COMING TO VOICE - THE POWER OF EMANCIPATORY COMMUNITY INTERVENTIONS

Despite public and community health nursing's long history of social activism and the advocation of community collaborative and partnership ventures to enhance health status, most community interventions continue to focus on the individual. Larger social structures and institutions that create and support unhealthy behaviors and environments have not been seen as sites for nursing interventions. This article examines the challenges associated with community-level interventions. Community organization and participatory research are offered as models of emancipatory community-level interventions particularly germane to disenfranchised communities.