Question

Description of community and community boundaries: the people and the geographic, geopolitical, financial, educational level; ethnic and phenomenological features of the community, as well as types of social interactions; common goals and interests; and barriers, and challenges, including any identified social determinates of health.

Summary of community assessment: (a) funding sources and (b) partnerships. Summary of interview with community health/public health provider. Identification of an issue that is lacking or an opportunity for health promotion. A conclusion summarizing your key findings and a discussion of your impressions of the general health of the community.

Answer 1

A community is a collection of individuals with shared attributes and strong interpersonal connections among them with a sense of belonging. Community boundaries are barriers within which the members of a community live, interact, and associate with a sense of belonging and sharing. The people of a community have interpersonal connections among them and have something in common. A group of people living over an area with common geographic features comprises a geographic community. They are from a common location and have social interactions. A geopolitical community is a group of people who are delineated geographically and jurisdictionally within a country to form communities of municipalities, towns, or cities and can be easily identified on a map. This community may or may not be financially at different levels based on their financial circumstances. There are groups of people who have almost the same amount of financial assets, they belong to the same strata of the society and form a community with a sense of belonging and often interact and associate within that group only. Any community can have people with different educational levels. It is also seen that sometimes people with the same level of education form a community and interact and associate among themselves with a sense of belonging.   

Ethnic features of a community are shared culture, language, traditions, territorial association, and food. Phenomenological features of a community are common perspectives, relationships, interests, beliefs, values, and goals. Types of social interactions or behaviors of a community are exchange, cooperation, competition, conflict, and coercion. Common goals and interests of a community vary with the type of community. These can be generalized as promoting, protecting, and preserving the community by developing progressive attitudes and actions, improving quality, encouraging accountability and responsibility, and ensuring sustainability within the community. Barriers of the community are financial, ethnic, philosophical, linguistic, educational, geopolitical, geographical, etc. The challenges of a community including social determinants of health include economic status, social class, educational level, geography and environment, and resources.