A recent report commissioned by the British government,  Empowering Communities to Influence Local Decision Making: Evidence-Based Lessons for Policy Makers and Practitioners , provides a very useful survey of issues and challenges in community empowerment.  It emphasizes how important it is to start from a solid understanding of the goals and dynamics of community empowerment and of the local community.  It then reviews available participatory and engagement tools, including citizen governance, participatory budgeting and electronic participation, and the challenges of this mix, such as who engages and who benefits, cost effectiveness, and risks.  Most importantly, it argues that the most effective mix of tools needs to begin from clear objectives of what residents and local authorities want the engagement to accomplish.  It concludes by emphasizing that the working culture of organizations needs to change to make community empowerment central rather than marginal or occasional.  While designed with British local authorities in mind, its comprehensive review of the state of the art, broad framework and clear strategic advice will be relevant to Canadian municipalities, public health, regional health authorities and LHINs, and government Ministries.