Local Community Analysis in vulnerable neighbourhoods and the use of The LOCAL Tool (The Local Community AnaLysis Tool)

Purpose: The study describes the process of conducting a local community analysis in a vulnerable neighbourhood in the municipality of Aarhus, by using The LOCAL Tool – a methodological tool developed at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen – with the purpose of characterizing and understanding local communities, as well as the residents and professional stakeholders, who live and work there. The tool provides a structured, participatory approach to characterize a local community by using four themes: 1) Physical and Organizational Structures, 2) Population Characteristics, 3) Professional Stakeholder Perspectives and 4) Citizen Perspectives.

Methods: The study is based on quantitative and qualitative methods and includes semi-structured interviews with professional stakeholders and focus group discussions with different groups of residents.

Findings: The analysis shows that it is essential to support the residents' visions and ideas to create a local environment that motivates a healthy and social lifestyle. It must therefore be the needs, interests and wishes of the residents that create the starting point for future interventions, why it is important to mobilize the resources that exist in the community in co-productive processes across residents and different professional stakeholders to support a process towards a sustainable development.

Conclusion: Overall the study revealed a useful tool to create a solid knowledge base for the development of future social and health related interventions and a broader sustainable community development. The findings and experiences from this study will be informative in developing social and health promoting interventions in other local communities.

Keywords: Local community, user involvement, health promotion.