From March 6th to March 9th my fellow Americorps VISTA, Joanna Peluso, and I attended the Tamarack Institute conference, “The Next Generation of Community Engagement.” The conference focused on the importance of community engagement in encouraging participation and empowering the community to affect change in the most equitable and effective way possible.
In order to move into the era Tamarack Institute has dubbed, “The Next Generation,” it’s important to first understand the basics of what community engagement means. We first explored the five primary effects of community engagement:
- Improved public participation
- Collaboration that leads to collective action
- A foundation to deepening communities
- Builds social resilience
- Builds organizational resilience
This, “Next Generation” of community engagement includes a push towards engagement on online platforms. More importantly, it marks a shift towards actively and continuously sharing updates and progress with residents and bringing the benefits of engagement back to the community, rather than specific organizations.
Importance of community engagement
Community engagement can lead to people feeling happier, safer, better connected, more physically and mental healthy, and more resilient – all goals that HDB is working towards in our priority area of Delray Beach.
Not only does community engagement, or civic participation that stems from engaging communities (i.e. people volunteering, voting, participating in faith based organizations), help people feel more empowered, it can also help communities change.
Engaging whole communities mobilizes people, builds trust, increases learning, creates a safe space for innovation, advances collaboration, and fosters resilience.
Engaging marginalized groups
With this shift in focus, engaging people who may have been, or are marginalized is more important than ever.
Engaging with marginalized groups means engaging those who are most affected by issues and asking them to be at the core of making change. This marks a distinct shift from so-called, “trickle down community engagement” in which organizations or people bypass those most impacted by issues and instead engage with large organizations and systems to tackle these issues and hope that those most effected will help.
By giving this power of change and decision making back to the community, and most importantly, those most affected by specific issues that we are working to correct, we are shifting power.
Putting people and communities at the core of creating change, being with the community, and seeing community engagement as a fundamental component of health and well-being means giving that power back to the community.