Toward resourcefulness: pathways for community positive health

Abstract

Communities are powerful and necessary agents for defining and pursuing their health, but outside organizations often adopt community health promotion approaches that are patronizing and top-down. Conversely, bottom-up approaches that build on and mobilize community health assets are often critiqued for tasking the most vulnerable and marginalized communities to use their own limited resources without real opportunities for change. Taking into consideration these community health promotion shortcomings, this article asks how communities may be most effectively and appropriately supported in pursuing their health. This article reviews how community health is understood, moving from negative to positive conceptualizations; how it is determined, moving from a risk-factor orientation to social determination; and how it is promoted, moving from top-down to bottom-up approaches. Building on these understandings, we offer the concept of ‘resourcefulness’ as an approach to strengthen positive health for communities, and we discuss how it engages with three interrelated tensions in community health promotion: resources and sustainability, interdependence and autonomy, and community diversity and inclusion. We make practical suggestions for outside organizations to apply resourcefulness as a process-based, place-based, and relational approach to community health promotion, arguing that resourcefulness can forge new pathways to sustainable and self-sustaining community positive health.

Exploring the role of place‐based arts initiatives in addressing social inequity in Australia: A systematic review

“…Articles further draw attention to how place‐based arts initiatives can contribute to resilience and resourcefulness at a community level, which is closely tied to developing creative citizenship as well as belonging and social capital—all important elements that support equity (Anwar McHenry, 2011; Peters et al, 2021). It is through strengthening connections and fostering collective imagination that communities can navigate challenges and envisage a better future (Arroyo, 2017).…”

“…For some scholars, the concept of community resilience does not allow scope for transformative change that challenges the structures of power responsible for the unequal distribution of resources (i.e. inequity; MacKinnon & Derickson, 2013; Peters et al, 2021). This work calls for a shift in language to “resourcefulness” in order to recognise the importance of community empowerment and self‐determination in making meaningful social change.…”

“…Recent research demonstrates inequity across the arts and cultural sectors in Australia, with a national report highlighting challenges in relation to participating in and benefiting from the arts for women, First Nations people, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and people living in remote areas (Australian Council for the Arts, 2020b). Policy and practice must be cognisant of this and work with communities in ways that foreground collaboration and participation (Osborne et al, 2021; Peters et al, 2021).…”

“…Place‐based approaches to addressing inequity were born out of the recognition that socioeconomic disadvantage clusters around geographic locations and that collaborative and cross‐disciplinary approaches allowing social support systems to work together are required (Agger & Jensen, 2015; Glover et al, 2021). Place‐based approaches recognise that communities have unique needs and challenges, meaning that a one‐size‐fits‐all approach is unlikely to be effective in addressing disadvantage (Peters et al, 2021). More recent place‐based approaches are not always limited to geographical boundaries but can encompass a broader and more nuanced understanding of place that can transcend the physical (including digital and online places) and are about social connection and meaning‐making (Basaraba, 2021; Fincher, 2021; Gattenhof et al, 2021).…”

Zoonoses in the margins: environmental displacement and health outcomes in the Indus Delta

“…The reduction of veterinary and public health services have led to an underfunded sector unable to comprehensively monitor and respond to disease [49]. In Sindh, sero-prevalence studies are rare, and primarily conducted in large-scale farming contexts, rather than in areas where people rely on subsistence farming.…”