Development of Community Capacity Indicator using Community-Based Organizations in Metropolitan Seoul Residents

The concept of community capacity is not well introduced in Korea. Most health promotion programs have been implemented by government's health centers nationwide. Top-down approach and individual oriented methods have been preferred. NGOs usually find no adequate role in health promotion, although they have the intention to do so. Group networking is not tried at all for health promotion. This project aims at developing the indicators of community capacity in the context of Korean society and the methods of community network survey for staffs working at health centers. Indicators of community capacity were composed at the levels of individual and organizations. At the level of individual, these indicators included 7 domains about social support, social contacts, participation in organizations, community participation, trust in government, trust in people, and a sense of community. At the level of organizations, these indicators included 5 domains about the degrees of connectedness, inclusiveness, betweenness, and cohesiveness among community organizations. We conducted the questionnaire survey for 2 districts(='Gu') in Seoul(500 respondents in each district, about 70 CBOs in each district using snowball sampling). We analysed connection between residents' health status and community capacity by utilizing the indicators of community capacity. Finally, we presented community capacity of the two districts visually by using 'spider web' graphs. According to the results CBOs enhances residents' spontaneity and cohesion to increase the capability of the local community. For this it will be needed to construct an effective partnership of health programme by restructuring the existing networks of voluntary associations.