Enhancing the Health of Communities: A Primer on Empowerment

Abstract Through the demonstration of many successful models in community empowerment, this PowerPoint presentation increases the critical consciousness of medical students, residents, and faculty to understand their capacity to empower communities to make the health changes that are important to them. The module introduces the concept of social determinants of health and how they impact the health of the individual. The stages of community empowerment, specific empowerment models, and factors that enhance successful engagement of the community are explored to give the viewers tools that can be utilized in their work with communities. The PowerPoint was distributed at the AAMC Conference on Patients and Populations: Public Health in Medical Education in September 2010. It was also distributed to Preventive Medicine Staff at Mayo Clinic, to selected individuals in the Medical community, and at the University of Minnesota. There has been interest in incorporating the module into a curriculum in Public Health for medical students. This module will increase critical consciousness and will demonstrate the process for medical students, residents and faculty to make a difference in health changes that mean the most to communities.