Barack Obama is not the only US President who believes in community organizing. One of the first initiatives of the George W Bush administration was a community outreach project in February, 2001. The forty four page guide in community organizing was called Healthy People in Healthy Communities and you can access it here.
In the brochure the administration is addressing the Community Leaders and is trying to rally them in effort to improve the Health Care in America.
In the community organizing guide Bush’s Health Department gave advices like this:
For individuals choosing to take this incredible journey, the path
may, at times, be difficult. Fortunately, others have journeyed down
similar paths and have found strategies that worked. The following
pages are intended to help smooth over difficult issues from different
perspectives. Good luck on your journey!
Strategies for Success: Community Members
How to get started:
- Talk to your neighbors, civic leaders, elected officials, and others
to see which issues they feel are most pressing and who they feel
would be most interested in helping.
- Call your appropriate local officials and ask for information about
initiatives or activities that are already underway in your community.
- Pick up the business section of the phone book and call the outreach
officers of local care agencies to help you get your ideas
going.
The initiative was part of the Healthy People 2010 project, which up to this year was credited with reducing the numbers of smokers in the USA. Unfortunately for President Obama, the current administration was hit by the news about the first increase in this strategic Health Index as evident by the report of the CDC last week which you can access here.
Looks like George W Bush was a better community organizer.
