About the ARISE Toolkit

This approach for community engagement is guided by the IOM framework for public health action in communities, which is an evidence-based model for facilitating change and improvement in communities. The five-phase Community Tool Box (CTB) Community Engagement Model will guide researchers in how to assess, plan, act/implement, evaluate, and sustain appropriate forms of community engagement within their research efforts. The model can help operationalize the engagement process, particularly for researchers with less experience integrating community-engaged research approaches.

The IOM model was developed and tested by the KU Center for Community Health and Development, and later adopted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) as a framework for public health action in communities. The five-phase IOM model has been effective in facilitating systems-level change and improvement in communities to address a range of issues. This Community Engagement Toolkit provides a sequence of activities and tasks that can be supported to support community-informed research. Through the toolkit, CTB content will be provided and updated to guide researchers in how to support the process of engagement from the most basic to applied projects. The CTB reaches over 6 million users annually and can help to model and disseminate how community engagement and outreach is supported throughout the research efforts.

As shown below, the five-phase model (lettered items) is supported by 12 evidence-based processes (numbered items) that research has found to support community initiatives in effectively changing community conditions and targeted outcomes. Based on the model, assessment and collaborative planning (A) should help determine appropriate forms of community action (B) and guide the implementation of community and systems change (i.e., new or modified programs, policies, and practices) (C). Then, the implementation of community/systems change leads to widespread changes in targeted behaviors and risk factors for prioritized populations and groups of people (D), which contributes to improvements in more longer-term outcomes (E). Community participation and collaboration are supported throughout each phase of the process.

View citations and resources for implementation of the 12 Best Change Processes on the Community Tool Box.

IOM Model