A suite of implementation-focused resources follows the release of an innovative Conceptual Model from the Assessing Meaningful Community Engagement in Health & Health Care Programs & Policies project.
Meaningful community engagement has the power to help transform systems—in particular, the systems that influence and impact health. In order to fulfill and accelerate progress toward health equity for the nation, health and health care systems, programs, policies, and interventions must place communities and community engagement at the center.
The National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Leadership Consortium: Collaboration for a Learning Health System (LC)’s Assessing Meaningful Community Engagement project aims to offer a menu of indicators and metrics to support a wide range of audiences in measuring community engagement. The effort is supported by funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the California Health Care Foundation along with guidance from a diverse Organizing Committee of community leaders, researchers, designers, and policy advisors with expertise in engagement—who provided a wide variety of diversity, including geographic location, race/ethnicity, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
In 2022, the project released an innovative Conceptual Model presenting the dynamic relationship between engagement and improved health and health care outcomes. This NAM Perspectives Commentary describes the Model components in detail and illustrates how community engagement, its principles, and outcomes can lead to health equity and transformed systems for health.
Building on the Model, the project launched a suite of resources to support assessing and measuring engagement and its impact, including:
- Seven Impact Stories,
- 28 Assessment Instruments, and
- A Guide on how best to use these resources.
Impact Stories
Seven new Impact Stories offer real-world insight into a variety of approaches to the complex process of community engagement. These Stories represent individual perspectives and snapshots of community engagement efforts across a wide range of engagement levels, communities, geographic locations, and health topics. Explore the Impact Stories, which include videos, audio, and written text to provide an immersive understanding: https://nam.edu/programs/value-science-driven-health-care/assessing-meaningful-community-engagement/introduction-to-ace-impact-stories/.
Assessment Instruments
Twenty-eight Assessment Instruments provide the “nuts and bolts” for putting the Conceptual Model into action and measuring the impact of community engagement efforts. These Instruments include standard questions or question sets that help users assess community engagement in a consistent way. The accompanying summaries feature key information on the Instruments, such as a high-level overview of each Instrument, which audiences used it, what it assesses, how it was developed, and more. Read more about the Instruments and use them yourself: https://nam.edu/programs/value-science-driven-health-care/assessing-meaningful-community-engagement/introduction-to-assessment-instrument-summaries/.
Guide to Using the Resources
The Assessing Meaningful Engagement Organizing Committee has also developed a dissemination tool to help audiences understand each inter-related resource and its potential use. The Guide provides descriptions on the Conceptual Model, Impact Stories, and Assessment Instruments, as well as examples of how they can be used. The Guide also includes key audiences that can benefit from using these resources, important terminology, and an outline for developing a plan to assess community engagement. Navigate The Guide to see how these resources can support community engagement for you: https://nam.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ACE-Guide-to-Using-Resources_FINAL.pdf
Coming Soon
Later this year, a Virtual Tour will be released to walk audiences through the development of each resource and provide insights into how to use them in a variety of settings.
Additionally, the project will release a NAM Publication detailing the process and potential impact of their work to date. This publication will also outline a framework for advancing this newly released suite of resources to promote meaningful and impactful community engagement.
To provide feedback on this initiative, please use the survey linked here. Additional thoughts and insights can be shared with the project team by email at leadershipconsortium@nas.edu and include “measure engagement” in the subject line.
Learn more about the initiatives mentioned in this announcement:
- NAM Leadership Consortium: Collaboration for a Learning Health System
- Assessing Meaningful Community Engagement
- Conceptual Model
- NAM Perspectives Commentary
- Impact Stories
- Assessment Instruments
- Guide to Using the Resources
For media inquiries, contact:
Dana Korsen | Director, Media Relations
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu
For questions about the initiative, contact:
LeadershipConsortium@nas.edu
