New Paper: “Engaging Communities Through the Arts: A Proposed Framework and Model in Public Health Initiatives”
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that there is an urgent need for more effective approaches to connect people from varying cultures and communities to public health solutions in ways that are accessible, helpful, and meaningful.
In this Issues in Brief, Marial Williams argues that community engagement through the arts can be a means of improving future public health campaigns. She presents two foundational methodologies — the Culture of Health framework and the Multisensory Multilevel Health Education Model — and explores the ways in which the framework and model can leverage the arts, culture, and community to improve public health initiatives in the future.
Marial Williams is a violinist and occupational therapy doctoral candidate at the Boston University College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College. She has experience in both the arts and healthcare sectors, and her work primarily focuses on musicians’ wellbeing, health literacy, and health education. She was a 2020 Graduate Summer Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.