Seeking Community Engagement

Communications Carousel’: ASBA Spring General Meeting June 5-6, 2006

Seeking Community Engagement

Nicole Merrifield, Grande Yellowhead Regional Division No.35

Case StudyCase Study

Engaging a Community:

Seeking Effective Means of Providing Information of Broad Public Interest to

External Stakeholders

A Case Study of theHinton Drug Action Committee

quite a mouthful!

Theoretical ContextTheoretical Context

Diffusion of Innovations, Diffusion of Innovations, Everett RogersEverett Rogers

• Rogers dubs this process the diffusion of innovations: “diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system”

• The theory suggests that the challenge of public education and awareness campaigns is to reduce the time between the discovery or development of an idea and the adoption of that new information by a community

• Diffusion theory was developed by studying a number of different information campaigns involving a wide variety of messages, audiences and social contexts, and extracting common elements

• Information “consists of data organized into meaningful relationships and structures. It is data that has been given meaning through relational connection” (Wright)

Creating KnowledgeCreating Knowledge

• Engagement refers to the process and result of the creation of knowledge, where that knowledge would lead someone to act

•Knowledge is information that has been made meaningful to individuals through a process of reflection and relation to their world view and experiences

• Soliciting input• Completing a survey• Lobbying the government• Encouraging registration or self identification

Examples from School DivisionsExamples from School Divisions

ExtrapolatingExtrapolating

• Be aware of a particular program or issue

• Understand the potential or actual impact

• Recognize their role, or potential for involvement

• Choose to act

Requires Stakeholders to:Requires Stakeholders to:

ExtrapolatingExtrapolating

HDAC’s ChallengesHDAC’s Challenges

• Desired to realize change quickly

• Limited financial resources

• Limited means of providing information

sound familiar?

HDAC’s ChallengesHDAC’s Challenges

• The creation of knowledge is a personal, individual exercise and experience, and therefore can be encouraged, but not compelled

Efficiency requires the message to be shared with many individuals at the same time so that a group of individuals accept the information, create knowledge, and become engaged

Lessons from HDACLessons from HDAC

• Communications should recognize that a community is a group of individuals bound by a shared experience, and therefore should target individuals within that group

• No single template can be developed to guarantee community engagement

Key PrinciplesKey Principles

Know the target stakeholders• Identify• Respect• Focus Message

Key PrinciplesKey Principles

Create and maintain a positive experience• Involvement• Encourage personal commitment• Develop trust and personal relationships

Key PrinciplesKey Principles

Develop Clear Goals and Objectives • Short and long term• Broad and tangible• Subjective and objective

Provide individuals with the sensethat their involvement is worthwhile

Key PrinciplesKey Principles

Operate with Professionalism• Organization and planning• Leadership• Visual Identifiers

Professionalism:• Increases efficiency

• Increases support• Encourages participants to focus on the issue

Key PrinciplesKey Principles

Strive for Consistency and Frequency• Range of opportunities to become informed

and engaged • Range of means of becoming involved

Effective CommunicationEffective Communication

The concepts employed by effective individual communicators must be applied to community awareness campaigns:

• Design message to suit the receiver

• Encourage and prepare for feedback

• Provide opportunities to personalize the information to create knowledge

• Provide opportunities to use knowledge to complete engagement process

Communications must be

carefully planned to be effective

Meth Hurts Website: http://www.methhurts.com/index.html

Rogers, Everett. (1983) Diffusion of Innovations. 4th ed. New York: Free Press.

Wright, Kirby. (2005) “Exploring the Complexities of Knowledge”. Custom Courseware: Master of Arts in Communications and Technology, Extension 507 Teaching Notes. University of Alberta Students’ Union.