FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2003

New Manual Shows How to Mobilize Communities in Developing
World for Health and Social Change

Field Guide Provides Illustrative Examples and Lessons Learned From Real-World Experience

BALTIMORE- Health communication professionals looking to improve health at the individual, family, and community level through community mobilization now have a new tool at their disposal as they address global health issues such as HIV/AIDS, maternal, child and reproductive health in the developing world.

How to Mobilize Communities for Health and Social Change is the first field guide published by the Health Communication Partnership (HCP), a team based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP). HCP promotes the idea that households and communities are the primary producers of their own health.

"Community mobilization not only enables communities to solve their specific health problems, it also strengthens their capacity to identify and address other issues, " said Save the Children's Lisa Howard-Grabman, who co-authored the field guide with Gail Snetro.

The field guide provides general principles and methods that can be adapted to local settings and conditions. It offers country case studies, examples, tools, and worksheets to help health communication professionals develop a community mobilization plan to fit their own needs.

Over the past 20 years, the field of health communication has evolved into strategic approaches that combine mass media with a mix of innovative and proven community-based approaches.

"Community mobilization is a key component of any strategic health communication program," said Jose Rimon II, HCP Director and faculty at Johns Hopkins University. "An overall program to move individuals and communities toward healthier behaviors requires a comprehensive approach that includes community mobilization, linkage to mass media, and capacity building. It requires a shift in paradigms, in recognizing that people can be primary producers of their own health."

Supported by USAID, HCP is a global communication initiative designed to promote evidence-based and innovative approaches, build capacity, and bring programs to scale. HCP is led by CCP in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, Save the Children, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and the University of North Carolina's Carolina Population Center at Chapel Hill.

To order this field guide, please contact orders@jhuccp.org or order online.