Community EngagementScot Evans & Isabella Aivaliotis

Twitter: @evanssd, @umcscmastershttps://www.facebook.com/UMiamiCSC

http://www.slideshare.net/evanssd##PF2013evans

OBJECTSproblems

threats

commoditiesrecipients of services

sinners to be saved

vessels to be filled

tender plants to be cultivated

raw material to be shaped

targets at which to aim programs

risks to be reduced

diseases to be cured

clients

patients

RESOURCES

assets sources of ideas

sources of opinionscreative

energetic

resourceful

talentedproblem solvers

partners in service

AGENTS OF CHANGE

powerful

connected

partners in the struggle for social justice

experts in the community

passionateleaders

experts on their own experiencebrave

Over time, their skills needed to achieve autonomy have atrophied due to years of exclusion, marginalization

and neglect.

Evans, S.D. (2012). Community leadership. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 3(3), 1-6.Murphy, J. W. (2010). Leadership in community- based development. Unpublished manuscript, University of Miami, Miami, FL.

Communities have been conditioned to look to outsiders and experts for help.

Unfortunately, this belief can get propagated throughout communities so that residents become unable to see

their own assets and power.

This is exacerbated by the fact that in many current forms of community development, leadership is thought to best originate "from above" because a belief that local citizens

lack the necessary talents or ambition.

powerem ment

Can we empower others?

powercreating the conditions and opportunities for

community members to see their strengths, build capabilities, and experience power

power = social analysis + agency + opportunity

Fewer than 50 percent of the organizations surveyed consistently offer activities that build clients’ capacity for

community engagement and civic participation

Kunruether, F., & Bartow, F. (2010). Catalysts for Change: How California Nonprofits Can Deliver Direct Services and Transform Communities (Part 1). Social Service Social Change Series. Building Movement Project. Retrieved from

http://buildingmovement.org/pdf/catalysts_part_one.pdf

How are we doing?

is grounded in the principles of fairness, justice, empowerment, participation, and self-determination

community engagement

Arnstein, S.R. (1969). A Ladder of Citizen Participation, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35, (4), 216-224.

Citizen control is citizen power

OBJECTS

RESOURCES

AGENTS OF CHANGE

Source: CTSA Community Engagement Key Function Committee Task Force. (2011). Principles of community engagement.

OBJECTS RESOURCES AGENTS OF CHANGE

OBJECTS

RESOURCES

AGENTS OF CHANGE

How do organizations better engage community?

What examples do you have?

Constituent identification of priorities

Organization:

Uniting Youth for Change

Organizing and training inner-city youth to develop stronger schools and communities

Constituent engagement in program design

Organization:

Dare to Dream

provides services and support to homeless and other low-income families in a way that promotes their movement out of poverty; advocating for policy change

Culture of Reciprocity

Organization: Queens Community House•“We see services as a means, not just as anend,” says Irma Rodriguez, executive director.

•Reciprocity •‘Community Building’

staff members•Resident-led committee

Community engagement via theater!

Organization: Somos Mayfair

Community led initiatives

Organization: Family & Children’s Service (The Family Partnership)

challenges and barriers?

Solutions?

Be clear about the goals of the engagement effort and the populations and/or communities

you want to engage.

Become knowledgeable about the community’s culture, economic

conditions, social networks, political and power structures, norms and values, demographic trends,

history, and experience with efforts by outside groups to engage it in various programs.

Establish relationships, build trust, work with the formal and informal leadership, and seek

commitment for mobilizing the community.

Remember and accept that collective self-determination is the responsibility and right of all people in a community. No

external entity should assume it can bestow on a community the power to act in its own self-interest.

Organizations that wish to engage a community must be

prepared to release control of actions or interventions to the community and be flexible enough to

meet its changing needs.

Community engagement can only be sustained by identifying and mobilizing community assets and strengths and by developing the community’s

capacity and resources to make decisions and take action.

create “enabling structures”

build common purpose - shared aims and values

Community engagement and collaboration requires

long-term commitment by the engaging organization and its partners.