  Citation: Williamson, D.H.Z. Using the Community Engagement Framework to Understand and Assess EJ-Related Research Efforts. Sustainability 2022, 14, 2809. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su14052809 Academic Editor: John T. Cooper Received: 1 February 2022 Accepted: 24 February 2022 Published: 28 February 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Review Using the Community Engagement Framework to Understand and Assess EJ-Related Research Efforts Dana H. Z. Williamson Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), Environmental Health Fellow Hosted at Scientific Integrity Program, Office of Science Advisor and Policy Engagement (OSAPE), Office of Research and Development (ORD), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Washington, DC 20004, USA; williamson.dana@epa.gov; Tel.: +1-404-594-1156 Abstract: Within an environmental justice frame, capacity-building has been an important component of efforts to address health disparities at the policy, system, and environment levels. While the literature is replete with studies that discuss the necessity of collective action as a means to generate power to overcome inequities, limited attention has been given to the structure of these efforts to build capacity and challenge environmental injustices. This study applies the community engagement continuum as a framework for understanding the scope of capacity-building strategies and the manner in which research investigators engage with their intended target community. Paired teams of independent analysts screened articles for relevance (n = 8452), identified records for content abstraction (n = 163), and characterized relevant studies (n = 58). Many articles discussed community engagement as being either collaborative or shared leadership (n = 32, 55.2%). While the most commonly used capacity-building strategies were organizing/social action (58.6%) and CBPR (50%), few studies were able to make an environmental impact (n = 23; 39.7%), and fewer had a direct legislative policy-related outcome (n = 13; 22.4%). This review identifies levels of collaborative involvement and strategic approaches used for strengthening community capacity in efforts of making transformative policy, systems, and environmental change. Keywords: community engagement; community capacity; environmental justice; praxis; mobilization; empowerment; social justice; advocacy; equity 1. Introduction Explicit and implicit discrimination in environmental policymaking, targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, and under-resourcing and overburdening of communities have been collectively termed environmental racism [1] and have plagued the United States for decades [2]. The environmental justice (EJ) movement demands that “everyone is entitled to equal protection and enforcement of environmental health, housing, land use, transportation, energy and civil rights laws and regulations” [3], and over the past 30 years, has progressed to incorporate all aspects of “where we live, work, play, and pray” [3]. Additionally, EJ has expanded to a framework for organizing [4–9] to include but not be limited to food justice [10], green space [11], climate change [12], immigrant and indigenous rights [13] and refurbishment of brownfields [14]. The EJ framework delineates the necessity of centering the experiences of low-income groups, communities of color, and underrepresented groups to reduce the disproportionate exposure to adverse environmental impacts and hazards. The patterning of environmental inequity has received great attention [15] and many studies have further highlighted the pervasive nature of race as the variable most consis- tently associated with higher risk and proximity to environmental hazards. Accordingly, overburdened communities have been a focus area for many institutions, foundation ini- tiatives, and practitioners in the fields of public health, public policy, urban planning, Sustainability 2022, 14, 2809. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052809 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability