Chapter 8. Summary

This primer emphasizes the importance of community engagement in health promotion and research. It provides guidelines for effective community engagement, including articulating the purpose and goals, assessing community capacity, and leveraging community assets. Implementing community engagement needs a goal-oriented plan that considers stakeholders, involvement strategies, and necessary resources. To apply community engagement initiatives, one may update how organizations, individual, and practice make decisions about programs and resource allocation. Engagement leaders need to develop a management strategy before acting in community engagement initiatives.

1. Values: Does the organization prioritize involving the community in identifying community health issues and developing programs? Does it recognize the importance of partnering and collaborating with other groups or community-based organizations?
2. Intent: What does the organization want to accomplish? What is the best way to establish its position and select strategies to begin community action?
3. Operations: Is it already involved with the community on specific programs or issues? How? Are there existing collaborations with other institutions or agencies? Are community leaders or representatives already involved in decision making related to program planning, implementation, and evaluation?
4. Resources and expertise: What mechanisms will be in place to ensure that relevant data on community needs will be used? What financial resources will be required? Which staff are most skilled or already have strong ties to the community?

• Determine the specific interests and expected outcomes of community involvement. Is the goal broad, such as assessing health status, identifying concerns, and developing action plans? Or is it more focused on specific health objectives?
• Decide how the community should be involved. Will they serve as advisors, co-decision makers, or both? Consider the structures and processes that will facilitate their meaningful involvement.
• Clearly define the community to be engaged, whether it is a geographic community encompassing all residents within certain boundaries or a community defined in another way.
• Recognize the flexibility of focus in community engagement efforts. As more information is gathered about the community and its issues, it may be necessary to shift the focus of engagement efforts to different populations or communities. Goals may also need to be adjusted based on input from the community.

• Talk with stakeholders, attend community meetings, read community news­papers, and obtain information that is relevant to the engagement process.
• Establish relationships and build trust.

1. Clear understanding: Potential partners need to comprehend the meaning and significance of their involvement in a community engagement effort.
2. Balancing costs and benefits: Continuous efforts are required to maintain cooperation, accountability, and a balance between the costs and benefits among participating groups.
3. Inclusivity and trust: All individuals, groups, and organizations should feel welcome to join the community engagement effort and have influence, fostering trust among collaborators.
4. Overcoming challenges: Being inclusive may present organizational challenges, but successfully addressing them leads to greater involvement of partners and their valuable contributions.
5. Managing decision-making: Formal governance should involve input from the community in shaping the decision-making process within collaborations.
6. Achieving small successes: Using collaborative strategies that yield quick wins reinforces the value of participation and encourages further engagement.
7. Evolution of collaborations: Collaborations can grow from small beginnings into more ambitious efforts over time, with entities transitioning from lead stakeholders to equal partners.
8. Reexamination and revision: Engagement leaders may need to periodically reassess and modify the purpose, goals, and strategies of collaborations as they evolve.
9. Broadening participation: Engagement leaders may expand involvement by engaging new communities on new issues while nurturing existing collaborations.