COMMUNITY

ORGANIZING
PARTICIPATORY
RESEARCH (COPAR)
COPAR
is a continuous and a
sustained process of:

Educating the people - to understand and

develop their critical consciousness
Working with people - to work collectively
and effectively on their immediate and
long term problems
Mobilizing with people - develop their
capability and readiness to respond, take
action on their immediate needs towards
solving the long term problems

COPAR
 The process and structure
through which members of
a community are/or become
organized for participation
in health care and
community development
activities
COPAR
Community working to solve its own problem
Direction is established internally and
externally
Development and implementation of a specific
project less important than the development
of the capacity of the community to
establish the project
Consciousness raising involves perceiving
health and medical care within the total
structure of society


Emphasis of COPAR:
COPAR maximizes community participation
and involvement
COPAR could be an alternative in
situations wherein health interventions in
Public Health Care do not require direct
involvement of modern medical
practitioners
COPAR gets people actively involved in
selection and support of community
health workers

Importance of COPAR:
Through COPAR, community resources are
mobilized for selected health services
COPAR improves both projects
effectiveness during implementation


Importance of COPAR
- the sequence of steps whereby members
of a community come together to
critically assess to evaluate community
conditions and work together to improve
those conditions.


Process:
refersto a particular group of community
members that work together for a
common health and health related goals.


Structure:
 1.Pre-Entry Phase - is the initial phase
of the organizing process where the
community organizer looks for
communities to serve and help.
Activities include:

a. Preparation of the Institution
1.Train faculty and students in COPAR.
2.Formulate plans for institutionalizing
COPAR

Phases of COPAR Process:

3. Revise/enrich curriculum and
immersion program

4. Coordinate participants of other
departments

b. Site Selection
1.Initial networking with local
government.
2.Make long/short list of potential
communities
3.Do ocular survey of listed
communities
Criteria for Initial Site Selection

Must have a population of 100-

200 families.
Economically depressed.
No strong resistance from the
community
No serious peace and order
problem.
No similar group or organization
holding the same program.
 Make long/short list.

Identifying Potential
Municipalities
Do the same process as in selecting
municipality.
Consult key informants and residents.
Coordinate with local government and
NGOs for future activities.



Identifying Potential Barangay

 Choosing Final Barangay

Conduct informal interviews with

community residents and key informants
Determine the need of the program in the
community.
Take note of political development
Develop community profiles for secondary
data.
Develop survey tools.

Pay courtesy call to community leaders
Choose foster families based on
guidelines.


Choosing Final Barangay

House is strategically located in the
community
Should not belong to the rich segment.
Respected by both formal and informal
leaders.
Neighbors are not hesitant to enter the
house.
No member of the host family should be
moving out in the community

Identifying Host Family

sometimes called the social preparation
phase. Is crucial in determining which
strategies for organizing would suit the
chosen community. Success of the
activities depend on how much the
community organizers has integrated
with the community.


2. Entry Phase
Recognize the role of local authorities by
paying them visits to inform their
presence and activities.
Her appearance, speech, behavior and
lifestyle should be in keeping with those
of the community residents without
disregard of their being role model.
Avoid raising the consciousness of the
community residents; adopt a low-key
profile.

Guidelines for Entry
Integration - establishing rapport with the
people in continuing effort to imbibe
community life living with the
community.
◦ seek out to converse with people where they
usually congregate
◦ lend a hand in household chores
◦ avoid gambling and drinking


◦


Activities in the Entry Phase

Deepening social
investigation/community study

verificationand enrichment of data

collected from initial survey
conduct baseline survey by students,
results relayed through community
assembly

Entails the formation of more formal
structure and the inclusion of more
formal procedure of planning,
implementing, and evaluating
community-wise activities. It is at this
phase where the organized leaders or
groups are being given training (formal,
informal, OJT) to develop their style in
managing their own concerns/programs.

3. Organization-building Phase
Community Health Organization (CHO)
◦ preparation of legal requirements
◦ guidelines in the organization of the CHO by
the core group
◦ election of officers
◦ Research Team Committee
◦ Planning Committee
◦ Health Committee Organization
◦ Formation of by-laws by the CHO


Key Activities
4. Sustenance and Strengthening
Phase

Occurs when the community organization

has already been established and the
community members are already actively
participating in community-wide
undertakings. At this point, the different
committees setup in the organization-
building phase are already expected to be
functioning by way of planning,
implementing and evaluating their own
programs, with the overall guidance from
the community-wide organization.

Training of CHO for monitoring and
implementing of community health
program.
Identification of secondary leaders.
Linkaging and networking
Conduct of mobilization on health and
development concerns
Implementation of livelihood projects.


Key Activities