Planning in Health Promotion Work: An Empowerment Model

Community development, planning and partnerships have become important terms in health promotion but, up until now, debate around these concepts have been discussed more in planning science than in public health literature. Roar Amdam draws on theories and new empirical evidence from local, regional and international planning and public health in order to develop a new model for health promotion: empowerment planning.

Much health promotion planning has focused on top-down approaches, and while efforts to be participative are made, it is often without having a clear understanding of how community empowerment can be accommodated within health promotion programs. Amdam’s innovative concept combines top-down and bottom-up approaches to enable people to take more responsibility for their own health and for individual and collective capacity building.

Planning in Health Promotion Work

Roar Amdam is a Professor at Volda University College, Norway. He teaches planning and leadership and has participated as a planning expert in domestic and international public health promotion projects. One of these projects, the Østfold County Council-led HEPRO project which aims to put public health issues on the political agenda in the Baltic Sea Region, is used as a case study in the book.