BACKGROUND OF COPAR

Community Organizing – Participatory Action

 
Research (CO-PAR) –       It is a socio developmental approach that aims to transform/
apathetic and voiceless poor into dynamic, participatory and politically responsive community.
 
                                     - A collective, participatory, transformative process of building people’s
organization by mobilizing and enhancing the capabilities and resources of the people for the
resolution of their issues and concern towards affecting change in their existing oppressive and
exploitative conditions.
 
                                    A process by which a community identifies its needs and objectives,
develop confidence to take action in respect to them by doing so, extend and develops
cooperative and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community.
 
                                      A continuous and sustained process of educating the people to
understand and develop their critical awareness of their existing condition, working with the
people collectively and efficiently on their immediate and long term problems, and mobilizing the
people to develop their capability and readiness to respond and take action on their immediate
needs towards solving their long term problems.       

PHASE I - PRE ENTRY PHASE

1. PRE-ENTRY PHASE
 

 Site Selection
 Preliminary Social Investigation
 Theoretical Preparation
 

 SITE SELECTION- This is an activity that includes networking and consultation with

the local government officials and relevant agencies to identify priority areas and
determine available health data about the selected  area which could provide
information for initial planning.
ACTIVITIES:
 
 1. Searching for an appropriate community for the CO – PAR.
2. Sending letters to the Local Government Unit for the intentions of the
College.
3. Availability of Health Data in the area through visits to Rural Health Units
or Centers.
4. Ocular survey:
1. accessibility of transportation
2. Reception of people
3. Safety of organizers
4. Community participation
5. Coordination Letters to schools, mayor, barangay and a recommendation
for the immersion.
  

1. Preliminary Social Investigation – This is a process of gathering issues

such as true sentiments, attitudes and knowledge about the lives of the
people in a specific community selected for immersion. This may include
primary and secondary data for initial community profiling and formulation
of initial plans of the community organizers.
 
Purposes:

1. To become informed about the community you are working with.

2. Identify potential issues which might galvanize people into action. These
issues must affect a large number of people to be organized. The people
must feel strong about these issues and should be urgent and important
so that the people will support and settle it as soon as possible.
 
 
ACTIVITIES:

3. Study existing data/ document/ reports on the people/s problems and

maps which provide pertinent data as on soil type, land ownership, use,
water system and etc.
 

1. Learn from the people themselves by observations, engaging in dialogue

and talking to key informants of the community.

3.THEORETICAL PREPARATION -  includes series of

  lectures, trainings and planning of  activities of selected Faculty members and
students assigned to the selected community.
 
ACTIVITIES:

1. Seminar Workshop of the Faculty members . Trainers will facilitate the

workshops. Discussions will be focused on

2. DOH Thrusts
3. NHS
4. PHC
5. CO-PAR
6. CO
7. Conflict Management
                                                                                                        
Strategies:

8. participative games
9. role plays
10. songs/ music
 
2. Seminar Workshop for the students
 

 Learning Contracts
 Host team Formulation
 Knowledge Skills and attitude on CO-PAR
 Orientation on the immersion process
 Short and long term plans of the immersion
 Orientation for the assignments and designations

3. Information to the barangay captain, community folks and other community folks on
the schedule of the immersion.

PHASE II - ENTRY PHASE - PRE RESEARCH PHASE |

1. COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS PHASE / TUKLAS –DANGAL

  A.1   PRE-RESEARCH AREA

1. Courtesy Calls
2. Ocular Survey
 3. Integration
4. Identification of key leaders
5. Deepening Social Investigation
6.   Community Consultation
 
1.COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS PHASE- This phase involves major organizing task designed to
awake/ raise consciousness among the poor regarding their community situation and dignity as
man. Given such consciousness, they will be moved towards strategic planning and action.
 

1. Courtesy call to the mayor, sanguniang bayan, barangay captain, barangay council,
punong purok, Barangay health Workers and identified Health Care Providers.

2. Ocular Survey- This is a process of actually looking into the selected site for
immersion. It includes inspecting the whole area by going into the community and
actually viewing the area.
ACTIVITIES:

 Plan for a trip to the area/ community

 1. Courtesy call to the local officials
 2. Coordinate with the local officials on the safety of the community organizers
Note :  salient points or areas of the community that will serve as guide or support in the
planning of activities
A  notice may be forwarded to the Health Care  Units, Midwife or to the Barangay health Worker
for the arrival.
 

 3.Integration – A basic continuing process by which  the organizer becomes one 

with the poor by immersing himself/ herself in the community.                                         
Purposes:
For the organizers:

1. get to know the culture, economy, leaders, history, rhythms and lifestyle of the
community.
2. Come to respect the people and see the liberating aspects of their culture that give
them the strength to struggle.
3. See how the social analysis one may have made of the national situation is
manifested in the people’s lives.
4. See or the intuit God’s activity among the poor, since the poor are the privileged site
of God’s work today.                                                                                   
5. To be accepted as member of the community.
6. Change his or her values and own lifestyle.( ex. Become more understanding and
tolerant of the poor, more dedicated and realistic, more humble.
ACTIVITIES:

1. Live with the community for at least 3 months.

2. Visit as many people as possible in the community.
3. Listen and/ or take part in small and informal group discussions.( Sitio Classes)
4. Share the people’s housing, food, entertainment and meetings. ( Socialization)
5. Learning the language/ dialect
                              

 4.Identification of Key leaders- It is a systematic       

   process of   identifying indigenous leaders in the                      
   community who can  help facilitate the change process.
Purposes:
For the organizers to:

1. identify the key persons, opinion leaders and deviants or isolates in the community.
2. get the indigenous leaders to express their support for your CO-PAR program.
ACTIVITIES:

1. Discreetly consult each community resident.

1. whom does she/he approach within the community about a problem?
2. Whom does she/he trust to lead/ manage a community project?
3. After asking a majority of the community residents, draw a sociogram of
the community based on their responses.
  Sociogram- it is one of the organizer’s tool  for understanding leadership pattern in the
community

1. Analyze the sociogram and identify the key persons, opinion leaders and
deviants/isolates.
Key persons – he/.she is the “ star” of the sociogram
Opinion person – person approached by the key person to support him or someone behind the
key person’s ideas and opinions.
Deviants/isolates – can hardly be approached and consulted even if they volunteer.
                                                                                                                                                         

 5. Deepening Social Investigation - It is an activity of the community organizers to

gather more data about the community. These data were not found in the existing
data or local record file.
 
ACTIVITIES:
 

1. Comprehensive data gathering through interviews, records review and participant

observations.
2. Updates of the original plan can be
                                         

 6.Community Consultation-This is an activity of the community organizers that 

enable the community residents to:
 

1. share their vision of a happy family and a developed community.

2. Identify the obstacles (problems) that they encounter in trying to achieve their vision:
3. Make a collective decision to do a research on the entire or on a selected problem/s.
4. Select appropriate person from among them to compose their local research
committee                                                                                       
ACTIVITIES:

1. Seminar Workshop for Barangay Health Workers    

1. CO – PAR Roles
2. PHC
3. NHS
                                                                                              

2. Conduct the first assembly in the community to be   attended by the trained

Barangay Health Workers.
3. Prepare the program for the assembly
4. The community organizers will be present to facilitate the assembly.

PHASE II - ENTRY PHASE | RESEARCH PHASE | TUKLAS DANGAL | TUKLAS TULONG |

TUKLAS LAKAS
A.2.   RESEARCH PHASE
 

1. Training of the Local Research Committee

2. Community Consultation
3. Reflection Sessions
 
1. Training of the Local research Committee

1. Problem Solving process

 2. CO-PAR Process
3. data collection method and technical development of tools
4. planning for the actual data gathering
5. data gathering
6. data validation
                                                        

2. Community consultation- A process of getting feedback from the people on the

performance of the selected local research committee during their training.
 

3. Reflection Sessions- This is a process of dealing with deeper, ongoing concerns to

look at the positive values community organizers are trying to build in the
organization. It is a time to reflect on the reality of life compared to ideal.
 
B. COMMUNITY PLANNING PHASE/ TUKLAS TULONG

1. Core Group Formation

2. Training and Seminars
3. Community Development Action Plan Formulation
4. Planning Consultation                               
5. Finalization and Packaging of Project Proposals
6. Reflection Sessions

1. COMMUNITY PLANNING PHASE/ TUKLAS TULONG

 

1. CORE GROUP FORMATION – This involves development of  a local planning

committee.                                                    

2. Training and Seminars

 

               Training on the following:

1. planning
2. objective settings
3. community development action plan
4. Development of right attitude
 
        d.1. respect for the opinion of others
        d.2. resourcefulness
        d.3 sharing and helping
        d.4. importance of contribution
        d.5. significance of beauty
        d.6 effective planning
        d.7 accomplishment of plans
 

2. Community Development Action Plan Formulation

 
      After  the training, the output of the committee is a community development action plan.
 

3. Planning Consultation
 
The community development action plan  made by the core group is presented  to the
community folks. Comments and clarification regarding the plan will be discussed. Suggestions
and comments will be entertained. GO’s and NGO’s will be invited to validate and give critic on
the developed plan. The Community Organizers will serve as observers and documenters
during this consultation.
 

4. Finalization and Packaging of Project Proposal – This is a process where the

core group finalize the plan based on the comments, suggestions and
recommendations of the GO’s and NGO’s.

5. Reflection Sessions – A time for  a sensitive and objective analysis of the
performance and output of the core group and their observers.  
 

 
C. IMPLEMENTATION/ MONITORING & EVALUATION PHASE / TUKLAS LAKAS

1. Implementation of Development Action Plan And’ or Project Proposal as Approved

2. Training and Seminars
 3. Formulation and Implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation Scheme
4. Reflection Sessions
This phase shall include  the actual putting the plan into work.
Considerations:

1. The activities in the action plan should be done by the key person involved.
2. A full participation and cooperation must be observed by all concerned.
3. The community folks must show interest and full support to the  action plan.
4. Committees must be formed to oversee and check the project.
5. Conduct of series of meetings regularly is necessary to monitor inadequacies and
corrections. This time can be used to make evaluation of the plan or project.
 

2. Trainings and Seminars – This is necessary to enhance the knowledge and skills of
both the community organizers and Barangay Health Workers.
   Considerations:
1.It  may serve as a means of conscientization of the roles of the  Barangay Health Workers in
the community.
2.It may serve as avenues to relate with others, share experience and learn from others.
 
4.Reflection Sessions- This is periodically done with the community folks and community
organizers aim at inculcating positive values and attitudes to the core group and people’s
organization.
 Importance:

1. To appreciate fraternal corrections

2. To improve work and relations
3. To deepen grasp of work and orientation
4. To discern personal strengths and weaknesses in the light of community services
5. To give and receive feedback on the conduct on the planning consultation and
resource accessing activities
6. To draw insights and learning from the core group planning experiences.
 
This phase of CO-PAR  entails the formation of more formal structures and the inclusion of
more formal procedures of planning, implementing and conduct of trainings for the organized
leaders or groups to develop their attitude, knowledge and skills in managing their own
concerns/ programs.
 
Organization – This is the result of many successive and many similar actions of the people, set
up with elected officers and supporting members.
 
ACTIVITIES:

1. Election and induction of officers of people’s organization

2. Election and induction of the Barangay Health Workers association.

PHASE 1V -INSTITUTIONAL PHASE

1. Expansion of Services
2. Further Networking
3. Sustaining People’s Organization
 
This  final phase include activities such as expansion of services, further networking and
sustenance of people’s organization.

1. Expansion of Services
Activities:

1. Visiting and rendering health care services to nearby communities.

2. Making oneself available as resource speaker, lecturer, trainer, educator, clinician,
consultant and researcher.                                    

2. Further networking
  Through proper communication and follow up of information, the networking can be expanded
and  achieved. This can be done through:

1. socialization
2. attendance to seminar workshop
3. continuous linkages with different agencies
4. Sustaining people’s organization
 
3. Sustaining people’s organization
 

1. improving income generating projects

2. attend seminars and workshops
3. attend skills training
4. regular monitoring and evaluation of projects and program