Community Engagement’s refreshing approach doesn’t follow the nonprofit industrial complex status quo of “poverty” as a cultural attribute and shows how public health benefits from an economic diversity of community ecosystem members with the potential for new and more effective relationships.

A healthier future for all requires skillful leaders working for the public’s health — those who can bring together diverse voices, experiences, and capacities to advance comprehensive and systemic change. Community Engagement offers community health practitioners a playbook and illustrative stories for doing just that: centering community in operationalizing health in all practices, all policies, and all investments.

Community Engagement explores the full acknowledgement and acceptance of a community’s assets. When one activates their engagement practices that are genuinely grounded in equity, these engagements intentionally provide opportunities for shared power and decisionmaking, shared resources, and ownership of concept and practice. Community Engagement is the essence of understanding that there is no work without the intellectual and social capital of the people at their discretion.

Community Engagement is not only an open letter for public leaders but for anyone working to drive systemic change in our communities. With examples across the country, this guide provides tangible and hopeful ways we can work together to dismantle unjust systems in partnership with the talents, vibrancy, and voices of our communities.