Community Engagement for Public Health in Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Community engagement, in public health practice, includes a wide range of activities to work with community members to promote well-being and achieve more equitable health outcomes. This kind of work was critical to pandemic preparedness and response during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cleveland has a vibrant landscape of community organizations, community health workers and activists, academics, and public health practitioners working to improve health equity in the city, but engagement efforts are often siloed or short-term.

Our team recently conducted research in Cleveland, Ohio to revisit community engagement during the pandemic and document lessons learned for future preparedness. This evidence brief includes those lessons learned and ways to consider applying learning to public health strategy.