In light of the COVID-19 pandemic's disproportionate effects on communities of color, health equity initiatives are being implemented across the United States. However, there is little consensus on best practices for such initiatives and the role of community engagement (i.e., sharing power with community members to identify barriers to good health and enact solutions).
Though interviewees varied in how they define and implement community engagement and identified different barriers to effective community engagement, they offered several considerations for states and organizations to build trust with disenfranchised communities and to more effectively engage them in advancing health equity.
Community engagement is a valuable tool for successful health equity initiatives. While community engagement comes in many forms, the stakeholders and experts interviewed stipulate the importance of developing trust, adequate funding, dedicated time and effort, and a commitment to fighting structural racism.
The nonprofit Urban Institute is dedicated to elevating the debate on social and economic policy. For nearly five decades, Urban scholars have conducted research and offered evidence-based solutions that improve lives and strengthen communities across a rapidly urbanizing world. Their objective research helps expand opportunities for all, reduce hardship among the most vulnerable, and strengthen the effectiveness of the public sector. Visit the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center for more information specific to its staff and its recent research.
In this fourth volume of RWJF's Culture of Health book series, contributors describe the challenges and opportunities in rural and urban regions, in neighborhoods and schools, in prisons and workplaces.
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