Community Engagement

Community Engagement

At HLB-SIMPLe, we recognize the profound impact of HIV and associated comorbidities on individuals, families, and communities worldwide. Meaningful engagement fosters trust and partnerships between researchers, healthcare providers, community organizations, and people affected by HIV. These partnerships are essential for co-designing research initiatives, implementing interventions, and ensuring the relevance and impact of our work. We are committed to meaningful community engagement as an essential component of our research approach and formed a community engagement subcommittee to keep us on track.

Alliance colleagues, we want to hear from you!

Please send us updates about your community engagement activities so that we can share them on this page and via the HLB-SIMPLe newsletter. Remember to send pictures (with consent when applicable)!

HLB-SIMPLe Community Engagement Subcommittee

Vision
Our vision is to foster relations between civil society and scientists, building a network for community engagement in HIV and hypertension care in Africa.

Subcommittee aims
1. Support the operationalization of community-engaged research in the context of implementation science.
2. Facilitate sharing of best practices and lessons learned for community-engaged research among the HLB-SIMPLE Alliance and beyond.

Some of the committee’s accomplishments to date:

  • Developed and implemented a baseline survey in 2022 to assess community engagement understandings and approaches of each of the six HLB-SIMPLe research projects.
  • Conducted check-ins with each research project to document community engagement activities and best practices among HLB-SIMPLe members and to identify community engagement support needs across the Alliance.
  • Started collaborations with other HLB-S Alliance sub-committees to amplify and cross-pollinate community engagement efforts.

Current subcommittee leadership

Chair: Eno Angela Attah (MAP-IT Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State Primary Healthcare Development Agency)
RCC Community Engagement Lead: Angela Brown (Washington University in St. Louis)