We think community
engagement means people working collaboratively, through inspired
action and learning, to create and realize bold visions for
their common future.
Tamarack has some experience helping people
to collaboratively build communities that are caring, prosperous
and healthy. (Learn more about how we work at community engagement
by exploring our Vibrant Communities
section.)
But we wanted to know more about community
engagement, so we began a research journey.
Our research helped us to see that as community
engagement increases, citizens move from being passive to
taking active leadership roles, as can be seen in the continuum
below. As leaders, citizens can have a powerful influence
and effect on the life of their communities.
Click on the image above
to enlarge.
This section presents what we've found thus
far and we invite you to come on our journey with us to help
us determine:
- How do other people define community engagement? What
does the existing literature
say?
- How are people using community engagement to improve
their communities? What are some examples
of community engagement at work?
- Are there models and processes
that can help us to better understand community engagement?
- How does community engagement live out in different
fields such as health or environmental restoration?
Back to top.
This work represents a starting point, the
“what we’ve learned so far” about community
engagement. It provides a brief explanation of our approach
to community engagement and the resources we’ve found
that illustrate ways of creating empowered communities.
This research has helped us inform our current
definition of community engagement and realize our place in
the broad context of community development work. Our work
on community engagement however, has only just begun. We will
continue to collect information and our understanding and
use of community engagement will evolve.
We hope that it provides you with new insight
and ways of thinking about community engagement. Perhaps it
will even inspire you to conduct your own community engagement
strategies.
Please contact
us if you have any sources, examples, and ideas that you
think we’ve missed so that we can learn and grow together.
Back to top.
|
