COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT IN RURAL HEALTH-CARE

The Healthy Communities 2000 mandate calls for public health leaders t o involve community members in setting health priorities and implement ing programs in response to the national health objectives for the yea r 2000 (American Public Health Association, 1991). This paper describe s community involvement through a community empowerment nursing interv ention and evaluates its application in a rural community. A community health nursing project (AHCPR, Grant No. HS06801) with three interven tions, one of which was community empowerment, was designed to address the health needs of small, rural, underserved, primarily Mexican Amer ican communities in Arizona. Community empowerment in this project was based on the community-development approach to community organization , and involved community health nurses and lay health workers, called promotoras, who are key persons in community development. The implemen tation of two health fairs, one the result of the community-empowermen t intervention, is described and evaluated in relation to community he alth. The community-empowerment intervention was based on community pa rticipation and responsibility, hallmarks of the second health fair, r eflecting lay expertise and cooperation among various levels of the co mmunity. Successes and limitations of the health fairs provide feedbac k for developing a community-empowerment intervention.