Community engagement

Depending on who you speak to, the word “community” or “engagement” could mean anything, however, an effective way to understanding community and engagement with community, would be through mapping the vision of the engagement, understanding the primary, secondary, and potential building blocks including the human and material capital for effective engagement Temitope Olodo.

There are two schools of thought on the concept of community, namely sociological or systems perspective. Community analysts are in consensus that anyone may be a member of a specific community by choice, such as voluntary associations, or by virtue of their demographic i.e. ethnicity, sexuality, age, gender, race, or even religious affiliation.

If this is the case, then it could be inferred that individuals could belong to multiple communities at any give time, therefore, when community practitioners are initiating community engagement, it is important that they are aware of the complex associations when deciding which individuals to work with in the targeted community and which are relevant to their strategic goals.

From a sociological perspective, the notion of community refers to a group of people united by at least one common characteristic, e.g. geography, shared interests, values, experiences or traditions. John McKnight, a sociologist, once said that if one were to go to a sociology department in search of a single, simple definition of the word community, one would "...never leave. To some people it’s a feeling, to some people it’s relationships, to some people it’s a place, to some people it’s an institution" (CBC, 1994).

Another school of thought Thompson (1990) argued that communities may be viewed as systems, composed of individual members and sectors that have a variety of distinct characteristics and inter-relationships. These sectors are populated by groups of individuals who represent specialised functions, activities, or interests within a community system.

This article is about grassroots community benefit efforts. For governmental community benefit efforts, see public engagement

Community Engagement refers to the process by which Community Benefit Organizations and individuals build ongoing, permanent relationships for the purpose of applying a collective vision for the benefit of a community. While community organizing involves the process of building a grassroots movement involving communities, Community Engagement primarily deals with the practice of moving said communities towards change, usually from a stalled or otherwise similarly suspended position.

Origins

Community Engagement can trace its roots to the concept of Community Benefit, a term that grew out of an English common law concept, articulated in a 1891 legal decision that defined four types of charitable organizations:trusts for the advancement of education; trusts for the advancement of religion; and trusts for other purposes beneficial to the community.

As Community Benefit became an important method of institutionalizing ideals, methods evolved to effectively reach the communities those entities were meant to aid. This led to the birth of community organizing, which as far as the United States is concerned, gained momentum over time beginning in the late 1800s. (See community organizing for more details.)

Methodologies of Community Engagement are a result of problems in the current community benefit administrative structure, where governing boards of community projects become unable to continue convincing either themselves or the community to further the projects they became involved in. This may be due to "incorrect aiming of accountability for problems in the governing board, overzealous micromanagement of resources, a collectively dysfunctional board, poor board / staff relations or unsatisfactory organizational planning." Because of these overlaying problems, community members themselves are also directly influenced and therefore similarly hindered in regards to change within their specific regions of development.

Current Methods and Implementation

Practical Community Engagement is used as an active method of implementing change. While most current standards implore more static means through standard marketing techniques, Community Engagement involves actively implementing a specific process towards activism such as the 8-step guideline listed below developed by Hildy Gottlieb of Help4NonProfits and Seven Effective Keys For Community Engagement developed by Temitope Olodo of Temitope Olodo<ref>The Rules of Engagement - Seven Effective Keys For Community Engagement. While the process may have similarities to a controversial form of friendraising, the emphasis in Community Engagement is that of honest relationship building for the sake of community, not for the sole purpose of money-making. The steps are:

1. Determine the Goals of the Plan
2. Plan Out Who to Engage
3. Develop Engagement Strategies for Those Individuals You Already Know
4. Develop Engagement Strategies of Those Individuals You Do Not Already Know
5. Prioritize those Activities
6. Create an Implementation Plan
7. Monitor Your Progress
8. Maintain those Relationships

Key Concepts

Community Engagement may involve the use of particular key concepts relevant to the Community Benefit Sector such as:

Friendraising
Community Impact Planning
Community-Driven Governance
Asset-Based Resource Development
Vision-Based County Impact Planning
Organizational Wellness Planning
Building Programs On Shared Resources
Community Sleuthing
Community-Based Program Development

See also

• List of community topics
• Community development
• Community building
• Community economic development
• Community practice
• Community service

References

The Faith Community & The Law - ISBN 978-1-4092-0952-2

The Rules of Engagement - Seven Effective Keys For Community Engagment ISBN 978-1-4092-1126-6