Volume 25, Issue 3: June, 1998

Abstract

MEASURING COMMUNITY CAPACITY: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Elizabeth A. Baker, PhD, MPH
Charlene Teaser-Polk

Community involvement in creating healthful change has been met with intermittent support throughout the history of the field of health education. The current trend to encourage community contributions has led health educators to ask, What enables a community to effectively create the changes they desire? and, What can outsiders offer to assist communities in building these capacities? One contribution that outsiders can make is to describe some of the conditions that seem to be required for communities to effectively engage in change processes. Goodman et al. state that community capacity is one way of conceptualizing this potential to act. In their article, 'Identifying and Defining the Dimensions of Community Capacity to Provide a Basis for Measurement,' Goodman et al. take a provocative step toward measuring community capacity by outlining and describing its main dimensions. The next step is to create a dialogue about these dimensions and appropriate measurement strategies not only among experts in the field but also among community members and outsiders who engage with communities to create healthful changes. The purpose of this article is to begin this dialogue by suggesting some questions to consider as the discussion moves forward.