Community outreach Archives - Community Engagement Learning ExchangeCommunity Engagement Learning Exchange

A Police Ride Along: Building Empathy and Accepting Nuance

This entry was contributed by Kevin Amirehsani, on June 5th, 2018 at 9:00 am and is filed under Capacity Building, Civic Education, Outreach Methods.

Building empathy is one of the most difficult tasks communities face. Simply put, we’re often not programmed for it. Humans have spent the vast majority of their millennia here on Earth in tightly-knit communities where social norms and even survival frequently depended on us making quick judgments about those around us, in order to sort individuals into our “in-group” or an “out-group”. This “tribalism”, however, is not simply based on racial, ethnic, religious, or linguistic divides. It also plays out in our (relatively) much more diverse and integrated modern-day communities. And few issues in urban American communities divide us more than the fault lines around law enforcement. To some, police and sheriff’s officials embody the best values of our communities: security, order, and community involvement. To others, they represent the remnants of our country’s centuries-long infatuation with racial oppression.

Where Affordable Housing Meets Community Engagement

This entry was contributed by Kevin Amirehsani, on May 5th, 2017 at 9:00 am and is filed under Accessibility, Community Partnerships, Dialogue & Deliberation, Elected Officials, Housing, Public Meetings.

For those outside Colorado, it may come as some surprise that one of the state’s hardest-fought legislative battles of the past few years – one that should finally conclude this week – involves incentives for condominium construction. As unsexy as “construction defects reform” sounds, it is emblematic of how much of a hot-button issue affordable housing is across The Centennial State. This is especially true along the Front Range, which is home to seven of the nation’s 12 counties where affordable housing is at its lowest-ever level.

Durham Budgeting Process and Neighborhood Representation

This entry was contributed by Stephen Hopkins, on March 16th, 2017 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Elected Officials, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings.

Well I have been thinking long and hard about what I wanted to talk to you about concerning community participating in the budgeting process. I must explain the current budgeting process here in Durham. We have what is called Coffee with City Council with all five PACs (Partners Against Crime) districts. PACs are supposed to be the groups that represent the different neighborhoods. There is also Council meetings with other groups, and finally we have two open public hearings in April and June. I think we have more than enough community input, but what I think is the problem is that City Council and city staff don’t often value the citizen input and therefore the recommendations aren’t funded. While there are open meetings and a transparent process, it feels more like staff “checking the box” of doing things. It is not effective for particular neighborhoods. City Council does fund great things for high income communities and businesses in certain areas but allow low income communities to get worse. In turn, businesses in those low income areas are denied resources to help grow their businesses. Continue Reading

A City Can Build Streets, But it Takes Residents to Build a Community

This entry was contributed by Sabrina Colón, on October 20th, 2016 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Civic Education, Dialogue & Deliberation, Diversity, Uncategorized.

Charlotte’s West End is among the oldest and most culturally rich areas of the city. With neighborhoods dating back to the late 1800’s, this area has served as a hub for the African-American community for generations. From long standing community service organizations to educational institutions such as Johnson C. Smith University to more than 330 acres of greenspace, there is a strong community built on Charlotte’s west side and many people invested in its future.

Moving to Cary From Rural NC: Urban and Rural Approaches to Citizen Engagement

This entry was contributed by Emily Edmonds, on September 15th, 2016 at 9:00 am and is filed under Dialogue & Deliberation, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle

I recently moved to the Town of Cary from a rural area in Western North Carolina. To say that things are different would likely be the understatement of the year; Cary has over 155,000 people at last count, and my hometown had about 2,500.

My family and I shifted from one of the smallest towns in the state to the seventh largest. That’s a process that will make you pay attention to the differences between where you’re coming from, and where you’re going.

It highlights the need for advocates of citizen engagement to provide more nuanced and custom approaches to citizen engagement that can work for both rural and urban communities – where there are often different cultural norms, values, and lifestyles. Continue Reading

The Confusing Lines of Government Organizations – What Makes Sense to Some is Difficult for Others

This entry was contributed by Brian Bowman, on April 13th, 2016 at 8:40 am and is filed under Civic Education, Dialogue & Deliberation, Outreach Methods.

It’s a great icebreaker for public servants. The next time you’re talking with someone who works in local or state government, ask about unrelated phone calls and emails. Almost every week (or day in some cases), public sector employees will field requests for information that have no connection to their organization.

The first time I heard of this was in the 1990s when some 911 dispatchers in a rural county near Raleigh told me how busy Friday nights were. For the most part, the calls weren’t emergencies; they were mostly questions about high school football scores. Driving directions were also a popular request. Continue Reading

Highlights from Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever)

This entry was contributed by Cate Elander, on March 15th, 2016 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Innovation, Outreach Methods.

Stanford Center for Social Innovation just released an article titled Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever), co-authored by Melody Barnes of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions and Results for America and Paul Schmitz of the Collective Impact Forum. The article is concise and powerful, and it calls for pairing evidence-based programs and data with genuine community engagement and context for best results toward sustainability of community-level change. Without both approaches, top-down efforts will ultimately fail to create lasting change. Specifically, the article states:

“To achieve positive and enduring change, public and nonprofit leaders must create community engagement strategies that are as robust as the data-driven solutions that they hope to peruse.” Continue Reading

Growing CATS by Engaging the Community

This entry was contributed by Traci Ethridge, on February 26th, 2016 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Community Partnerships, Outreach Methods.

By Krystel Green

Have you ever met a fascinating person who engages you with probing questions, thoughtful commentary and interesting facts? The two of you then embark on a lively conversation where you might gain or give a different perspective and learn something new. When parting ways, you’ve probably said, “Let’s keep in touch” and exchanged contact information. This is the dynamic that the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) looks to create with the public. Continue Reading

The Power of Empowerment

This entry was contributed by Jennifer Trotter, on February 5th, 2016 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Community Partnerships, Diversity, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings, Uncategorized.

The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), an international federation of public participation practitioners including a USA affiliate, has developed a spectrum of community engagement techniques. The spectrum ranges from “informing” to “empowering” the public.

These are wonky practitioner words; however, they actually mean a world of difference. Informing is focused on one-way communication, whereas empowering is literally giving the power of decision-making to the public.

I’ll describe a project on community empowerment, and some key lessons. First, I’ll address why empowerment is scary, often promised but not fulfilled in particular cases, and basic guiding principles for overcoming the challenges of community empowerment projects. Continue Reading

Housing First Models vs. Transitional Housing Progressions

This entry was contributed by Michelle Bir, on January 28th, 2016 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Community Partnerships, Housing, Outreach Methods.

In the traditional system, homeless individuals are moved through levels of housing that will eventually lead to independent housing. For instance, from the streets to the shelters, and from the shelters to a housing program, and from a housing program to an independent apartment. In the housing program, treatment is given to battle some factors surrounding homelessness like, substance abuse, mental health, job training, and domestic violence.