Community Engagement Toolkit

• Respecting the community also means respecting each individual, their identity, and their specific needs, perspectives, and lived experiences.
• Respect requires being knowledgeable about the community and their customs, as well as their past and current experiences.
• Working to meet the community needs, recognizing their strengths, and letting others lead are all ways to practice respectful community engagement.

Cultural Humility

Cultural humility is a process of self-reflection and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of her/his own beliefs and cultural identities (Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998). In community engagement, practicing cultural humility will improve communication, help establish trust, and overall improve the engagement process while simultaneously promoting personal growth and reflection.

Things to Consider:

• Cultural humility is an ongoing commitment, not simply a goal with an endpoint.

Resources for Cultural Humility:

• Project READY Module 8: Cultural Competence & Cultural Humility
• Cultural Competency/Humility Courses (Colorado School of Public Health)

This toolkit was originally created by NLM Fellow Allison Cruise in conjunction with the Office of Engagement & Training at the National Library of Medicine. Allison Cruise spent her 2nd Fellowship Year at UNM HSLIC.