Commentary - Community Involvement and Prevention Science in and with Communities – Where do we go next?

This commentary piece reflects on the 2024 EUSPR Conference and its theme of ‘Prevention in and with communities’. We discuss the challenges that Prevention Science needs to address as it develops community involvement in its work. After briefly summarising some of the key definitions and boundaries of community involvement, we consider three key challenges which were highlighted during the Cremona conference. The first concerns the importance of building skills and capacity for community involvement and the role of organisations such as the EUSPR. Second, we explore the challenges of balancing involvement of the community and safeguarding evidence-based-practice principles (EBP), and potential strategies to achieve this. Community involvement need not be in opposition to research evidence or the principles of EBP. Third, the value of assessing the impact and quality of community involvement is discussed. We look at the need for researchers to report on the design and outcomes of community involvement, and the imperative to avoid causing harm such as excluding certain individuals/groups. In the concluding section of the commentary, we answer the question of ‘Where do we go next?’ by highlighting some specific steps in which the EUSPR (and other Prevention Science societies) have an important contribution to make. These include training and capacity building, knowledge exchange on the implementation of community involvement within research projects and developing dialogues with the public whose communities the EUSPR conference takes place within.