Community-based programs - Essay Example

? Jessica Holman PSYC 387, Community Psychology Dr. Steve Kronheim August 17, Introduction David Bornstein, a social entrepreneur and activist, equated advocacy to a theatrical production. Just as a production requires an exceptional producer, a promoter, and stage crew no matter how magnificent the production, in the case of advocacy, an idea requires proficient marketing and an equipped team to shift a minute thought to a mainstream belief capable of altering the perceptions and behaviors of many. With a 14 per cent increase in the number of individuals utilizing clinical services and an average of 400 individuals, ranging from infants to the elderly, receiving services per year, more adequately trained volunteers are needed to meet the growing demand for services for the less fortunate. With a group of adequately-trained volunteers in psychological theory, the success of training an advocacy group will produce an independent body of individuals that are flexible, capable to adapt to the environment, creative and initiate change within Washington Village and the potential of surrounding areas. Thesis: As a vehicle of change for the less fortunate, members of the Washington village community will be able to receive more adequate services to meet their needs as a result of volunteers and advocates of Paul’s place receiving advocacy training. Advocacy and Research Paul’s Place of Washington Village is a unique organization providing local support to poor and middle income residents within the area. Aimed at improving the overall quality of life, Paul’s Place provides individuals in need with a wide array of services, such as providing meals and beverages, literacy classes, and medical services among other services. The organization has been indicated to have started back in the year 1982. It was initiated by two volunteers Helen Martien and Reverend Philip Roulette, both members of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Glyndon, MD. Paul’s Place started with the aspiration to establish a soup kitchen for members of one of the poorest communities in the state of Maryland. Initially serving soup, peanut butter, and jelly sandwiches twice a week, the organization expanded to providing a daily Hot Lunch program within two years. Over time, the project was embraced by different members of the community and has expanded to a large and diverse organization. This diverse organization has stretched out into not only providing basic services such as pantry assistance, adult literacy, wellness classes and more, with the overall goal of providing stability and sustenance, but has sought to further education and job readiness through assistance programs that assist individuals in gaining independence and entering the workforce. In addition, it offers a total of six health and wellness programs to enhance the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of children and adults. The volunteers of Paul’s Place have played a crucial role in the development of the organization. Starting with only two volunteers, the group now has hundreds of volunteers and contributors. Paul’s Place relies on volunteers to offer a wide variety of high-quality programs. Volunteers assist with many of their programs including Hot Lunch, Clothing Bank, their Programs for Children, and Holiday Programs. Volunteers have also provided essential support, numerous fundraising initiatives, and can be accredit to the fundraising and renovating of the first Outreach Center on Ward Street nearly fifteen years ago. For twenty years, these individuals have assisted in the development of Paul’s Place, assisting and enhancing quality life of many Washington Village residents. Research Training community advocates is necessary; advocacy helps the organizations to be proactive on addressing issues within a community. Training of community advocates aids in the development of them becoming goal-oriented on issues of the community. Therefore, they are able to initiate changes in the community that meet the needs of the people. This notion is illustrated through the empirical evidence of four directly relevant peer-reviewed published scientific studies. Arblaster, Lambert, Entwistle, Forster, Fullerton, Sheldon, and Watt (1996) understood the need to help blacks who are less aware of the cardiovascular risk factors and symptoms. According to Arblaster et al. (1996), it is essential to provide education and advocacy of health awareness among lower social conic status communities. Recognizing the need for better dissemination, the authors’ hypothesis is that the development of an education workshop focusing on the risk factors, signs and symptoms of the cardiovascular disease would enable community health workers to better serve their clients. The methodology for this study first begins with program development. The key component of the program was locating professionals with knowledge of cardiovascular disease through forming connections with local organizations, hospitals and education centers (Arblaster et al. 1996). Focusing on health issues that directly affect the black community the workshop, speakers and location were determined. Through three forms of contact mail, e-mail and phone, various local community health workers were invited to attend a four-hour workshop. With a total of 70 participants, results revealed the training was very beneficial, with 80 per cent of the group claiming they attained new information that would better serve the individuals they help on a daily bases (Arblaster et al 1996). This study illustrates the importance of community advocacy trainings being focused on issues which effect their population, and not just general issues. In addition, it emphasizes that the ultimate goal of such trainings should be the improvement of the livelihood of the community members. Training personnel should promote quality parent-child interaction among families who are homeless. The notion that advocates should be mobilized in training so as to increase the level of knowledge and skills to better serve their clients is also illustrated within a study by Arblaster et al. Together they composed a two part study which focuses on advocacy training through direct interaction to create healthier relationships followed by evaluating the overall effectiveness of the training. With the most widely known practices of early intervention failing to focus on the quality of relationships between the parent and child, the goal of the study was to respond to the common trend of advocates being unable to respond and provide feedback to parents. According to Ayanian, Udvarhelyi, Gatsonis, Pashos, and Epstein (1993), by first identifying and assessing effective intervention practices and training families would enable such families receive better services. This study was conducted by recruiting four parent-child advocates from local shelters. These four advocates attended a two-phase training for twenty weeks. The first phase entailed the observation of trainers’ interaction with homeless families on a daily bases. The second phase resulted in the advocates switching places with the trainers, with the advocates implementing learned strategies as the trainers observed and provide feedback. A comparison of the advocates’ pre-written and post-written tests revealed an increase in knowledge and competence in the areas of parent support, interactive behavior and parent feedback among all the four advocates. Furthermore, an increase among the mothers’ teaching behavior was noted based upon the finding from the NCAST Teaching Scale, a widely used scale for measuring parent-child interaction. Based upon combined t tests, the NCAST Teaching Scale revealed an improvement in the mothers’ behavior, contingency behavior and overall instructional score with the advocates. More insight and empirical evidence into the effectiveness of advocacy training can be gathered from Ashing-Giwa’s (1999) study. This was a study in which the researcher directed their attention on assessing whether or not the effectiveness of advocacy for the homeless population of the United Kingdom showed any correlation in their quality of life. Alcalay, Alvarado, Balcazar, Newman, and Huerta (1999) gathered a sample of 171 women with a percentage of advocates being individuals who have experience, or undergone the same issue they are advocating for, it was possible to conduct a study which focused on self-advocacy such as the study on the reduction of risk behavior among adults with severe mental illness who learned to advocate for HIV prevention. This study objectively focused on evaluating the efficiency of three different intervention groups geared toward HIV risk reduction for adults. The study contained three groups of intervention: HIV/AIDS education session, intervention group and behavioral training combined with advocacy training. After training, a sample size of 104 individual’s classified as mentally ill revealed that the third group, which received the advocacy training showed an improvement in service delivery. Referencing to themselves as AIDS Busters representing their desire and role as preventative spokesperson to others, they received individualize training. The training incorporated challenging misconceptions, strategies to decrease risk, and features of effective messaging, among others. A study by Baker, Parker, Williams, Coates, and, Pitkin (1996) finalizes the concept of training. Seeking to promote cervical cancer screening in Santa Clara, California within the Vietnamese-American population was the goal of the study. In this journal, the authors sought to determine which condition of education between health worker outreach program and media-based education campaign was more successful. Its hypothesis was that a combined intervention method containing health worker receiving outreach training in procedures and approaches would be more efficient in comparison to the use of media. For the duration of three years a total of 1,005 women were recruited and randomized within the two groups. The first condition was that the health workers meet with their participants a total of eight times over a four-month period. During each session, health workers presented information to the participants focusing on cervical cancer and pap tests. The media approach involved fifteen advertisements airing through various media and distribution of booklets, flyers and calendars. Conclusion Community-based programs are extremely influential in addressing community issues. Community needs are unique and national programs and policies may not always respond to the needs of the community. This highlights the importance of having community-based programs that are customized to meet community needs. The success of community-based programs is highly reliant on the community’s mobilization in the project identification and mobilization. Training advocates of community-based programs is the key in the success of such programs since it is a mobilization tool. Training also increases and widens the skills and community knowledge on the role the programs play in such communities. Training is thus indispensable in communities that are development and growth oriented. References .Ayanian, J. Z., S. Udvarhelyi, C. A. Gatsonis, C. L. Pashos, and A. M. Epstein. (1993). Racial Differences in the Use of Revascularization Procedures after Coronary Angiography. Journal of the American Medical Association 269 (20): 2642-46. Alcalay, R., M. Alvarado, H. Balcazar, E. Newman, and E. Huerta. (1999). Salud para su Corazon: A Community-Based Latino Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Outreach Model. Journal of Community Health 24 (5): 359-79. Arblaster, L., M. Lambert, V. Entwistle, M. Forster, D. Fullerton, T. Sheldon, and I. Watt. (1996). A systematic review of the effectiveness of health service interventions aimed at reducing inequalities in health. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy 1 (2): 93-103. Ashing-Giwa, K. (1999). Health Behavior Change Models and Their Socio-Cultural Relevance for Breast Cancer Screening in African American Women. Women and Health 28 (4): 53-71. Baker, D.W., R. M. Parker, M.V.Williams, W. C. Coates, and K. Pitkin. 1996. Use and Effectiveness of Interpreters in an Emergency Department. Journal of the American Medical Association 275 (10): 783-8. Read More