IDENTIFYING AND DEFINING THE DIMENSIONS OF COMMUNITY CAPACITY TO PROVIDE A BASIS FOR MEASUREMENT

Although community capacity is a central concern of community developm ent experts, the concept requires clarification. Because of the potent ial importance of community capacity to health promotion, the Division of Chronic Disease Control and Community Intervention, Centers for Di sease Control and Prevention (CDC), convened a symposium in December 1 995 with the hope that a consensus might emerge regarding the dimensio ns that are integral to community capacity. This article describes the dimensions that the symposium participants suggested as central to th e construct, including participation and leadership, skills, resources , social and interorganizational networks, sense of community, underst anding of community history, community power, community values, and cr itical reflection. The dimensions are not exhaustive but may serve as a point of departure to extend and refine the construct and to operati onalize ways to assess capacity in communities.