"It's not hard to reach — it's that we don't try hard enough to reach people."
In this expert interview, Angela Harden, Professor of Community and Family Health, shares why community engagement is not the "nice to have" of public health — it is the essential.
Angela's work begins by introducing a radical shift: instead of asking communities to come to the health system, she goes out to meet them — in barber shops, nail bars, markets, community centers, and churches. She calls this an asset-based approach: recognizing that communities already hold the networks, the knowledge, and the lived expertise needed to drive change.
When it comes to vaccination, Angela argues that meaningful uptake requires bringing communities and health professionals into the same room, giving both groups a voice, and building a joint agenda from the ground up. She describes how this approach consistently shows a trend toward greater effectiveness in health interventions — and makes the case that it is time for it to become the mainstream, not a pilot.
Key takeaway: Vaccination confidence can't be lectured into communities. It has to be built from within them.
