The C’s of Community Engagement
On September 29, 2025, the UCLA Department of Medicine (DoM) hosted the first community engagement summit, bringing together safety net partners, community-based organization members and leaders, staff, trainees, academic and cross-sector colleagues from varied specialties and disciplines looking to collaborate on community-engaged health work. The idea for the event developed from the DoM’s strategic plan pillar, community engagement and investment, and provided a visible platform for partners to voice needs and priorities and to guide future community-centered collaborations.
The event "pushed pause" on all daily routines and invited focus on the meaning of the theme "Rooted in LA, Growing Together in Community." Alejandra Casillas, MD, a primary care physician, community-partnered health services researcher, and the associate vice chair for community impact in the UCLA DoM Office of Community Engagement and Inclusive Excellence (CEIE), prompted us to consider, “what the 'c' of community represents for us - to convene, connect, collaborate, center, constructively critique, create, and celebrate.”
Community as a verb anchored the day and framed the messages we gleaned.
Our minds pictured people at the center when Homeboy Industries Co-CEO, Shirley Torres, critiqued and challenged prevailing views. “This idea that healing can only happen in community, that it doesn’t happen in isolation...that’s the connective tissue that will help someone feel worthy…So that [they] can see [themselves] and want to have a different pathway for how [they] dream of [their] life and [their] children,” she said.
We heard about connection as an action from Fabian Debora, executive director at Homeboy Art Academy, as he explained, “It’s the community and kinship and seeing people and the relationship building that’s gonna build the trust for vulnerability to take its shape into the human transformation.”
Collaboration became a series of initiatives and activities described by community members and UCLA faculty featured in the DoM LA Collaboration in Action session. Jack Cheung, COO for the China Service Center noted, “I just want to say how much it really empowers us as a community health center, to work with an academic institution. It means a lot to the community.”
Marques Vestal, PhD, a professor of urban planning and critical Black urbanism at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, contextualized and critiqued the history of property conflict to link it to the broader transformation of urban development and homelessness in the LA community.
Pastor Vernon Andrews and Minister Damond Collier from Big Homies Foundation showed what it meant to create as they intertwined their stories with the realities of the people they serve and invited collaboration and education. “When you teach one man, then he's gonna teach another man,” Pastor Andrews stated. “And that takes the load off of you. Once you teach us, we can teach somebody else.”
Miriam Hernandez, MD, spoke from her experiences as the workforce development director of Visión y Compromiso to remind us that “one of the assets that our community has is they want to be involved; they want to collaborate; they want to work together with faculty, with physicians, with nurses, and healthcare providers. And Promotoras, community health workers, …bridge between the community and all of them.”
The afternoon breakout sessions gave attendees space to connect, create, and offer critiques on the goals of the DoM research, education, community engagement/ investment, and patient care pillars.
In sum, the day served to provide a time and space for attendees to pause together, celebrate the power of community, and cultivate actionable next steps. Keith Norris, MD, PhD, executive vice chair for community engagement and inclusive excellence & co-moderator for both panel sessions, noted, "The energy in the room was palpable. And the pillar committee has already begun to plan steps to support ongoing collaboration and grow partnerships to deepen our engagement with community partners."
Read Dr. Abel’s October 27 weekly message to learn more about the DoM for LA Inaugural Summit.
Finally, we welcome your feedback, collaboration, and ideas as we refine the community engagement/ investment pillar of our DoM Strategic Plan over the upcoming months.
In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. - Marianne Williamson
