Building Community Capacity for Health Promotion: A Challenge for Public Health Nurses

Abstract

The centennial celebration of public health nursing is a strong reminder of the tradition and practice of public health nursing's commitment to communities. Partnerships with communities give public health nurses fiduciary responsibility to be actively involved in public health reform to advance health promotion and health protection. Public health nurses must rise to the challenge to build community capacity through facilitating community participation, enhancing community health services, and coordinating public policy to achieve core public health responsibilities of assessment, policy, and assurance. This paper explicates strategies for building community capacity for health promotion.

Source water protection in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia: Lessons for building local capacity

“…The concept of ''capacity'' is a longstanding concern in numerous fields, including local economic development (e.g., Gargan, 1981;McGuire et al, 1994); public health (e.g., Kang, 1995;Crisp et al, 2000); the effectiveness of public sector agencies (e.g., Grindle and Hilderbrand, 1995;Savitch, 1998); and local environmental management (e.g., Press, 1998;Weiland, 1998). Concern for capacity has been an important part of the discourse of water management since the early 1990s (e.g., Hartvelt and Okun, 1991;Franks, 1999).…”

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“…This integrated community‐based health and social welfare services are essential for prolonging independence and functional status of community elders (Anderson & McFarlane, 2000). In the United States, there is growing evidence that community‐focused interventions were successful when capacity‐building strategies were used (Jackson et al, 1994; Kang, 1995; Moyer, Coristine, MacLean, & Meyer, 1999). The goal of the capacity building was to develop the community and its health.…”