What is Success in a Healthy Communities Initiative? Insights into Community Capacity

Healthy communities approaches have been advocated in the literature as promising practice in community health development. Many endorse the theory of healthy communities initiatives (HCI); however, definitive measures of success remain elusive. Community capacity (CC) building approaches also inspire interest among health promotion professionals and researchers. In one HCI in Alberta, Canada CC was seen as a valuable concept and outcome of the HCI. This paper reports on how community members descriptions of success align well with a seven domain template for CC: participation; critical learning; shared vision; sense of community; leadership; knowledge, skill and resources; and communication. This paper adds to the growing literature on CC building as an important outcome of community health development initiatives and is particularly important because community members reported that these outcomes were indicators of success in their efforts. Future research to continue developing CC, as a unifying forum for evaluating community development initiatives, is needed. This would aid in closing the gap between theory and practice and would enrich the experiences of community members in building capacity to take action on health.