In this guest post, Lauri Andress continues her series on community participation and public health. In order to bring more clarity to the concept of community participation, Lauri provides a framework that
attempts to discern a range of benefits that stem from community participation. She argues that some justifications for community participation are more likely to benefit the community than others. Also outlined are various mechanisms through which these benefits impact population health.

This guest post is the first in a series of posts which will critique the use of community participatory methods in public health. The author of this series, Lauri Andress, is a public health policy analyst at Andress & Associates where she advises US public health departments on policies, programs, and competencies related to health inequities. In this introductory piece, Lauri introduces the idea of community involvement and demonstrates its alignment with a social determinants of health perspective.