development initiatives in the past have been well designed has been questioned as they do not necessarily address the community mem-bers’ questions of ‘Am I healthier?’ or ‘Is our community better than before?’ (Dixon & Sindall 1994). Equally, evaluations that focus on out-puts (often intangible) rather than process out-comes will fail to adequately refl ect the successes and failures of community development work. There are frameworks for evaluating community development approaches to improving health and well-being. For example, the Achieving Better Community Development (ABCD) frame-work (Barr & Hashagen 2000) and the Learning Evaluation and Planning Model (LEAP; Box 4.3) (Hashagen 2003), both provide a structure within which community development work to pro-mote health may be measured and evaluated.The past decade has seen an increase in commu-nity participation and collective action together with an expansion of community-based health projects. Initiatives arising from government strategies such as New Deal for Communities and Sure Start are attempting to address health inequalities and to assist in empowering local communities to establish elements of power and control over their own life circumstance.The DH (2001b) health visitor and school nurse practice development initiative identifi edcommunity development as an effective way to tackle the issues restricting people’s health choices. It identifi ed community health profes-sionals, with their considerable knowledge and unique roles within the local communities they serve, as being in an ideal position to be at the forefront of these initiatives. They possess