Participating in developments project at the community level is an essential part of community growth. An effective community development projects involves the community members and it is therefore very essential to incorporates them to address their needs adequately.
Developing effective communication strategies, giving others opportunity to express their views, and the ability to engage community members are few of the most important skills needed to make a community project successful. This paper will provide an overview of an independent project I want to take to improve my community.
The problem to be addressed
In any society, a health care facility is very basic in attending to medical needs of all community members. Without a proper functioning healthcare centers, community members cannot have their needs addressed sufficiently (Debnath 13). For a long time now, my community has been facing this problem despite of numerous efforts to put up a well and fully functioning health care facility. Between the years 1995 and 2009, there existed a fully functional community health care center (community hospital) funded by the government.
During this period, the community hospital was reliable and it played a big role in addressing medical needs of all community members. However, today the hospital does not function anymore. Due to issues of leadership, poor management, and embezzlement of public funds, the community hospitals collapsed.
Today, my community is facing a big problem and there is need to have an effective community hospital. Most community members go through rough times in case of emergencies especially at nights when a family member or a friend is sick. Generally, the main problem is that there is no community hospital.
Ways people have tried to solve it in the past
The government and private developers have tried to address this community problem (lack of an effective community healthcare facility). First, the government has tried to be in the forefront to refurbish or renovate the community hospital. Immediately after the collapse of the community health care center in the year 2009, government officials from the department of health came to the community and assessed the already collapsed health facility.
After extensive evaluation, the officials wrote a report to the ministry recommending for renovation of the facility. Nevertheless, the government officials did not consult or involve community members during the assessment and implementation of the project. Shortly, the government embarked on renovation plans as a way of implementing recommendations by health experts.
By early 2010, the government had already done an extensive renovation of the facility and the community hospital was in a good shape. With all government’s efforts, the project was not successful since it could not address the needs of the community members.
One major reason why the renovated community hospital project never became successful is lack of community involvement. When the government came to renovate the community project, none of the community members was involved in the renovation process. It is important to involve community members given that they are chief stakeholders (Rotary International).
Government’s failure to involve community members in the renovation process led to building a facility that did not address most essential community needs. For instance, in the renovation process, the government did not include a pediatric ward, which is a basic need. Because of this, most community members had to seek for such basic services in other healthcare facilities.
In fact, this has been a major issue because community members are forced to seek essential services somewhere else. Since the problem continued, private developers came in towards the mid of 2010 in an effort to make changes and address the existing issues.
The private developers came in to facilitate renovation and setting up of an effective community healthcare facility. In June 2010, after the community health facility was deemed to be ineffective, a private developer came to the community in an effort to revive and make the project become a success. Due to numerous complaints by community members, the private developer was determined to make the project successful.
As such, the developer approached and consulted the local authority. All through, the developer was in constant communication with the local administration regarding the community health care facility. During implementation and re-adjustment of the facility, the developer consulted the local administration hoping that the project would at least address community needs.
Just like what happened in the case of government officials, the private developer did not consult or involve the community members. According to the developer, the local administration represented the entire community and therefore there was no need to consult or involve community members directly.
Because of this particular mistake, the community project was also not successful this time round. One major problem why the project was not a success is due to high cost of services. After the private developer did changes to the facility, the services become expensive for the locals and this pushed them away from the community facility.
In my community, most members are not in the formal employment sector and therefore most of them are low-income earners. By adjusting the cost of services higher, most community member could not afford to pay for services. This factor forced community members to look for alternative or cheaper services. If the private developer had fully involved all community members when making changes, probably the project would become successful (Mellinger and Chau 274).
How to solve the problem
I am very determined to make the community healthcare facility become effective in addressing all community needs. Because of this, I have been doing research and getting advice from experts on how to address the problem at hand. According to community participation approach, all stakeholders, especially community members should be involved or consulted in every step of a community project (Bessette 35). This is because involving community members ensures that all issues are addressed according to their needs.
First, there is need to go to the community and engage all members in focused group discussions (Murphy 19). Through such discussion, community members will have an opportunity to say exactly what they needs and they will also participate in decision making. In addition to this, community members will have adequate time to air their complaints especially concerning why the project has not been successful in past. This is very important in solving the problem.
In the focused groups, community members will be categorized according to gender and age. Later, they will discuss all their needs and organize them in order of priority (Murphy 45). My role will be making sure that all community members participate in all discussions since this step is very essential. Throughout the whole process, I will engage community members in all steps because they are chief stakeholders and therefore their involvement is crucial.
After all crucial needs have been arranged in order of priority; I will help community members in inviting donors. At this point, the process of renovating the community project will begin. This is the implementation stage (Murphy 42). At this stage, we as organizers (I myself and others) will create a conducive environment so that community members are able to participate in the project directly.
We will engage all community members so that they can provide materials, funds, labor, advice, and opinions where necessary. During this period, there will be constant monitoring of the project to check whether all needs are being addressed at every step (Rotary International).
Once the project has been implemented successfully, I will go back to the community members asking them to support the project. This is important especially if the community has a qualified individual who can work in the project; this is significant in empowering the community members. Lastly, I will consult community members to select a team that will be monitoring and providing report to the local authority and donors for sustainability of the project.
Conclusion
Community participatory approach is very important when implementing any community project. It is also essential for developers to involve community members in any community project because they are crucial stakeholders who should not be ignored under any circumstance. It is my believe that the project will be successful since community participatory approach creates a sense of ownership, enables accountability and ensures project sustainability (Bessette 78).
Works Cited
Bessette, Guy. Involving the Community: A Guide to Participatory Development Communication. Ottawa: Southbound, 2004. Print.
Debnath, Rita. Professional Skills in Nursing: A Guide for Common Foundation Programme. California: Sage, 2009. Print.
Mellinger, Messenger & Chau Min. (2010). Conducting focus groups with library staff: best practices and participant perceptions. Library Management, 31. 4 (2010): 267 – 278. Print.
Murphy, John. Great Ideas to Make Your Community Project Successful: A Guide for Community Groups. Wellington: Triple a foundation, 2006. Print.
Rotary International. Communities Actions: A guide to effective projects. 2012.