Building capacity of community leaders through program planning training workshop: An example of Tsmshi Healthy city in Taipei

Background: As the increasing empirical evidences show a complex set of contextual factors play determinates of health status. It is important for public health nurses to work with community organizations collaboratively to provide community-orientated services instead of providing individual-oriented health information. Tamsui Healthy city in Taipei was established in 2006 in order to exemplify a capacity-building approach for community leaders to actively participate in health promotion activities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of a six-month educational workshop for community leaders in order to empower those leaders participate in health promotion programs actively. Methods: The evaluation design has been applied in this study. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using the mixed method to identify effects of six-month educational workshop. Started from April 2009, a every two weeks educational workshop was held in Tamsui, Taipei county of Taiwan. Each intervention hosted a three-hour educational program to enable community leaders to improve their knowledge and skills in need assessment, priority setting, goal setting, implementation, and program evaluation. Totally, fifteen community leaders attended the whole six-month courses and completed both pre- and post questionnaires that was developed to understand changes of “self-efficacy in program planning”. Results: The participants showed an improvement in their self-efficacy of performing health program planning after they had participated in the educational workshop. Their post-test average scores for the confidence in data collection were significantly higher than pre-test average scores (z= 2.80 & z=3.14, p=0.005, p=0.002, respectively). Their post-test average scores for the confidence in need assessment and community diagnoses were significantly higher than pre-test average scores (p < 0.005). Their post-test average scores for the confidence in both program planning and evaluation were significantly higher than pre-test average scores (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Preparing competent community leaders is the first step to promote healthy cities project. Results of this study showed that after attending a six-month educational workshop, community leaders' assessment, planning, and evaluation skills have been strengthened significantly. Public health nurses have responsibilities to advocate and provide educational workshop for community leaders in order to empower them by informing and consulting.