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This paper explores the concept of community archives as community building tools. Through a systematic review of literature, we have found consistent themes in how communities participate in community archives and the effects archives have on the formation of community identity. We discuss the ways in which physical archival spaces, events in the community, and digital archives work to create representation and engage communities that have historically been left out of the archives as well as how community archival practices differ from mainstream archives. These differences sometimes cause conflicts between community archives and more traditional archival institutions which we also acknowledge in this review. In these ways we present the unique role community archives play in not only their communities, but also the wider archival profession.