Level III : Promoting and Sustaining Community Action/Practice

In the previous section we have talked about how to spread a message in a community. The role of opinion leaders and community networks has been emphasized. Fig. gives you a bird eye view of the community networks in a village Pin Tamil Nadu  for example. Observe the intricacy of village institutions and interlinks as seen by people themselves! 

The task of promoting community action can begin once a message has spread and started to influence the knowledge and attitudes of people. You would have realized by now that there are links between  knowledge. attitude and practice. 

There is a gap between knowledge and attitude for example. An individual knows certain facts but has she or he developed the positive attitudes needed to actually put the knowledge gained to good use? Further positive attitudes are not equivalent to appropriate action i.e.  there is a gap between attitude and practice. To put it another way a person acts only after sufficient knowledge is acquired and a strong positive attitude develops towards a certain practice. 

So once a message has actually spread or diffused through a  community we need to carefully analyze the answers to questions such as the following: 

• Who will act? 
• Which individuals are most likely to initiate action (innovators)? What motivates them?  
• Who would be most likely to follow the innovators Fust? Why? 
• Who is likely to resist any kind of change? What is preventing these individuals from adopting a particular practice or course of action?

These questiombring out some important aspects we need to consider. In  adopting a practice the following situations usually arise: 

1. A few community members begin a new practice (promoted by nutrition/health education).  Such people are called INNOVATORS. 
2. Some other individuals follow in the footsteps of the innovators and adopt the practice as well. These are the EARLY ADOFTERS. 
3. People who are hesitating in adopting the practice but have a favourable attitude. They exercise caution and prefer to "Wait and Watch". These are the SLOW ADOPTERS. 
4. Then there are those people who resist change. They may be indifferent. On the other hand they may even be hostile. These are the people you will have to tackle with tact and persuasion. The innovators and early adopters can  help. But remembers to work out your strategies keeping the local situation in mind- particularly  local politics! 

This analysis clearly shows us that we need  to make special efforts to convince the slow adopters and also to cry and break down he barriers which exist in the case of those who reject a message.

The next part of the task of a community worker is to actually help in sustaining community action. Are the people who have adopted the practice feeling satisfied? Is it showing results? How can we keep  their motivation high  while they  wait for their action to  show good results? 

It is crucial to identify any problems that people may be facing. Again it is important to let people  speak out and encourage them to arrive at solutions to their problems. You can help out if necessary. 

Now look closely at Figure. Think of how you could use this process in your own setting. Also consider how you  might need to  modify is to make it more effective. Remember it's only one possible model. Feel free to develop your own! 

Level III :  Process model for promoting and sustaining community action/practice