Level IV : Helping the Community to "Take Over"

We return here to some basic issues in community work. It should be our aim to indicate positive action in a community through nutrition and health education. After desirable practices have started being adopted, it is best to let the community members manage the programme on their own. This involvement and independence of community members in doing their own planning, decision making  and in taking up collective action is the key to our success. The process is difficult sometimes because it implies "loss of control" as some people may perceive it. However, helping the community to manage a programme on its own is what participative approaches are all about. 

Experiences from many parts of the world indicate the benefits of community involvement in creating change which is self-sustaining. Figure gives you some idea of how you can encourage the community  "take  over" a programme. 

As we said earlier you  must think more about the process model we have given. Adapting it to your local situation is important. If  you notice, we have mentioned the points in the process where key persons and other community members would benefit from training inputs. In steps 2 and 3, for example, key persons (i.e. people who are receptive to education programmes and who help to shape community opinion and action) have to be trained for their function of being leaden. Training is indispensable during implementation as well. 

Level IV :  Process model for helping the community to "take over" 

Of course it is important to realize that Level IV cannot be achieved without interacting with the community for a considerable period of time. It must be preceded by Levels I to III for maximum impact and for ensuring better chances of success.