Read ‘N’ Seed 3: Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being

1. I read part two, chapters 5-10 from my book.

2. I had six main topics that I read about:
1. Community organizing that occurs in local settings, to empower individuals, build relationships, and create action for community change.
2. Public health and social justice.
3. Collaborative work for achieving preventive health success.
4. Policy formation can be an effective tool for prevention.
5. Public health educators should use the media more to advance healthy public policy.
6. How primary prevention efforts can be evaluated.

3. Community organizing is defined in my book as a dynamic process that encompasses a wide range of community engagement strategies. I learned that effective organizing leads to the community engagement and empowerment that are very important for successful primary prevention efforts targeting environmental determinants of health. I learned about how important it is that we work together and coalitions provide the opportunity to generate broader support to improve prevention efforts. I read about how policies are a powerful tool for prevention and an effective way to improve people’s health. For example, my book talked about how raising the price of tobacco products and prohibiting smoking in certain public places decreased youth smoking as well as a decreased number of smokers. Another important thing I learned was that public health educators should use the media more to get out the healthy public policies. Health practitioners need to learn how to use the media effectively to protect and promote peoples’ health. One last thing I read and learned about was how primary prevention efforts can be evaluated. I think this is very important because then you can actually see the success of primary prevention.

4. I think community organizing is really important and a good way to improve primary prevention. Community organizing is about people defining their community and identifying common problems or goals that they wish to address. I read about coalitions and how to develop effective coalitions. This is a very important skill in all fields because major improvements require a variety of resources and perspectives. Coalitions can accomplish objectives faster and better than any single organization. Policies are a very effective way to improve people’s health. I think it is really good that you are not allowed to smoke in the restaurants anymore because people who don’t smoke were still exposed to the secondhand smoke.