HEART has just completed local research to inform development of the initiative and to measure change over time. The Community Readiness Model was used to conduct 24 interviews with community members, practitioners and leaders on two areas: family violence and healthy relationships .
The Community Readiness Model measures the degree to which a community is prepared to take action on an issue. It measures six dimensions:
| Community efforts | Community knowledge of efforts |
| Leadership |
Community climate |
| Community knowledge about the issue |
Resources related to the issue |
An anchored rating scale is used to score individual interviews across these dimensions. Figure 1 shows the overall scores for each dimension.
Combined scores give the overall stage of readiness for a community from No Awareness through to High Level of Community Ownership. Table 1 shows the results.
Table 1: Stages of Readiness of the Community Readiness Model and Overall Stage of Readiness for Glen Innes and Pt England
| Stages of Community Readiness |
GI & Pt England Stage of Readiness |
| 9. High level of community ownership |
|
| 8. Confirmation / Expansions |
|
| 7. Stabilisation |
|
| 6. Initiation |
|
| 5. Preparation |
Healthy Relationships |
| 4. Pre-planning |
Family Violence |
| 3. Vague awareness |
|
| 2. Denial / Resistance |
|
| 1. No awareness |
|
Healthy Relationships scored 5 Preparation meaning:
“Active leaders are planning in earnest. Community offers modest support for efforts”.
Family Violence scored 4 Pre-planning meaning:
“There is clear recognition that something must be done, and there may even be a group addressing it. However, efforts are not focused or detailed”.
The HEART Movement can now begin to develop strategies to prevent family violence and promote healthy relationships based on local findings. These strategies will include increasing knowledge of efforts, knowledge of the issue and addressing community climate (or attitudes) as these areas are significantly lower than the other three dimensions.
HEART will complete a second Community Readiness Assessment to measure change created by the initiatives in 12 to 18 months time.
For the full report please contact the HEART Movement coordinator heart@twp.org.nz or 571 2098.
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