If possible, form an advisory board of local experts to help you select methods and interpret data. Incorporating health assessment into a volunteer monitoring program brings many benefits. For one, health issues are wonderful motivators for organizing a community. Not only are people likely to care about a project that is connected to their own health, but also a health survey itself is a great opportunity for spreading the word about your organization and recruiting new volunteers. A pragmatic benefit of including health in a monitoring program is that it opens up new funding opportunities.
Health monitoring is especially valuable because it often addresses environmental justice issues.
For example, those most likely to eat fish from the Missisquoi are those who cannot afford other sources of protein. To get government attention and remedial action, a community often needs to credibly establish the link between contamination and health effects. However, poor and minority communities are least likely to have either the scientific expertise to conduct research themselves or the resources to hire scientists. Ultimately, such projects empower communities to monitor their own health and take remedial action to reduce health risks and protect their waterways. An epidemiology software program called Epi Info, developed by the Centers for Disease Control, is useful for basic survey design and statistics.