Community Engagement and Lived-Expertise (Toolkit)
Define Community Engagement
Meaningful, consistent involvement and participation in community efforts/activities that support and improve upon social wellbeing.
The Purpose of Community Engagement
“Through feedback, community engagement enables government and public decision-making organizations to listen and, in turn, demonstrate the impact of community contribution. Community engagement, then, builds deeper, stronger, and more trusting relationships between public organizations and communities”.
Examples of Community Engagement:
- Volunteering at a local agency
- Maintaining meaningful relationships with Tribes
- Participating in a local blood drive
- Advocating for others
- Creating support groups in your community
Reimagining Prevention Series
Reimagining Prevention: Equity and Community Voice as the Foundation-Video Replay
Form this Webinar you will:
- Explore equity and community engagement as the foundation for prevention work.
- Explore elements of a prevention mindset.
- Gain an understanding of their role their role in primary prevention.
- Understand the roadmap for the rest of the series.
Access the complete Reimagining Prevention Series here.
Strategies
Five Strategies for Centering Equity found in the Centering Equity in Collective Impact article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review:
Five strategies in particular emerging as critical to centering equity:
- Ground the work in data and context, and target solutions.
- Focus on systems change, in addition to programs and services.
- Shift power within the collaborative.
- Listen to and act with community.
- Build equity leadership and accountability.
None of these strategies is new, yet they remain areas that require understanding and commitment to do well. Taken together, they form the basis for a comprehensive and integrated approach to centering equity in collective impact. Let’s consider them in turn.
What is Equity?
In committing to centering equity, we first confront the problem of inconsistent understandings of what equity means. Among many alternative definitions, each with its own virtues, the one we have found most helpful comes from the research and advocacy organization Urban Strategies Council: Equity is fairness and justice achieved through systematically assessing disparities in opportunities, outcomes, and representation and redressing [those] disparities through targeted actions.
Define Lived Expertise
Lived expertise refers to a representation of the experiences and choices of a given person, and the knowledge that they gain from these experiences and choices.
Examples of Lived expertise:
If you are interested in deepening your understanding of lived expertise read more stories by John Kania, Junious Williams, Paul Schmitz, Sheri Brady, Mark Kramer & Jennifer Splansky Juster.