Lessons Learned from The Best Practice of Drug Prevention and Solution in The City Communities by Community Participation : A Case Study of Sapanpoon Community, Donmueang, Bangkok

Abstract

This research study entitled “Lessons Learned from the Best Practice of Drug Prevention and Solution by Community Participation: A Case Study of Sapanpoon Community, Donmueng, Bangkok” aimed at learning the success of the Sapanpoon community drug prevention and solution process and conducting the lessons learned regarding the factors and the process that precipitated the best practice of preventing and solving drug problems by community participation. The former community leader could gather support from community committee members, community members and community volunteers. Moreover, the success in drug prevention and solution could be attributed to the  helpful cooperation of Donmueng District Office and Bangkok Area Narcotics Control Office as well as of other external parties. The success of the Sapanpoon community will be used as a model to establish a set of guidelines for a good practice of drug prevention and solution by community participation and to design an effective, sustainable system and mechanism.  This knowledge of the guidelines will be shared with other communities in Bangkok metropolitan area and other government agencies at the local and national levels so that it can be put into practice.   The process of Community – Based Research (CBR) was applied for this research. It gave priority to the Participatory Action Research (PAR) done by the community members and all related sectors through focus groups and in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that the success of the Sapanpoon community in drug prevention and solution by community participation happened as a result of a former community leader’s determination to solve drug problems.  It was the community explosion of enthusiasm that brought about changes within the community. The former community leader could gather support from community committee members, community members, community volunteers especially the cooperation of a group of young people as well as other external parties such as the Donmueng District Office and the Bangkok Area Narcotics Control Office. However, the Sapanpoon community needs a process of preparing a group of young people to take over and continue the work.