Community Engagement and Empowerment
These conversations focus on gaining the community’s trust to deliver health interventions effectively.
Definition
Community engagement involves collaborating with local communities to develop and execute health initiatives that significantly impact their lives. It fosters trust, improves health literacy, and ensures interventions are culturally relevant and sustainable. Community organising, participatory research, and collaborative governance are examples of community engagement, which help address the social factors influencing health.
HOW TO EFFECTIVELY ENGAGE WITH COMMUNITIES AT THE GRASSROOTS
- Recognise it takes time to build trust
- Respect local cultures and languages
- Have a strategy toolbox to respond to political, technical, and social issues
- Use a community participatory approach for research and share back with the community
How researchers from the global north can engage with communities in the global south
-Medicus Mundi Italia, Italy. BFAWinner 2023/24
In brief
People in the global south often seem to suggest that researchers from the global north are using them for research to get published or get grants. This can be a barrier to a meaningful health intervention. Medicus Mundi Italia proposes the following:
- Adopt a community-based participatory research approach, the CBPR. This approach addresses community concerns and empowers local populations by involving them in various stages of the research process rather than treating them as passive research subjects.
- It’s crucial to bridge the gaps between the academic approach and the local ways of doing things. Let the community lead and find common ground.
- Be sensitive to local traditions.
- Instead of starting something new, work with existing structures by getting their buy-in.
- Carry everyone along as you go, and most importantly, discuss the results of your research with them before publishing in journals.
Come back soon for more videos on community engagement