Strategic Skills for Public Health Practice: Community Engagement

Authors: Emily Yu, MBA
Released: December 2022 Length: 108 Pages Published By: APHA Press Price: $40.00
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Community Engagement is the first book to be published in the Strategic Skills for Public Health Practice series. This book brings the concept of community engagement to life through first-person stories, real-world examples, and valuable insights from leaders across sectors. Curated specifically for public health practitioners and those interested in supporting community health, the book’s chapters, guidance, and perspectives from the field will enhance readers’ understanding of community-centered design and equip them to support organizational practices that drive better health for all.

Table of contents
Read introduction
  • How community members and leaders define engagement and opportunities for improvement
  • How communities and institutions can collaborate for success
  • Approaches for centering community engagement by reimagining the why, who, what, and how
  • Ways to identify and implement strategic health and social impact practices that can lead to community transformation
  • Emily Yu, MBA, Former Executive Director, The BUILD Health Challenge®
  • Lisa Beczkiewicz, Missoula City-County Health Department
  • James Bell III, DSW, Just Solutions LLC
  • Natasha Butler, CHW, CHWI, Maternal Upstream Management
  • Manuel J. Castañeda, MS, MJ, New Brunswick Tomorrow
  • Jodi Cunningham, PhD, The Community Builders, Inc.
  • Patrick J. Cusick MSPH, REHS, Cleveland Department of Public Health
  • Evette De Luca, The Social Impact Artists
  • Kim Foreman, Environmental Health Watch
  • Sarah Garber, MS, Missoula City-County Health Department
  • Nichelle Gilbert, Partnership for Community Action
  • C. Benzel Jimmerson, Metro DEEP, Metropolitan Diversity and Economic Equity Partners
  • Melissa Monbouquette, MPA, The BUILD Health Challenge
  • Jennifer Muggeo, MPH, Ledge Light Health District
  • Jessica Mulcahy, MA, Success Measures at NeighborWorks America
  • Ana P. Novias, Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services

Media requests

To request a copy or an interview with an author, please send an email to [email protected].

Published by

APHA Press

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What people are saying about
Strategic Skills for Public Health Practice: Community Engagement

Majora Carter, CEO of the Majora Carter Group, LLC

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.

Majora Carter, CEO of the Majora Carter Group, LLC
Tyler Norris, MDiv, Founding CEO, Well Being Trust; Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

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.

Tyler Norris, MDiv, Founding CEO, Well Being Trust; Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Shavon L. Arline-Bradley, MPH, MDiv, President, REACH Beyond Solutions LLC; Co-Founder, The Hub Strategists; Co-Founder, Health Equity Cypher

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.

Shavon L. Arline-Bradley, MPH, MDiv, President, REACH Beyond Solutions LLC; Co-Founder, The Hub Strategists; Co-Founder, Health Equity Cypher
Kate Emanuel, Chief Strategy Officer, The Ad Council

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.

Kate Emanuel, Chief Strategy Officer, The Ad Council

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