Community power is the ability of communities most impacted by harmful policies and practices to develop and sustain an organized base of people and influence laws and decisions that promote or prevent healthy outcomes.
When we build community power, we:
- Act collectively to foster shared purpose and collaboration among stakeholders to improve the effectiveness of public health laws and policies.
- Shift narratives to get at the root of why some communities experience worse health outcomes than others.
- Engage communities authentically, to ensure inclusive, meaningful, and transparent involvement of stakeholders in the public health and policy decision-making processes.
- Cultivate ongoing relationships to build sustained, trust-based relationships to ensure the long-term success of public health initiatives.1
This is a technical definition – so let’s unpack it. What does community power building mean to you?
- What does it mean to act collectively to improve policy?
- What would this look like? Feel like?
- What examples have you seen work?
- What does it mean to shift narratives on important policy issues?
- What narratives exist in society?
- What narratives do you want to uplift? Who carries these narratives most authentically?
- What does it mean to engage communities authentically on policies?
- What decisions need to be made?
- Who might typically make them? Who could make them?
- What does it mean to cultivate ongoing relationships in policy change processes?
- What relationships do you already have that work well? What works well about them?
- Where is there room for improvement? What would this look like? Feel like?
- What are examples of community-based relationships that are sustained over time? What makes it possible?
These questions are meant for ongoing reflection, not for one-time use. As partners join, meaning is made and findings move into action. Return to these questions regularly to keep community perspectives centered, build community capacity, and improve the fairness and effectiveness of public health policies.
As you progress through the phases of the legal epidemiology process, reflect on the corresponding community engagement questions and consider how community engagement can be built upon and/or strengthened in each phase.
“… laws are merely expressions of a society’s dominant beliefs. It’s the beliefs that must shift in order for outcomes to change. When policies change in advance of the underlying beliefs, we are often surprised to find the problem still with us.”
Heather McGee, The Sum of Us
These dominant beliefs that McGee references, or narratives, are deeply-held mindsets or values-based stories that we collectively (and often implicitly) hold to help us understand our world. When we question and uncover our own individual and collective subconscious narratives, and gather new data and listen deeply to broaden our worldviews, we can create or uplift new narratives that change our perspectives for why a disparity exists, often by amplifying the wisdom and truths of those most impacted.
1 Definition adapted by Health Resources in Action, from Lead Local (https://www.lead-local.org/glossary)
