Lessons on Community Engagement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Portfolio

Community engagement is a cornerstone of effective and fiscally responsible public health initiatives, especially in the prevention of child sexual abuse (CSA). It helps to ensure the voices, experiences, and perspectives of those directly affected by CSA prevention are central to research processes. This approach promotes collaboration, trust, and shared decision-making, leading to the development of programs and policies that are responsive to community needs and, therefore, more likely to succeed. This brief report synthesizes the community engagement experiences and lessons learned across nine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded projects focused on the primary prevention of CSA. CDC and CDC Foundation scientific collaborators discussed community engagement with principal investigators (PIs) and project team members during ongoing project monitoring. These informal conversations provided insights into perspectives and strategies for community engagement, as well as the challenges and considerations for engaging communities in prevention research. Detailed notes were taken and compiled to describe these experiences. Findings offer a range of examples of community engagement practices employed by CDC's CSA portfolio recipients and provide insight into lessons learned for researchers and practitioners aiming to strengthen community partnerships in CSA prevention.