IV.

LESSON PROPER:
To understand fully the lesson for today, read the information comprehensively.

What is COPAR?
Community Organizing Participatory Action Research
It is a continuous and a sustained process of:
1. Educating the people to understand and develop their critical consciousness
2. Working with people to work collectively and effectively on their immediate and long term problems
3. Mobilizing with people to develop their capability and readiness to respond, take action on their immediate
needs towards solving the long term

Brief History of HRDP-COPAR

 Philippine Center for Population and Development (PCPD) saw the potentials of health academic
institution’s faculty and students, staff of private clinics and hospitals as manpower resources for
undeserved depressed communities.
 PCPD launched a five-year (1985-1990) Health Resources Distribution Program (HRPD I). The
program was geared towards the distribution of health manpower resources from urban to rural
areas. Three nursing schools, two medical colleges, two private hospitals and urban church-based
clinic had institutionalized outreach programs that provided for developing community-based primary
health care programs in 36 communities.
 To make Health Resource Distribution Program maw efficient and effective, health resources
“distribution” became “development” of health services but improving the capabilities of the health
manpower. This gave rise to the Health Resource Development Program (HRDP II)
 On September 19, 1991, the PCPD launched HRDP, with the aim to develop effective primary health
care system towards self-reliance in heath. Faculty and students were tapped as facilitator of health
and development.
 On 1992, HRDP employed Community Organizing (CO) reaching out to the communities and the
Participatory Action Research (PAR) was adopted.

Different Approaches to Development

1. Welfare Approach

 Used during calamity

 Immediate or spontaneous response to poverty/ problem
 operation, aims-giving, charity
 Strong dependence on authorities (with resources, knowledge, power)
 Poverty is God given
 Bad luck, natural disaster beyond man’s control
2. Project Development or Modernization Approach

 Introduced lacking resources

 Use of modern technology
 Development resulting to abandoning traditions
 Lack of education and resources (money and technology)
3. Transformatory Approach

 Process of improving the poor

 Behavior, attitude and social change

Principles of COPAR
1. Start with the people
2. People, especially the poor, oppressed and marginalized have the capacity to change, to open to change,
and to bring out change
3. Should be based on the interest of the poorest sectors of society
4. Learning happens when one experiences success
5. Power is both liberating and oppressing; be vigilant of its abuse and misses
6. It should lend to self-reliant community/society

Critical Steps/ Activities in Community Organization (CO) Or in Building People’s Organization

1. Integration

 Community organizer (CO) become one with the people in the community
 Establish rapport with the community people
 Immerse oneself , be as they are
 Stay in the community
 Know and understand the culture, economy, leaders, history, rhythms and life style

Methods of Integration

 House to house visit

 Participate in people’s daily work and activities
 Sharing people’s house, food, good entertainment and meetings
 Participate in school such as birthdays, weddings, wakes, and fiestas
 Conversing with people where they usually gather such as stores, washing streams, church yards,
and street corners
Process

 Respect people and see the liberating aspects of their culture that give them the strength to struggle
 See the social / structural analysis of National Health situation concretized in the people’s lives
 Accepted as member of the community
 Change in values and lifestyles
2. Social Investigation
-a systematic process of collecting, collating data

Pointers in conducting social investigation

a. Use of survey questionnaire
b. Community leaders can be trained to initially assist community or organize in doing social investigation
c. Data can be collected more effectively and efficiently (house to house visits, participating in conversation
in jeepneys and others
d. Secondary data should be thoroughly examined much of the information might be already available
e. Social investigation is facilitated if community organizing (CO) is property integrated
and has acquired the trust of the people
f. Confirmation and validation of community data should be done regularly
3. Tentative Program Planning

 CO choose one to issue to work on in order to begin organizing the people and the plan
4. Ground Work

 Go around and ask people one-on-one regarding an issue that has been chosen
5. The meeting

 People collectively ratify what have already decided individually. The meeting gives the people
collective power
6. Training

 Practice, rehearse the meeting

 Role play to act out the meeting that will take place between the leaders of the people and the
government representatives
 A way to train people to anticipate what will happen and prepare themselves for such eventuality
7. Mobilization

 Actual experience of the people in confronting fee powerful and actual exercise of people power.
PHASES OF COPAR PROCESS
1. Pre-entry Phase
The initial phase of organizing where the community organizer looks for communities to serve or help. It is
the most complex phase In terms of actual outputs, activities and strategies and time spent for it.

Recommended Activities:

 Statement of objectives, and realization of COPAR guidelines

 Laying out the site criteria
 Site selection
 Meeting and courtesy call to local government unit of the selected site
 Courtesy call to the barangay level
 Meeting with the “will be” foster parents of the health care students
 Setting the target date of immersion exposure and departure
2. Entity Phase (Immersion)
Sometimes called the immersion phase as it is the activities done here includes the sensitization of the people
on the critical event in their life, motivating them to share their dreams and ideas on how to manage their
concerns eventually mobilizing them to collective on these. This phase signals the actual entry of the worker
/ organizer in to the community.
Recommended Activities:

 Courtesy call to mayor, or the local government leader of the selected site
 Courtesy call to the barangay level
 Meeting with the foster parents
 Appreciating the environment
 Meeting with community officials and residents
 General assembly
 Preparation of survey forms
 Actual survey
 Analysis of the data gathered
3. Organization-Building Phase
The formation of more formal structures and the inclusions of more formal procedures of planning, and
evaluating community-wide activities. It is at this where the organized leaders or groups are being given
trainings (formals or informal) to develop their knowledge, skills and attitude in managing their own concerns
/ programs.
Recommended Activities:

 Meeting with the officials

 Identifying problems
 Spreading awareness and soliciting solution or suggestions
 Analysis of the presented solution
 Planning of the activities
 Organizing the people to build their own organization
 Registration of the organization (Legality purposes)
 Implementation of the said activities
 Evaluation

4. Sustenance and Strengthening

Occurs when the community organization has undertakings. At this point, the different communities set up
in the organization-building phase and expecting to be functioning by way of planning, implementing, and
evaluating programs with the overall guidance from the community-wide organization.

Recommended Activities:

 Meeting with the organizational leader

 Evaluation of programs
 Re-implementation of the programs (for unmet goals)
 Educating and training
 Networking and linking
 Conduct of mobilization on health and development concerns
 Implementation of livelihood projects
 Developing secondary leaders
5. Phase out
The phase when the healthcare community workers leave the community to stand alone. This phase should
be stated during the entry so that the people will be ready for this phase. The organizations built should be
ready to sustain the test of the community itself because the evaluation will be done by the residents of the
community itself.
Recommended activities:

 Leaving the immersion site

 Documentation
Community Organizing Participatory Action Research

 A middle ground where the health care worker and the people need to attain community organization
 A liberal freedom of the community where the people are allowed to participate in the overall of their
community.
 A transformation force, that enables the individuals, families, and groups to be responsible for their
own health.

Five Key Elements of the Community Organizing Process

1. People
Each individual is a potential resource to the community. People have the creative capacity to situation-
Establishing good relationship and trust buildings are important foundations in community organizing.
2. Problem
Problems can be used to motivate and challenge people to organize themselves towards the desired change.
Change can only be achieved if people can carry out appropriate actions together.
3. Participation
People participation is the heart of community organizing.
It is the right of all people to participate in decision making on issues affecting them.
4. Process
In community organizing, process is as important as the solutions to the problems.

5. Power
People empowerment is the goal of community organizing.
There is strength in number only when people are organized. If people work together, they become stronger.
Community Selection Criteria
1. The area must be economically depressed.
2. Must have a relative concentration of poor families.
3. Must have a population often and above.
4. As much as possible, no hospital but with RHU and BHS.
5. Accessibility of transportation must be considered.
6. No strong resistance from the community.
7. Peace and order problem must be considered.
8. Rural community will be a top priority.
9. Preferably with adjacent barangays.
Tasks of the Community Organizer (CO):
1. Entry and immersion in the community
2. Formation of the core group
3. Facilitating the formation of the “Community Based Organization (CBO)”
4. Guiding the participatory research process
5. Facilitating community planning
6. Facilitating community decision making
7. Overseeing project implementation
8. Coordinating community mobilization
9. Motivating community to accomplish goals
10. Guiding the monitoring and evaluating process
11. Documentation of the “Community Organizing (CO)” process

IDEAL COPAR AGAINST COPAR

1. Time frame and mode of exposure
Ideal COPAR:
 Three (3) to six (6) immersion
 Three to six weeks duty, eight hours a day, five to six days a week
Practiced COPAR:
 Sometimes eight to sixteen, hours a week, for two to four weeks depending on the time allotted by
the school or institution
2. Methodology and survey form
Ideal COPAR:

 The survey form will vary to the needs of the community (custom made) and the methodology is
surveying the participants
Practiced COPAR:
 Use of ready survey from the alcohol, books, or from the institution they are working for.
 Some use survey but others just collect data from previous studies
3. Number of recipients
Ideal COPAR:
 30 %, 60%, or 100% depending on the number of population and situation of the community
 25-50 families or depending on the required number of families by the school or institution
4. Organization building stage
Ideal COPAR:
 A primary and secondary organization be built and it should be strengthened by set of officers, by
laws, registrations to the institution.
 The primary and secondary leaders are and the members are all coming from the community and
not from, the healthcare workers.
Practiced COPAR:
 No organizations built or sometimes the organizations are not properly strengthened or registered
5. Problem Statement
Ideal COPAR:

 The problem will only be stated after the survey has been done, tallied and analyzed
 The problem will be from the survey form sot from the judgment of the healthcare worker, because
of the simple reason that any problem not perceived is not a problem
 Any problem, too big or too complicated to the health worker to manage should not be prioritized.
The principle within is we should not prioritize something that we can do nothing about
Practice COPAR:
 Not considering the result of the survey
6. Implementation
Ideal COPAR:

 Fishing rod effect

 The program should not be a one day affair but should be programmed that will last even after the
phase out. It should be something that you will leave with community.
Practiced COPAR:

 Fish effect
One day programs are often done. This program also diminishes after the health workers leave
7. Evaluation
Ideal COPAR:
 The health workers learn to accept reality that not all programs will prosper and not all them be
met.
 After evaluation should be a re-implementation
Practiced COPAR:
 Some results are just to say that they are met
 No re-implementation
The Community Organizing Process
I. Pre-Entry Phase

 The initial of the organizing process where the community organizer looks for community to serve
or help
 Actual outputs, activities and strategies and spent for it
Recommended Activities:
 Statement of objectives, and realization of COPAR guidelines
 Laying out the site criteria
 Site selection
 Meeting and courtesy call to the local government unit of the selected site
 Courtesy call to the barangay level
 Meeting with the “will be” foster parents of the healthcare students
 Setting the target date of immersion, exposure, and departure
II. Entry Phase (Immersion)
 Sometimes called the immersion phase
 This phase signals the actual entry of the community worker/ organizer into the community
 Recommended Activities:
 Courtesy call to mayor, or the local government leader of the selected site, courtesy call to
barangay level
 Meeting with the foster parents
 Appreciating the environment
 Meeting with the community officials and residents
 General Assembly
 Preparation of survey forms
 Actual survey
 Analysis of the data gathered

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