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Community Partners and Resources
Disha Patel
Herzing University
NSG 323-Community and Public Health Nursing
Professor Merritt
August 14th, 2022
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Community Partners and Resources
Community partners and resources are crucial for the success of any community project
since they provide information and knowledge that ensures the effectiveness of the intervention
and achieving the set goals and objectives. Involving the community partners entails the active
participation of the community members, which enables them to solve their own community
problems and ultimately ensures the success of the community project (Melo & Alves, 2019).
These community partners have the problem assessment capacity, which are skills to identify
problems in the community, solutions, and actions to solve the problem. Community resources
are crucial for assisting community members in gaining access to help, support, and expanding
the range of outlets for meeting their needs. Additionally, community resources contribute to
developing healthier, more resilient people and communities. My community project focuses on
reducing the risk of infections among the Kindergarten students at Tiny Tot Preschool &
Kindergarten by educating the students on proper hand washing practices. The community
partners and resources have contributed immensely to the project to reach the goal by sharing
information and knowledge and assisting in the education program to ensure the success of the
community project. The paper aims to analyze the different community partnerships and
resources utilized in the project and describe their role in the community project.
Community Partnership
Community partnership is increasingly being accepted as the best practice in community
intervention projects and achieving the set purpose (Melo & Alves, 2019). The two partners, the
school nurse (nurse Mary) and the school administration ( John), were valuable and instrumental
to my community project since they have enormously helped me deliver a remarkable education
program that will ensure the success of the intervention.
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Community Partnership One
One of my partners is nurse Mary, the school nurse who has worked as a nurse in the
school for 6 years and has vast experience and knowledge about student health. Her experience
as a nurse and knowledge about students' health has been valuable to my project. I incorporated
the information she provided about the students and her valuable insights on the risk of
infections among the students and hand washing to reduce the risk. When I met her, she was
friendly and offered to show me around the institution. Together we assessed the hand washing
points, availability of hand washing supplies, and shared information on students' health, which
was essential for the project. She spent hours on the site with me, and when I shared my project
with her, she spent hours with me on the phone critiquing, providing feedback and opinion on
how to make the project better and a success. This partnership has been valuable to my
community project since it provided crucial information and impactful insights to make the
project a success.
Community Partnership Two
The second partnership I have formed in my community project is John, the school
administrator. When I first called the school to have a meeting with the school administration,
John was the one who picked up the phone; he was friendly and right away arranged for a
meeting with me. During the meeting, he was attentive as he listened as I shared details of the
project and to my surprise; he immediately agreed that I could conduct my community project in
the school. John introduced me to nurse Mary, the school nurse and the class teacher for the
kindergarten students. John has been supportive of my project, and when I shared the community
project with him, he provided insights and constructive feedback on how the project can be
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impactful and a success. John also informed the parents about the community project, shared the
importance of the project, and encouraged them to participate by reading the materials and
further educating their children on proper hand washing practices. He ensured that the project ran
smoothly without any problems from the parents who may have a problem with their children
being part of the project. He ensured that the materials were distributed to the teachers and
parents.
Community Resources
Community resource 1
Community Resources are assets within a community that assists in meeting the needs of
its members, hence facilitating the effectiveness of health promotions (Deeds et al., 2008). A
community resource that has been valuable for my community project is the community resource
center owned by Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH). NCH is located in the Skokie
community and is among the facilities integrated into The Northshore University Health System
to support the community by hosting organization-wide community service projects called
Caring For Our Communities (Bieritz, 2021). The community resource center, with community
partners' support, provides many community health outreach initiatives and programs
throughout the year. In addition to health and wellness, the community resource center
provides education and literacy to the community members and is an excellent site to conduct
my community project. I have explored and evaluated the numerous community resources
offered by resources and identified how they might benefit the project and the target
community in addressing the health problem of infectious conditions.
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Community resource 2
Another valuable community resource I have utilized in the community project is the
Skokie public health department, a state-certified municipal health department whose main
aim is to improve the quality of life in Skokie by identifying interventions that are best for the
community. The health resource provides vaccination and stores data on the locals' health and
community health information, which is essential for my community project. A visit to the
department provides information and knowledge on the rate of infections in the community
and the prevalence of infectious conditions in Skokie. The community resource was valuable
for my community project since I was able to access materials on the various risks of
infections among school-going children identified by the department and the various
interventions that have already been implemented in the community and their effectiveness
and success rate.
Conclusion
Community partners and resources are essential for the success of community projects
and reaching the goals and objectives to effect change. In a community project to reduce the
risk of infections by educating the students about proper hand washing practices, I liaised with
two partners, including the school nurse and the school administrator. They provided different
insights that were crucial for the intervention's effectiveness and the project's success. The
two community resources that I utilized are the community resource center owned by
Northwest Community Healthcare and the Skokie public health department by provided
materials and information about the risk of infections and infectious conditions in Skokie
instrumental in my project. The community partners and resources have provided me with
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guidance and insights for my project, information and expertise regarding my selected
community health issue, and a mechanism to successfully engage community members.
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References
Bieritz, M. (2021, March 4). Caring for our communities. Northwest Community Healthcare.
https://www.nch.org/news/caring-for-our-communities/
Deeds, B. Griffin., Straub, D. M., Willard, Nancy., Castor, Judith., Ellen, Jonathan., Peralta,
Ligia., & Adolescent Medicine Trials Network. (2008). The Role of Community
Resource Assessments in the Development of 15 Adolescent Health CommunityResearcher Partnerships. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research,
Education, and Action, 2(1), 31–39. https://doi.org/10.1353/cpr.2008.0010
Melo, P., & Alves, O. (2019). Community Empowerment and Community Partnerships in
Nursing Decision-Making. Healthcare, 7(2), 76.
https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7020076