Planning and Conducting Health Education for Community Members

Health education is any combination of learning experiences designed to help individuals and communities improve their environmental health literacy. The goals of health education are to increase awareness of local environmental conditions, potential exposures, and the impacts of exposures on individual and public health. Health education can also prepare community members to receive and better understand the findings of your public health work.

Some health education takes the form of shorter, one-on-one, or small group conversations with community members, state, territorial, local, and tribal (STLT) partners, and stakeholders. In the beginning of your public health work, you may need to constantly educate community members about exposure sources and exposure pathways –that is, how they may encounter harmful substances.

Later in your public health work, you may want to do a full community workshop or participate in existing community events to increase understanding about specific exposures related to the chemical of concern. Be sure to address how the harmful substance may be encountered, levels of exposure, and ways community members can prevent, reduce, or eliminate exposure. There may be other concerns that are not chemical-specific, such as environmental odors and community stress.

Health education is a professional discipline with unique graduate-level training and credentialing. Health educators are critical partners that advise in the development and implementation of health education programs. Public health work benefits from the skills that a health educator can provide. (See resource: What Is a Health Education Specialist? external icon ) If you don’t have this training, see what you can do to build your skills and improve your one-on-one and small group educational conversations. Health educators may also work with other public health professionals such as health communication specialists. Health communication specialists develop communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health.

• Assess individual and community needs for health education. (See activity: Developing a Community Profile)
• Ask community members about factors that directly or indirectly increase the degree of exposure to environmental contamination. Factors may include community members accessing a hazardous site or the presence of lead in house paint, soil, or water.
• Develop a health education plan.
• Listen for opportunities to provide health education throughout your community engagement work.