Empowering Community Stakeholders: Novel Approaches to Address Health Inequities

The field of public health research has increasingly recognized the critical role of engaging community leaders, patients, and stakeholders as equal partners throughout the research continuum. This approach ensures that the research concerns of populations with lived experiences are acknowledged and addressed, particularly in efforts to reduce social, structural, and physical environmental inequities. Despite the growing emphasis on community-based research, there remains a significant gap in establishing collaborative, mutually beneficial partnerships between academic and non-academic parties. These partnerships are essential for acknowledging stakeholders as equitable partners, especially in underserved, economically constrained, and minoritized communities. The absence of their voices exacerbates existing health inequities and disparities. Recent studies have highlighted the need for novel strategies to achieve equitable partnerships, which are crucial for creating a more representative knowledge base that spans from grassroots to policy levels. However, there is still a need for a coordinated effort to efficiently address the public health needs of community stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of innovative engagement approaches.

This research topic aims to explore and document novel strategies for the equitable engagement of community partners across the research continuum. The primary objective is to identify and evaluate innovative approaches that foster equitable partnerships between various stakeholders involved in public health research. Key questions include how to effectively design, implement, and disseminate public health research in collaboration with community partners, and how to measure the success and sustainability of these engagement efforts. By addressing these questions, the research seeks to contribute to the elimination of health disparities and the empowerment of community stakeholders.

To gather further insights into the equitable engagement of community partners in public health research, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Innovative strategies for partnering with stakeholders in public health research design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination.
- Comparative evaluation of different engagement approaches.
- Models of community and/or patient engagement to address health inequities.
- Tools and instruments to measure stakeholder engagement outcomes.
- Measures of success for effective stakeholder engagement.
- Methods to sustain stakeholder engagement over time.
- Engagement strategies in complex and uncertain contexts, such as the intersection of health and climate change.
- Case study examples of successful community empowerment initiatives.

Keywords: Community engagement, Community-based participatory research, Evidence-based Practice, Population-based Practice, Translational Research

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.