Main Elements / Components and Sub-Components Comprising a Community - SPECEH

A. SOCIAL ELEMENT (HUMAN / PEOPLE / POPULATION)

1. This is considered as the CORE ELEMENT or most important because they are the key to an orderly management of all
the other elements
2. It also includes the following characteristics of the human population.
a. Age, sex, income distribution, genetic or hereditary characteristics
b. Population behavior and lifestyles. Ex. The self-reliant behaviors of people are INNATE and is one of the most
important behaviors of human beings that must be maintained, nurtured, and reinforced when we work with
communities.
c. Relationships and influence of community members in acting on their own community welfare and living conditions
Ex. Individualistic response or bayanihan (helping system)
B. POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
1. Names of community leaders
2. Interaction and influence of decision makers or leaders or authority figures among themselves and with the community
3. Government system or leadership style that is being utilized in the community, which may either unite or disunite
people or a system that may reinforce self-reliance or dependency
C. ECONOMIC ELEMENT
1. Occupation, types of economic activities, income of the population
2. Production, distribution and consumption activities of the people
3. Relationship of the producer with distributors and / or consumers of goods and products
4. Ownership of lands, real properties, etc
D. CULTURAL ELEMENT
1. Communitys adherence to their own traditions, culture, values, practices and beliefs, acquired through formal or
informal means
2. Education laws, regulations, facilities and activities affecting education, ratio of learners and educators, adequacy of
educators, distribution of educational facilities
3. Religion and its practices
E. ENVIRONMENTAL (PHYSICAL)
1. Geographical boundaries, mountains, rivers, waters, topography, climate, plants, animal life, air, soil
2. Infrastructure roads, buildings
3. Lands, grounds hunting grounds, agricultural production grounds, educational grounds, sacred and recreational
grounds, etc
4. Housing conditions type and sufficiency, laws governing such
5. Distribution and availability of fire prevention and protection or safety facilities
6. Recreation activities and facilities available and its appropriateness to the community members
7. Communication and transportation facilities
F. HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
1. Health care facilities and activities
2. Distribution, utilization and ratio of health care providers to clients
3. Programs and interventions developed
4. Priorities in health
- Is it more of survival?
- Prevention of problems?
- Achievement of human potential?
- Improvement of the quality of life?

TYPES / CLASIFICATION OF COMMUNITIES

A. ACCORDING TO LOCATION AND COMPONENTS
1. RURAL generally a small community located in the outskirts of town centers or business centers. It is usually inhabited
by simple folks characterized by primary group relations, well-knit, and whose occupation is farming, fishing and food
gathering
2. URBAN large community with high density and is composed of heterogeneous population and complex interpersonal
relations and structure, centrally located and with non-agricultural occupation
3. RURBAN combination of rural and urban communities

Comparative characteristics of rural, urban and rurban communities

Characteristi Rural
cs
Population Generally homogeneous culture
size (common)
Small, sparcely populated,
dispersed or wide apart
Population More self-reliant but each help
behavior each other
Simple structure; strong
bayanihan spirit is practiced
Pace of living is attune with
peoples pace
People know each other from
end-to-end
Political Simple with high degree of
people participation in their own
affairs
Poorly maintained roads,
transportation and
communication or none at all
Inaccessibility of electricity
Economic Generally agricultural source of
living
More expensive commercial
products with generally free or
less expensive fresh products
Generally less expensive
lifestyle with free to cheaper
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Urban
Generally heterogeneous
Cpmpact, crowded or thickly
populated
Population is highly
dependent on the complex
social structure
Bayanihan spirit is not
observable
Pace of living is very fast
People rarely know each
other
Complex system of
government with less
participation of people on
issues that directly affect
them
Generally good roads,
transportation and
communication
Available electricity
Generally non-agricultural;
blue to white collared jobs
A bit cheaper commercial
commodities
More expensive way of life
with generally higher pay or
salaries
Rurban
Also heterogeneous
Fairly distributed
Not too small, not too big
Self-reliant, yet with dependency
attitudes
Simple to complex social structure
Individualistic + bayanihan
May not be slow; sometimes very fast
Know and not know neighbors
Simple to complex structure with a
moderate degree of people
participation
Combination of poor to good
Some inaccessible; some accessible
Combination of agricultural and non-
agricultural source of living
Cheaper country products but
expensive commercial goods e.g.
canned goods
Combination of cheap to expensive
lifestyle
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 service fees
Cultural No to less formal style
Intact culture, traditions and
practices
With common value systems
Generally, only elementary
educational institutions are
found
Very few religious groups
present
Only the basic government
social services are available
Environment Green mountains and vegetation
al (physical) Generally fresh water, rivers,
plants and animals
Less vulnerable to pollution
Agricultural and residential lands
are generally owned, while
hunting, educational,
recreational and sacred grounds
are considered communal
None to very rare squatters
Generally clean because of less
or no pollution but can also be a
dirty community
Small houses are found
Health care Services are largely promotive
system and preventive
People generally use indigenous
or alternative methods of cure
Scarce health facilities primary
level
Very formal
Commercialized culture
Mixture of different value
systems
Prep to tertiary levels of
educational institutions
present
More varied religious groups
Private and government
services abound
None to very limited
vegetation
More vulnerable to pollution
Most lands are government-
owned or big-company-
owned. Some are privately-
owned
Common squatting problems
Can be clean or dirty
High rise buildings and
factories
Largely curative and
rehabilitative
Highly technological
It is where concentration of
health facilities and
manpower are found
Semi-formal
Some intact, some not intact
Mixture of different value systems but
some cultural practices can still be
intact
Some prep, some elementary,
secondary or vocational and some
college available
Combination of few to moderate
number of religious groups present
More basic government with some
private services available
Doubtful freshness of water, rivers
and plants
Combination of less to more
vulnerability to pollution
Combination of government and
private-owned
Combination of none to presence of
squatters
Can be clean or dirty. When it is dirty,
it is generally cleaner than that of a
city
Combination of small to big buildings
Combination of different types of
services
Combination of indigenous and
commercialized health care
Primary and secondary health
facilities with minimal manpower
available

B. ACCORDING TO HEALTH STATUS

1. Healthy 2. Unhealthy

Characteristics of a healthy community: A healthy community is one that:

1. Prompts its members to have a high degree of awareness that we are a community.
Healthy: Unhealthy:
In a community meeting, the presider urges all those who You better stop taking because your idea is
non-sense.
Attended to speak their minds or says, let us all decide. I will just follow whatever decision is made
by the body.

In times of death or illness, there is automatic help or presence, Anyway, I am not affected so I dont have to help or
be present.
Without coercion or no one does not have to convince the other.
2. It uses it natural resources while taking steps to conserve them for the future.
Examples of healthy:
There is abundant water from the water source, but people still recycle and conserve water as much as possible.
Small fishes are spared during fishing so they grow and reproduce.
3. It openly recognizes the existence of sub-groups and welcomes / encourages their maximum participation in community
affairs such as in decision-making, planning, implementing, and evaluating community affairs of concerns.
During community meetings, the presider sees to it that all sectors are represented in the meetings and every idea
shared is recognized.
The organizing committee of a major community activity (e.g. fiesta) is always composed of different sub-groups or
sub-sectors found or present in the community
Organizational structure of the community reflects maximum participation in principle.
4. It is prepared to meet crises; meaning
Contingency plans and resources are always available and accessible to be implemented when an emergency
situation occurs in the community.
It is a pro-active, rather than a reactive community.
Proactive: Regular immunization schedules are strictly followed for animals even if there is no rabies epidemic.
Reactive: Immunizations are conducted only when there is an epidemic that occurred.
5. It is considered as a problem-solving community.
It is capable of identifying, analyzing, planning and organizing activities and resources in order to meet its own
needs address its own problems before seeking outside assistance
It has legitimate and effective ways of settling disputes or conflicts immediately. There is no place for delay of
justice.
6. It has open channels of communication that allows information to flow to all sub-groups and citizens in all directions.
Leaders meeting in early morning each leader conducts house-to-house visits to relay the information.
Now, we have a text brigade.
7. It seeks to make each of its resources available to all members of the community.
Health services are provided to all members of the community, especially those who are in dire need, not only to
those who have money, not only to relatives or kumares. Services should be brought to those who cannot go to the
service center.
8. It promotes a high level wellness among all its members and provides the following elements to all its members.
Examples: Clean and green program, requires toilets for all households, potable drinking water supply, nutritious
and organic foods grown and consumed in the community. Only surplus are sold out.
9. People are considered partners in health care, rather than as passive recipients people participate in assessment,
planning, conduct of interventions and evaluating matters related to health care.
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 10. People work to attain goals.
Healthy: Unhealthy:
I have disagreements with the planned and formulated project. It does not Programan dagiti officials dayta isong bay-
an tayo ta isuda ti
Meet the peoples needs so I will verbalize my disagreements and give some
Proposals for improvement.

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