Engaging With Communities — Lessons (Re)Learned From COVID-19

COVID-19 has exacerbated the disparities that minority populations face, disparities that partially stem from these populations' mistrust of government, research, and healthcare institutions due to a history of abuse by these institutions. In order to reach more members of these populations, it's important for medical professionals to collaborate with community organizations that have already gained the trust of their population base. This article gives examples of successful community partnerships that can be used as a starting point or examples for establishing partnerships in your own communities. At the end of the article is a bullet point list of steps that the public health sector can take in order to engage with communities and work towards sustained change.