Task 2

Module 1 Objectives | PACE EH Online Training Module 1 Home | Task 1 | Task 3

Module 1 — Task 2: Define and Characterize the Community

At the completion of this task, the process facilitator(s) and/or the assessment team should have:

Defined the community;
Described the community’s characteristics, composition, organization and leadership; and
Refined the definition of the community as needed.

As a locally based process, PACE EH depends on defining the target community and then involving members of that community in the assessment process. The community will influence many of the subsequent activities in the assessment process, such as selecting environmental health concerns, deciding on ways to involve community members, developing issue profiles, identifying community partners, identifying resources and collaborative opportunities, and developing an action plan.

Decisions about the definition of community had far-reaching repercussions in the pilot sites. One assessment team in a large metropolitan area had difficulty prioritizing sub-local environmental health issues (significant issues confined to a small segment of the overall population) because the size and demographics of the entire community tended to “push them off the table.” Another team addressed this problem by weighing community input not only objectively, but also subjectively. For example, despite the fact that very few people in the community were concerned about increasing rodent infestation, those who were all lived in the same sub-locality. This recognition influenced the team to keep the issue “on the table” even though it affected a statistically insignificant segment of the population. Their solution shows the importance of defining and characterizing the community culturally as well as statistically.

Click the following links to skip to each section:

»	Define the Community
»	Describe the Community’s Characteristics, Composition, Organization, and Leadership

Define the Community

Listen as Jonathan Schwartz, Senior Analyst at NACCHO, discusses community mapping.

The definition of the community is an essential tool for identifying initial members of the assessment team.

A community can be as small as a neighborhood or encompass many political jurisdictions. Community boundaries may be defined along health-agency jurisdiction lines, city limits, or county lines. The definition can be based on geographic boundaries, voting districts, cultural or ethnic groupings, or socioeconomic delineations. A community can also be defined as a watershed area or other topographical boundary. Depending on the goals of the assessment, geological conditions or ecological regions may define the community.

Note: Future decisions about appropriate methods for involving community members may depend on how the community is defined. For example, a very large community would be unmanageable if convened as a full group, language considerations must be taken into account in a community containing diverse populations, and frequent centralized meetings are unlikely to be well attended in a large, rural area. Further, the definition should be revisited after the initial assessment team is convened (Task 3). At that point, affected members of the community can refine the definition according to their individual perspectives. The goals and scope for the assessment (developed in Task 4) also might suggest the need to revisit how broadly or narrowly the community is defined.

Describe the Community’s Characteristics, Composition, Organization, and Leadership

Once the community is defined, the next step is to learn about the community and gain an understanding of citizens’ environmental health concerns. Each community has a unique demographic profile, history, political structure, business and social development, and values and perspectives. Important statistical descriptors may include:

Basic demographic and health data.
Socioeconomic data; data on educational status.
Language, culture, and religion.

Note: Knowledge of the level and scope of civic activity is important in understanding the context(s) in which environmental concerns will arise and decisions will be made.

Finally, a robust community description will help facilitate action planning (Task 12), by helping to identify partners, resources, and opportunities for engagement. A thorough description of the community will aid in developing environmental health profiles for selected issues identified in Task 5.

Question to Consider

What steps should you take to define and characterize your community? If working with a subpopulation of the community, what are the key considerations you must take into account when describing the composition of the community?