Positive Community Norms Model

The Positive Community Norms (PCN) Model is a new approach to cultivating community cultures around health and safety issues. PCN is a community (or environmental) transformational approach that engages many different audiences throughout the community for the purpose of improving health and safety.  PCN integrates leadership, positive norms communication and prevention portfolio integration across the social ecology to improve health and safety.^{1, 2}

PCN is based upon the philosophical framework of The Science of the Positive™.³ PCN is a natural next step to Jeff Linkenbach’s early work in social norms.  PCN has been developed over years of research in an effort to integrate the best components of several models and overcome known deficiencies.

PCN is based on several theories with extensive track records in psychology and health education including Adlerian Psychology, Social Ecology, Social Cognitive Theory, the Theory of Reasoned Action, Normative Theories and Transformational Learning Theory. Like many community and population-focused approaches, PCN employs methods of health communication, social norms and social marketing.^1,2

Why the name “Positive Community Norms”?

• Positive: We believe in improving health by intentionally focusing on growing positive, healthy attitudes and behaviors as a way to reduce risky attitudes and behaviors. We believe the positive is real, exists in the communities we serve and is worth growing

• Community: We believe in the power of communities and the ability of people within communities to develop local solutions to the problems they face. We have developed PCN as a process to identify and grow these solutions.

• Norms: We believe that norms are critical as they help define our culture. PCN is about transforming culture to improve health and safety norms.

Why Leadership, Communication and Integration?

Positive Community Norms focuses on these three domains to achieve results.

• Prevention is about leading people to make healthier, safer choices. In this way, prevention is an act of leadership. If we want to be successful at prevention, we need to develop strong leadership skills.

• To truly impact the communities we serve, we need to transform the cultures that surround the issues we want to address. We share and transform our cultures through communication.

• There is no single solution or “silver bullet” to solve complex health issues. We must develop a portfolio of strategies and actively manage and integrate the portfolio to make the best use of finite resources.  Integration is a focus on wholeness.

Please take a moment and listen to the stories of transformation from Wyoming and Minnesota.

How do I learn more about PCN?

• The best way to learn about PCN is by attending one of our PCN Trainings.

• The Montana Summer Institute(MSI) occurs every July and brings together a diverse mix of individuals – some brand new to PCN and some who have been engaged in the work for many years. MSI is where we share our latest research on PCN.

• Learn by doing. Truly, the only way to really learn about PCN is by engaging in the process. After attending a PCN Institute, we can provide Guide Services to support your learning journey.

• Interested in learning more about how PCN aligns with CADCA Seven Strategies for community change, please review “Using PCN with CADCA Strategies”.

Science of the Positive is a registered servicemark owned by the Montana Institute, LLC.

Citations

1. Linkenbach, Jeffrey W., The Theoretical Foundations of the Positive Community Norms Process A Working Paper, September 2009.

2. Linkenbach, Jeffrey W., The Positive Community Norms Workbook, July 2010.

3. Linkenbach, Jeffrey W., Seeds of Fire, Roots of Hope, Mill City Press, 2010.