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Is Your Community Ready for This?
by Ruth Edwards, Ph.D.
It is a fact of life that communities, like individuals, have problems -- acute problems like an epidemic of methamphetamine use or on-going problems like an environmental contaminant that is affecting people’s health. In most communities there are a variety of problems needing attention.
Unfortunately, especially in small communities, resources for addressing community-wide problems are scarce. Further, each community is unique and any prevention efforts undertaken, if they are to be successful, must also be unique. However, this does not mean “reinventing the wheel” in each community.
When a problem is identified, most prevention specialists look at the literature, check the internet, call regional prevention offices, call colleagues, etc. to find an approach that has been used successfully in another community with a similar problem. There are a wide variety of programs available for purchase and/or adoption to address most community health issues.
But wait! There is a very important process that should be undertaken before you order a book or call in an expert. An absolutely key precursor to any successful prevention effort is identifying what kinds of efforts your community is ready to support and gearing your efforts to that level. No matter how successful a given program has been in other communities, it is very unlikely to meet with success in your community unless your community is “ready.”
Researchers at Colorado State University have developed the Community Readiness Model. This model helps communities understand where they are with respect to a problem and provides a framework to use in planning and implementing their efforts. By asking a few questions of key people in the community, the level of readiness to address the target problem can be identified. The type of program or effort that is most likely to meet with success in a community depends on that community’s level of readiness. If a highly professional effort is undertaken in a town that is still at the “Vague Awareness” stage, the effort will probably not succeed. The leaders will spend considerable time doing the “ground work,” which essentially means trying to bring the community’s readiness level up.

Levels of Community Readiness:

Community Tolerance “What problem?” -- key people in the community don’t even consider it a problem

Denial “Yes, some people have that problem, but we don’t.”

Vague Awareness “Yeah, there might be a problem, but nobody’s doing anything about it.”

Preplanning “Gee, yeah, we do have a problem and maybe we should do something about it.”

Preparation “We’ve had a meeting to talk about what to do.”

Initiation “We’ve started up a program or effort to do something about the problem.”

Institutionalization “We have an ongoing commitment - money, people, space, etc. - to keep this program going to address the problem.”

Confirmation/Expansion “We are doing something to address the problem. We are evaluating our efforts and adapting them to better meet the needs of the community.”

Professionalization “We have programs or efforts that address the problem. We evaluate these regularly. New programs or efforts are added and evaluated as needed.”

By assessing the level of readiness in your community as your first step, you can choose programs or activities that have a high probability of success at this time. Once the community has experienced that success, it will proceed to a higher level of readiness for more advanced prevention activities. The Community Readiness Model helps you to astutely engage your community in problem-solving efforts, and to experience more success with less frustration. Who’s not ready for that?

For more information on the Community Readiness Model go to www.triethniccenter.colostate.edu.

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