4. CD is concerned with the problem solving of social issues and conflicts.
5. CD is based upon the philosophy of self-help and participation by as many member
of the community as possible
6. CD usually involves technical assistance, personnel, equipment, supplies, money or
consultation from the government or voluntary private organizations, both domestic
and foreign
7. CD is essentially interdisciplinary
8. CD is both a concern task goals and process goals
9. CD involves educational process. It is always concerned with “teaching and
learning” from the people.
10. CD continues over a substantial period of time. It is not a CRASH program, but
rather it is a process.
11. CD program should be based on felt needs, and desires, as well as aspirations of the
people in the community.
12. CD directs participation is open to any resident who wishes to participate.
G. GOALS OF DEVELOPMENT:
H. OBSTACLES OF DEVELOPMENT:
ASSUMPTIONS PRINCIPLE
1. Issue that threaten people’s lives move them 1. Do not ignore a highly pressing issue that is
to action, therefore; identified by the majority.
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2. Any person is afraid to go against many, 2. Mass-based leadership is imperative
strong and organized people, therefore;
3. People are open to change, have the capacity 3. Provide opportunity to change and capability
to change and are able to bring about change, if to change
given the chance to do so, therefore; 4. Provide them the chance to make
development happen that should lead to a just
and self-reliant community
4. Learning happens fast when one experiences 5. Provide practical true-to-life activities where
something successful, concrete and practical, people will likely succeed. (experiential
therefore; learning)
5. Any person is an image of God, full of worth 6. Let the people decide or allow for consensus
and dignity so he/she is responsible for his own building, instead of making decisions for them
life, therefore;
7. People who develop the attitude or practice 8. Always conduct ARAS with the people
of self-evaluation every after an activity is able
to identify areas for improvement, therefore;
B. DEFINITIONS:
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PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH (PAR)
1. It is an investigation of problems and issues concerning the life and environment of the
underprivileged by way of collaboration with them as equal partners.
TRADITIONAL PAR
1. Conscientization / Arousal
2. Participation / Organize
3. Action / Mobilization
A. IMPORTANCE OF COPAR:
2. COPAR acknowledges the importance of leadership but emphasizes the participation of the
members.
C. GOALS OF COPAR:
1. People empowerment.
2. Social restructuring which means:
a. Equitable distribution of wealth, power in health and resources.
b. Organize the silent PDOES to speak up
c. Decision making that is now coming from the majority instead of the elite.
3. Alliance building
4. Genuine democracy
5. Improved quality of life.
1. AS FACILITATOR:
a. Helps enhance individual and group strengths and helps maximize weakness and
conflicts.
b. Heightens group unity.
c. Assists individuals and group respond to common interests.
2. AS TRAINOR:
a. Assesses training needs of local leaders.
b. Helps plan and conduct educational programs to strengthen individual and group
capabilities.
c. Assists key leaders in training others.
d. Engages in continuous dialogues with people.
e. Helps in remolding the leaders and members in terms of skill and attitudes towards
self-determination.
3. AS ADVOCATES:
a. Helps analyze and articulate critical issues.
b. Assists others to understand and reflect upon these issues.
c. Evokes and provokes meaningful discussions and actions.
4. AS RESEARCHER:
a. Conducts social analysis
b. Engages in participatory research wherein people become co-investigator.
c. Simplifies/enriches appropriate research concepts and skills in order to make these
functional for the people interests.
d. Engages in social integration to understand social phenomena from the people’s
point of view.
5. AS PLANNER:
a. Conducts initial analysis of area resources and potentials
b. Assists local groups in planning for their common good, including appropriate
strategies and alternative actions.
c. Helps systematize groups’ actions to attain desired goals.
6. AS A CATALYST:
a. Initiates debates and actions regarding critical problems.
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b. Monitors and nurtures growth of individuals and groups to facilitate long term
structural transformation for people’s welfare.
E. QUALITIES OF AN ORGANIZER:
1. Irreverence
2. Sense of Humor
3. Visionary
4. Tenacity
5. Flexibility
6. Genuine Love for People
7. Critical Thinker
DO’s:
1. Be one and be familiar with the people you are working with.
2. Have an orientation or faith in the power of people to transform. Have trust in the
people’s capability to change.
3. Be conscious of balancing local and national issues. The entire CO revolves around
concrete local issues as the best starting point for training consciousness and motivation
for action. CO ought not to be limited to local issues because the roots of the local
problems are to found in larger national structures.
4. Assess action on the basis whether they are consensus oriented. CO is democratic and
participatory in all aspects.
5. Anticipate the responses of outside forces and be prepared for this. This is to prepare
both the people and the organizer on what actions to be undertaken. Always prepare
with the people to the incoming problems.
6. If there is conflict between authority and the people, go with the people. This is the
general rule that governs CO.
7. Should there be economic projects as entry point, it must be undertaken within the
context of supporting and sustaining the struggle towards people’s goals, elevating their
awareness and consciousness by inculcating values and a concrete expressions of the
alternative system we are working for.
DON’T’S:
1. Don’t romanticize
2. Don’t be an empiricist.
3. Don’t protect people from hardships.
4. Don’t be dogmatic
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B. Clustered household of at least 100
C. Health services in the site are inaccessible to meet the needs of the community
residents
1.2. Initial consultation with the LGU’s, existing PO’s and other relevant agencies.
Thus facilitates the CO in:
a. identifying the communities that fit the criteria
b. Initially introducing the importance and goals of community health development
work.
PURPOSES OF PSI
For the CO to get to know the community he or she is going to immerse and work with and identify
potential issues which might motivate people to action. It must be an issue that:
A. Affect a large number of community folks
B. People affected strongly feel that it is an urgent and important concern
C. Preferably winnable or the people should be able to get what they want.
HOW TO DO PSI:
A. Study the existing documents or reports (secondary data) at the municipal, barangay health
offices and related agencies. Data would include the following:
B. Observe and engage in actual dialogues and informal interviews with key informants of the
community.
Current needs/problems or issues that highly affect them at the moment and may
galvanize action from them
Important data needed in a health program but which are not found in the existing
secondary data
Stage of health development of the community and its health programs and activities
being implemented and the approach being utilized.
Constraints and problems encountered by other agencies while working in the area.
D. Write-up analysis and formulation of an initial plan which will later serve as a guide for the
CO when he/she facilitates the community in formulating their own development action
plan.
a. Pay respect to the leaders of the community as a form of initially establishing rapport.
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Philosophy, principles of community health development work, objectives and program
components.
e. To know the other municipal and barangay officials, especially the heads of
Offices and other health/non health related agencies based in the same community.
f. To level off expectations with the municipal officials in terms of support, roles etc.
g. Initial discussions planning of some immediate activities upon entry of the program with the
key persons.
4. Ocular survey, informal dialogues with community residents and key informants within
selected community and further contact building.
Importance of Ocular Survey:
a. To identify
political boundaries,
points of entry to and exit from the community,
location of different households, landmarks,
residence of contact persons
possible staff house
barangay hall meeting places, etc.
c. Conduct initial dialogues with the community residents available and obtain ideas, feelings
and reactions about possible entry of a health agency and about their experiences with
previous agencies.
B ENTRY PHASE
This signals the actual entry and immersion of the CO in the selected community
Also termed as the social preparation and critical awareness building phase and it is
considered as the most crucial phase because it includes major activities on sensitizations of
the people on the critical events on their lives.
CRITICAL ACTIVITIES
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B. COMMUNITY/SOCIAL INTEGRATION- it is a basic continuing activity by
which the CO becomes one with the poor through immersing self in the community
in order to;
C. Respected the people and recognize the positive aspects of their culture
that give them the strength to struggle.
E. Modify their own values and lifestyle in keeping with that of the community
2. Avoid raising the expectation of the community residents by adopting a low key
profile and approach
3. Live with the poor sectors of the community for at least three months
4. Visit as many people as possible in the community through house to house visits
answering house calls to avoid creating jealousies and factions
6. Seek out and converse with people where they usually congregate such as in the
stores, wells, washing streams, church or house yards
a. Share high level of interest and needs and are open/willing to share
needs and interests with others on a collective basis.
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c. Open to know more and gain skills
f. Share similar vision, goals and values with that of the people
5. Helps in laying out plans and tasks for the formation and maintenance
community wide organization
KEY PERSON – star in the sociogram. The person who is most approach
by many people. An obvious leader, a person/ people from whom the CO has
to win support and train the local CO or the alter ego.
b. Get the identified indigenous leaders to express their support to the COPAR
approach, its phases and activities.
*In areas where there are no volunteers, home visit will be done by the CO
himself/herself.
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*In areas where there are trained community health volunteers, the CO plans with
them regarding shared home visit, where the community volunteer health worker act
as the frontline and the CO helps to enhance skills of the volunteer worker.
E. GROUNDWORKING
A basic tactic used in community organizing work where the CO goes around and
motivate peoples and identified leaders on a one to one basis to do something about
an issue at hand or to raise a particular issue during a barangay meeting.
To mind set community leaders and residents about a particular issue.
F. COMMUNITY MEETING/CONSULTATION
The first of a series of community meetings that will be held during this phase with
the following objectives:
A. To get the people’s collective ideas and feelings about the entry of the agency
to their community in terms of acceptability or unacceptability.
D. To evoke from the community residents about their vision of a happy family
and developed community in the light of their analyzed situation.
- For the agency- it learns to alter its initially drafted plans and programs in order
to adapt to the results of the community analysis.
1. This activity can be well facilitated if the CO has well integrated with and has
acquired the trust of the people.
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3. The use of survey questionnaire is discouraged as much as possible due to the
following possible reasons:
o Dishonesty of data that will be given especially if the worker has not yet
fully integrated with the people.
o Difficulty of the community folks and leaders in reading and answering
usually very long questionnaires.
o Previous experience of community folks with traditional researchers that
leave them a feeling of being subjects of study instead of being active
participants of the study
o Data can be more effectively gathered through information methods like
casual conversation and the use of participatory appraisal tools
CRITICAL ACTIVITIES:
3. Setting up the PO – the formation of a community wide organization requires preparation in two
equally important aspects:
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2. It has an internal structure
3. new leaders continually emerge
4. Raises its own funds by using their own resources
ACTIVITIES
1. Organization and training of the different committees
2. Project implementation, monitoring and evaluation based on CDAP
3. Action-Reflection-Action-Session
A regular cycle of evaluation which largely focuses on self reflection about
one’s contribution to the success and failure of an activity and what one can
do to enhance or improve future similar activity/actions.
Objectives:
a. For an individual or group to identify and celebrate their own strengths related to an
activity just completed
b. For them to critically analyze the cause of mistakes and failures in that particular
activity, so that consequent suggestion can be done, thus, they will be more capable
of effectively transforming the next activity and their daily errors in life.
c. To relieve the pains experienced due to errors or mistakes due to behaviors of others
in the community.
d. To reconcile hurt feelings among the members of the group.
The word INSTITUTIONALIZATION also stresses two ideas: process and institution. When we
talk of institution, it suggest that a permanent structure has been established wherein a process has
taken place to achieve its present state.
In the process of institutionalizing community based organization, there are several steps that
should be undertaken:
1. Networking/Linkage Building
a. It involves establishing of working relationship with different agencies other
organization/sectors
b. Community based organization can form network or federation to enhance their
organization capabilities and widen their support base.
c. It is in phase that when the organization has attained unity and ability for collective
decision-making, consolidation and expansion activities can be pursued.
2. Consolidation/Expansion
Consolidation means more advanced skills training, higher form of mobilization, integrated
and long term program/projects, additional committees and tasks.
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**The relationship between the CO and the people is temporary. If the goal of empowering the
community is achieved, then roles of the outside organizer end and shift to a supportive role.
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