What Is Community Engagement in Healthcare—and Why Is It So Important?

Community engagement is increasingly recognized as the cornerstone of effective healthcare. Across the U.S. and around the world, health systems are learning that sustainable improvements in health outcomes are achieved not by working in isolation, but by building lasting, trusting partnerships with the communities they serve. When communities are involved in designing and delivering health initiatives, those programs are more likely to reflect local realities and be embraced by the people they’re intended to help. 

“My job is to make sure the voice of the patient and the voices of the community are heard, to create a seat at the table where no seat has existed before,” said Petrina Martin Cherry, BMC Health System’s Vice President of Community Engagement and External Affairs. 

Why community engagement is so crucial for health outcomes 

Partnerships through community engagement are particularly important in historically underserved neighborhoods where there’s mistrust of the medical system or barriers to access care. Research has shown that community engagement models in underserved areas have led to improved health outcomes, access to services, health literacy, public health, and health behaviors, such as physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and healthcare utilization. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boston Medical Center (@bostonmedicalcenter)

Public health promotion efforts—such as campaigns to reduce childhood obesity, boost screening for certain conditions, or increase vaccination rates—are most successful when they are shaped by community voices and delivered through trusted channels. Community engagement builds social cohesion, empowers individuals, and creates a sense of ownership that sustains positive change even after a specific program ends. 

Community engagement in action 

Boston Medical Center (BMC) weaves community engagement into the fabric of its everyday approach. 

COVID-19 vaccination response 

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, BMC ensured access to vaccines in the communities hardest hit. The hospital partnered with local faith leaders, community health centers, and other respected members of the community to set up vaccination sites in churches, local YMCAs, schools, and more. 

“We were worried that the communities we serve—higher SVI neighborhoods of Boston, largely neighborhoods of color—would not have the same level of access to vaccination capacity. And so we acted,” said Rob Koenig, vice president of strategy and operations at BMC, at the time.  

Cherry recalls how trust was built, not in the hospital’s walls, but in the familiar spaces where neighbors gather and decisions are made. 

“It was important for the community to trust us to provide access and care, and the only way to do that was to go to our trusted sources in the community,” she reflected in 2023. “They helped us get the access we needed to educate and provide vaccines… and most importantly, to really listen and hear back from them on what they needed.” 

The results were striking. In neighborhoods hardest hit by the virus, vaccine uptake rose. For many, the difference was not just in the medicine, but in the messenger. Reverend Willie Bodrick II of Twelfth Baptist Church remembers how congregants who were hesitant about vaccination changed their minds when BMC hosted clinics in the sanctuary they trusted. 

“There were many congregants and community folks who told me they would not have trusted the vaccine if we had not been giving it at the church. And I thought that was a huge testament to our partnership with BMC,” said Rev. Bodrick, reflecting in 2023. “We were able to vaccinate over 2,500 people. We knew we could help turn hurt into healing and give people hope. I believe we saved some lives.” 

Diabetes care 

Recognizing that Black, Hispanic, and Latino/a patients were experiencing far worse outcomes than their white peers, BMC brought together a multidisciplinary team that included not only clinicians, but also community leaders and patients themselves. 

This team worked to co-design interventions that were culturally relevant and responsive to the barriers patients faced—whether that meant providing education in multiple languages, addressing food insecurity, or making continuous glucose monitoring more accessible. The results have been transformative. 

“My job is to make sure the voice of the patient and the voices of the community are heard, to create a seat at the table where no seat has existed before.”

Petrina Martin Cherry, BMC Health System’s Vice President of Community Engagement and External Affairs

With more than 70 providers engaged in addressing diabetes inequities, BMC has enrolled more than 3,000 patients into programs, achieving a 50% reduction in diabetes inequity in 2023. Within the first 6 months, 39% of patients had their A1c levels decrease. In that same period, more than one-third of Black, Hispanic, or Latino patients reduced their A1c levels by 9%. 

Maternal health 

Maternal health is another area where community-driven approaches have made a measurable difference. At BMC, the Birth Sisters program is staffed by women from the same neighborhoods as the patients they serve. These community-based doulas provide not only clinical support, but also cultural understanding and advocacy for expectant mothers, many of whom face systemic barriers to care. 

By recruiting Birth Sisters who share the language, lived experience, and values of the families they support, BMC has created a model that improves both the experience and outcomes of childbirth. Mothers report feeling more empowered and respected, and the hospital has seen improvements in prenatal care access and birth outcomes.  

OBGYN teams also started remote monitoring programs for hypertension and produced patient education on preeclampsia. Intentional community engagement informed all of this work. 

“We wanted to examine health disparities from the perspective of root causes,” said Thea James, MD, MPH, MBA, vice president of mission and executive director of the Health Equity Accelerator. “We decided to have patients help us interpret the data as well as help us to come up with solutions.” 

Maintaining community engagement  

Community engagement is not one single project or initiative; it’s a sustained symbiotic process grounded in trust, cultural sensitivity, and shared goals. By centering community voices in decision-making, hospitals and health systems can build trust that endures beyond any single program. 

“Trust is easily broken, so once you build trust, it has to be maintained. The way we maintain that trust at BMC is by having a constant presence in the community,” said Cherry. “The more they see us, the more we’re able to build and maintain that trust.”