Abstract
THE health of deprived communities is almost always poor relative to health in other areas, yet these communities present problems for health pro moters. The immediate social and financial needs of residents are frequently so great that future health ranks low among personal priorities. Generating interest in health and enabling residents to make health promoting changes both to their environment and their way of life can be achieved, using the com munity development approach, and many health promoters feel that this is an essential ingredient of success in such communities. However, they may experience difficulty in convincing the more tra ditional professionals in control of resources that this is legitimate health service activity. There is a need to demonstrate that community development can be effective, but the methodological problems in eval uating such projects outnumber very considerably the solutions. This paper reviews a number of poss ible approaches to evaluating community develop ment, and describes one which we undertook in a health orientated community development project in Bristol.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.