Community organizing and public health: A rapid review
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Community organizing to build power and advance health equity
This rapid review is based on the ideas that (a) advancing health equity requires shifting the balance of power so that communities currently facing inequities increase their control over decisions that impact their lives, and (b) community organizing is a critical strategy for building community power.
Building on those two concepts, the paper explores public health’s partnership with community-organizing groups and use of community-organizing methods.
The authors define community organizing as:
| the processes by which people who have a common identity or purpose unite to build relationships, identify shared issues, collectively analyze those issues to understand structural injustices, develop collective goals based on that analysis, and implement strategies and tactics to reach those goals including: developing leadership skills, activating members for direct action and campaigning, expanding group membership, and building power among the group and broader community to influence decisions, set agendas, and shift worldviews. |
Applying community-organizing methods in public health
The rapid review included 24 articles focused on public health applying community-organizing methods and/or partnering with community-organizing groups on varied issues such as environmental health and justice, migrant health, social capital, and employment and working conditions.
The authors of the review identify a number of benefits of community organizing, including increasing public health effectiveness, setting or changing priorities, building community power, enhancing data collection and research, changing policy, building community capacity, and increasing social capital.
Despite a scarcity of research on public health partnering with community organizers or utilizing community-organizing methods, the review underscores the capacity of community organizing to advance health equity and enhance public health effectiveness. As the authors conclude, the review “emphasizes the value of community-organizing partnerships and methods as promising approaches for public health practice, revealing alignment in addressing social and structural determinants of health.”
Use this resource to
- Deepen understanding of public health’s work with community-organizing groups and use of community-organizing methods
- Facilitate discussions about the benefits of partnering with community-organizing groups and using organizing methods to advance health equity
Related resources:
Let's Talk: Redistributing power to advance health equity
Let’s Talk: Determinants of health
Let’s Talk: Community engagement for health equity
Blog: Movement-building as intersectoral action to achieve health equity
Reference
Jimenez, C., & Heller, J. C. (2025). Community organizing and public health: A rapid review. BMC Public Health, 25, Article 669. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-21303-8
Tags: Community engagement, Structural determinants, Power, Partner with other sectors, Document, Journal Article