Community Engagement of African Americans in the Era of COVID-19: Considerations, Challenges, Implications, and Recommendations for Public Health

This article summarizes the challenges COVID-19 poses to African American communities, policy considerations, and recommendations based on community members/community-based participatory research. Recommendations include: (1) Promote local community leadership to proactively inform mitigation strategies; (2) Strategically engage public health and community-attuned policy leaders and prioritize community stimulus strategies; (3) Cultivate community-informed public health disaster health literacy; (4) Foster culturally tailored behavioral and mental health dialogue and response; (5) Prioritize patient-centered medical homes and neighborhood models and (6) Redefine essential workers.

Resource Details

• Population: Black or African American
• Setting/Context of Implementation: Community
• Topics of Practice: Outreach/ Education/ Communications
• Outcomes of Interest: Advancing Racial Equity|Partnership Building|Reduction of Health Disparities
• Level of Evidence: Emerging
• Tools or Materials Included in Resource: No
• Social Determinants of Health: Healthcare Access and Quality|Social and Community Context
• Outside of US: No