Community Mobilization

An essential element of efforts to develop and implement policies to improve quality of and access to health care is mobilizing communities in support. As a result, Futures Group makes this a cornerstone of our work in the policy arena. By working with hundreds of local experts and institutions in project countries, we not only help to strengthen the current policy environment, but perhaps more important, to stimulate the creation of an established “policy community” that will continue to address local policy concerns well into this century.

Religious and other community leaders in particular can play a major role in influencing community attitudes and practices and persuading local leaders and decisionmakers to invest in effective family planning and reproductive health strategies and programs, as well as assisting efforts to mobilize communities against stigma and discrimination and other important efforts. These leaders are often a vital element of Futures Group’s community mobilization strategy.

Futures Group has successfully implemented this strategy around the world. For instance, the POLICY Project, in collaboration with World Vision, assisted in setting up the Kenya Network of Religious Leaders Infected and Affected by HIV/AIDS (KENERELA)—the first of its kind in East/Central and Southern Africa—which features 20 denominations. By accepting the presence of HIV-positive clergy in their own churches, religious communities have extended a hand of healing to their members and provided leadership in tackling HIV-related stigma.