A Healthy Communities Initiative in Rural Alberta: Building Rural Capacity for Health

Efforts of health professionals are shifting away from programs that "deliver health" toward those that build the capacity of communities to work together to create healthy places. The Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI) is a community development model in central Alberta (Canada) that in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors GermAnn, Kathy, Smith, Neale, Littlejohns, Lori Baugh
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.05.2000
Subjects
Access to Health Care
Case Studies
Community Action
Community Cooperation
Community Development
Community Health Services
Conservation (Environment)
Foreign Countries
Older Adults
Participative Decision Making
Program Descriptions
Public Health
Rural Development
Youth Programs
Canada
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Summary:Efforts of health professionals are shifting away from programs that "deliver health" toward those that build the capacity of communities to work together to create healthy places. The Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI) is a community development model in central Alberta (Canada) that involves the creation of a widely shared vision of a healthier community; assessment of community needs and capacities; selection of priority areas for action; creation and implementation of action plans; and evaluation and monitoring of actions through the development of community-level indicators. Case studies of HCI implementation in four rural communities show that four health-related issues emerged consistently: need for youth development, preservation of the natural environment, maintaining a strong sense of community in the face of changing social dynamics, and access to health services. Capacity-building issues included lack of shard vision, need for further leadership development among both adults and youth, communication difficulties, lack of knowledge about how to access resources, and lack of well-defined processes by which the communities could learn from experience. Lessons learned about integrating community capacity building and a healthy communities initiative are discussed. (TD)