greetings AmeriCorps vistas my name is Shannon Stober and I've been invited to
share my thoughts regarding community engagement as you begin your course
I myself served two terms as a Vista and have been training national service
members and community builders for more than 15 years it's a privilege to have
the opportunity to visit with you on this important subject Community
Engagement is about creating an ongoing partnership with the community it's
about developing systems to proactively seek out community values concerns
visions and voices community engagement is about incorporating that information
into decision-making models and leadership roles to ensure that the
community's priorities shape both services and the service systems when we
think about it that way we can see that community engagement is a process and
while that's true community engagement is a process I would also suggest that
at its core community engagement is a philosophy that should guide all of our
efforts to confirm that we're aligned with what's important what's wanted and
what's possible while the philosophy is important to anyone attempting to
strengthen a community it's absolutely critical to serving as a Vista and
meeting your goals of empowering the community and creating sustainable
solutions see aligning with the community through community engagement
is central to ensuring that we're addressing the right need in the right
way at the right time when we neglect to solicit and incorporate our community's
wishes into the services that we're developing we fall into the trap of
leading with solutions and assuming that we know better than those were
attempting to serve when we assume we know better we disempower the community
we hold people in the position of beneficiary instead of cultivating them
to be leaders and problem solvers knowing that they will ultimately be
charged with sustaining the effort when we lead with solutions and decide our
model is superior to what the community is proposing or desires we strip away
community ownership which is more important to
sustainability than any fundraising or marketing plan could ever be as vistas
you have a responsibility to ensure the involvement of community members in the
planning development implementation and evaluation of your Vista project your
Vista project must be responsive and relevant to the lives of the community
residents while also tapping into existing community strengths and
resources in order to accomplish this you'll need to operate as a constituent
centered organization which requires both curiosity and a belief that your
community has the answers being a constituent centered organization
demands high-level listening skills and the ability to reframe your thinking for
example instead of asking community members what do you think about us
you'll ask what do we need to know about you and then you'll transform that
information into meaningful action in addition operating as a constituent
centered organization requires both cultural competency and a culturally
relevant approach to your community engagement your organization must be
willing to set aside their beliefs and assumptions in order to meet others
where they are and in a way that works for them it's important to recognize
that there's no one-size-fits-all Community Engagement approach and your
efforts must be tailored to the specific needs of your community with the
acknowledgement that community engagement is an ongoing iterative
process community engagement can be hard but then again service isn't supposed to
be easy I have no doubt that you'll find this course to be informative and that
it will assist you in meeting the challenges and opportunities that lie
ahead thank you so much for your decision to serve and for your
commitment to improving communities across the nation best of luck