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Advocacy and Policy

Opening Our Doors to Leaders: Community Engagement 101

Published on March 22, 2012

More and more non-profit organizations are recognizing the importance of engaging the communities they serve in a meaningful way. But what exactly is meaningful community engagement? What are some of the ways in which your organization can do this? What are some first steps for you to begin the process of changing the message of “service users” and “clients” to people feeling that they are “community members” and active participants? How can you embed this approach in all aspects of your organization, programming and staff? This session addressed these and other questions as Deena Ladd shared her experience and ideas on building community participation in your organizations.

Five Good Ideas

  1. Being clear on why we are opening our doors
  2. Changing our culture – let’s start with NOT treating community members as “clients”
  3. Treating people as experts in what they know
  4. Transparent pathways of involvement
  5. Infrastructure of training and support

Five Good Resources

  1. Need help getting started? Check out www.catalystcentre.ca. The “Catalyst Centre One-Stop Pop-Ed Shop Worker Co-op” is a collective of educators committed to democratic, social justice education and community development. Popular Education is a movement, a practice and a theory of social change that is based on learning and committed to resisting unjust uses of power.
  2. A book that provides important questions we need to ask ourselves and a framework for moving forward is Rinku Sen’s Stir It Up – Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy, 2003.
  3. Check out the transformative approach that is being led by Social Justice Leadership (SJL) – www.sojustlead.org. This organization is about “catalyzing a new generation of individuals and organizations to lead a renewed social justice movement”.
  4. Get inspired and challenged by Jennifer Gordon’s Suburban Sweatshops: The fight for Immigrant Rights, 2005.
  5. Learn about interesting work of centres all across the US that are mobilizing and bringing together immigrants, racialized communities and low-income families in Janice Fine’s book Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream, 2006.