Community Assessment with Citizen Science

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The Rotary E-Club for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) is developing guidelines for a hand-held app to facilitate community assessments for WASH projects worldwide. Coordinating with www.mWater.org, we’re building on decades of Rotary experience guiding WASH projects while pushing into our new world of grass-roots “Citizen Science” where every community member can participate in project development.

Our first step is to survey Rotary Clubs to gain a better understanding of what’s working in WASH community assessments and document lessons learned. Students at Otago Polytechnic in Duneden, NZ (Rotary District 9980/9999) will be tackling different aspects of WASH assessments including:

  1. Marketing – How are Rotarians working with communities to better understand local needs and how are projects presented to community members?

  2. Policy – What are the policy settings communities must work within for sustainable governmental support?

  3. Health Informatics – Besides mWater, what other assessment apps are being used in various parts of the world?

  4. Social Media – How are we sharing our stories and activities now and how will we roll out our App?

  5. Citizen Science – How can we blend watershed assessment and source-water protection into our community assessments, or should this be a separate App in the future?

Our Community Assessment/Citizen Science (CA/CS) Committee will be mentoring the OP students while evaluating existing Rotary guidance including:

  • Community Assessment Tools – A Resource for Rotary Projects

  • Understanding the School Community: Tools for Assessing Needs and Collecting Data

LINKS/RESOURCES

 

Blog by:
Geoffrey S. Elliott, MSc.
Rotary E-Club of WASH, District 9980
Committee Chair for Community Assessment with Citizen Science
geoff@grandenvironmental.com

 

 
Heidi Rickels