1. Community Readiness

2. What is community readiness?
Community readiness is the degree to which a community is ready to take action on an issue. 2

3. Community readiness is:
Issue-specific
Measurable
Measurable across multiple dimensions
Variable across dimensions
Variable across different segments of the community
Able to be increased successfully
Is essential knowledge for addressing the issue

4. What is the community readiness model?
The community readiness model has six dimensions and nine levels. 4

5. Dimensions of community readiness:
Community efforts
Community knowledge of the efforts
Leadership
Community climate
Community knowledge about the issue
Resources related to the issue 5

6. Levels of community readiness:
No awareness
Denial / Resistance
Vague awareness
Preplanning
Preparation
Initiation
Stabilization
Confirmation / Expansion
High level of community ownership 6

7. Why use the community readiness model?
It conserves valuable resources (time, money, people) by guiding the selection of strategies that are most likely to be successful
It is an efficient, inexpensive, easy-to-use tool
It promotes community recognition and ownership of the issue
Because of strong community ownership, it helps assure that strategies are culturally congruent and sustainable 7

8. Why use the community readiness model?
It encourages the use of local experts and resources instead or reliance on outside experts and resources
The process of community change can be complex and challenging, but the model breaks down the process into a series of manageable steps
It creates a community vision for healthy change 8

9. When should you use the community readiness model?
In the course of an ongoing effort
Each time you tackle a new issue
When several different communities, or different segments of the community, are involved
When you’re planning an effort that involves a participatory process
When you’ve engaged in a community or neighborhood planning effort 9

10. Who should be involved in using the community readiness model?10

11. Who should consider using the model and/or administering the assessment?
Policy makers and planners
Community activists
Health and human service organizations
Coalitions
Anyone else interested in community or social change 11

12. Who should be surveyed when the model is being applied?
Schools/Universities
Municipal/County/Tribal Government
Law enforcement
Health and medical professions
Social services
Mental health and treatment services
Community at large
Youth
People on fixed incomes 12

13. How do you use the community readiness model?13

14. Administering and scoring the community readiness assessment
Choose and train interviewers
Choose and train scorers
Revise the assessment tool, if necessary, to reflect the issue you’re concerned with
Select four to ten people to interview
Contact the people you have identified and see if they would be willing to discuss the issue
Conduct your interviews
Score the interviews 14

15. Using Community Readiness Information:
Initiate a participatory planning process, if possible
To move ahead, readiness on all dimensions must be at about the same level
Begin with strategies appropriate to the communities stage of readiness
Stick to it—the job’s never really done 15