Groucho Marx once said, “I’d never join any organization that would invite me to be a member.”

 Well, we’d want Groucho in our organization, and (if he were alive) we think we might get him to join.

 That’s because we want members from all sectors of the community. And that’s what this section is about.

Community engagement can take many forms, and partners can include organized groups, agencies, institutions, or individuals. Collaborators may be engaged in health promotion, research, or policy making.

Community engagement can also be seen as a continuum of community involvement. Figure 1.1 below, modified from a diagram originally drawn by the International Association for Public Participation, illustrates one way of thinking about such a continuum. Over time, a specific collaboration is likely to move along this continuum toward greater community involvement, and any given collaboration is likely to evolve in other ways, too. Most notably, while community engagement may be achieved during a time-limited project, it frequently involves — and often evolves into — long-term partnerships that move from the traditional focus on a single health issue to address a range of social, economic, political, and environmental factors that affect health.

At the Riverside County Black Chamber of Commerce we want to move you from outreach engagement to shared leadership in our efforts to reduce the impact of flavored tobacco in African American communities. We want to train leaders under the Inland Empire Smoke Out Initiative, and support the development of our leaders. Please call (951) 823-0175 to find out how you can get engaged in our project!

Information Retrieved from: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/communityengagement/pce_what.html