What is Community Engagement?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines community engagement as “…the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the wellbeing of those people. It is a powerful vehicle for bringing about environmental and behavioral changes that will improve the health of the community and its members. It often involves partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems, change relationships among partners, and serve as catalysts for changing policies, programs, and practices” (CDC, 1997, Principles, p. 9).
The stages of community engagement, as adapted from the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2, 2018), include:
CalFresh Healthy Living, UC’s Approach
Intentional community engagement practices in CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California (UC) support health equity, improvement of health promotion and health outcomes, new collaboration opportunities, and sustainability of programming. With community engagement as a foundational component of CalFresh Healthy Living, UC, local UC Cooperative Extension (CE) SNAP-Ed teams work closely and collaboratively with the community conducting asset mapping, elevating local issues, and building on local strengths. CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE programs continue adding new tools and strategies to advance their community engagement work.
CalFresh Healthy Living, UC partners with Stanford University Medicine to utilize Stanford’s Our Voice approach for engaging community members as citizen scientists in exploring and identifying assets and barriers to health in their communities. To learn more about CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE implementation of Our Voice, visit the Our Voice: Citizen Science for Health Equity with CFHL, UC webpage.
Resources and Training
Additional resources and training for Community Engagement include:
- The CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Community Engagement Workgroup presented about Community Engagement during the January 2023 CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Town Hall (42:38-1:06:16).
- The ASNNA Guiding Principles to Embed Equity in SNAP-Ed document provides direction and support to SNAP-Ed teams in their ongoing equity-centered efforts.
- The Public Health Institute Center for Wellness and Nutrition developed a Community Engagement Toolkit: A Participatory Action Approach Towards Health Equity and Justice to provide communities with activities, tools and resources that support community engagement.
- The University of Arizona developed a series of Community Engagement Learning Modules focused on supporting community-driven SNAP-Ed programming.