Health promoters learn community work skills

11 July 2017, 12:00AM

It is common for health promoters to be viewed as being in the business of community development, but many do not have formal training in community development.

Also, it is not always clear to what extent health promoters are mandated by their employers to become involved in community development activities. 

SUNGO, under the auspice of the S.I.C.T.P. held its Community Development Strategies for CSOs training at its premises at Vaitele.

The purpose of this training course was to increase the capacity of health promoters to engage and empower communities to improve their quality of life, through the application of community development values, concepts and strategies. 

This course aimed to assist community health promoters to develop a basic understanding of basic values, principles and methods of community development and how they may be applied within their own work setting.

Specific community development applications and methods, such as community asset mapping was explored. Another pertinent topic was the “appropriate roles” of health promoters in collaborating with other organizations to work on broad community issues, along with factors that contribute to the success of community partnerships and coalitions. 

Topics that were covered in the training included Concepts, Values and Principles understood. Also there was considerable time devoted to discussing Strategies and Methods identified and understood in line with Community Collaboration namely the “Success” factors in community partnerships and collaborations

By the end of the programme, participants were competent in the following areas:  defining characteristic of a community, defining history of community development, explaining  community development values and principles, defining community asset mapping,

aligning health services with community priorities and values, defining community development strategies and roles and writing benefits of collaboration.

There were 15 participants from various NGO’s and CBO’s from around Samoa who participated in the training. The trainer for the week-long course was Siaosi Salesulu 

11 July 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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