Tamarack Resource Library - Community Engagement Examples

Here are more examples of community engagement at work. We’ve organized them according to theme or issue.

Community Economic Development
Community Safety
Community Plannning
Education
Environment
International
Other
Poverty

Community Economic Development

NECRC was formally incorporated in 1998 after Tom Simms and Garry Loewen, residents of Winnipeg, gathered community and organizational leaders together to create a community development plan to help the area’s poor population and struggling economy. NECRC work is significant to us because it is community driven, grassroots action that is ongoing. People throughout the community and different sectors helped create the NECRC. They worked collaboratively to create a plan for the community to solve the complex problems facing Winnipeg’s north end. The NECRC has produced a number of inspiring results including developing a career assistance office, redeveloping properties, reducing commercial income tax, creating community gardens, renovating buildings and repairing exteriors, and creating a community policing plan. The creation of the NECRC and its plans follow a clear, step-by-step process that engaged the community. Lessons can be learned from this explanation to develop approaches for other communities to follow.

The Quint Development Corporation in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was started in 1995 by concerned area residents to address poverty reduction, and create a community economic development strategy. Their community economic development approach uses community interests as a guide for improving the local economy. The Quint Development Corporation provides an example of ongoing community engagement. Created at a grassroots level, Quint has worked hard to plan and implement community improvement projects. Their work provides an example of the use of community consultation and multi-sector partnerships to guide community engagement strategies.

Community Safety

SACS is a violence prevention and character-building project for youth. It works collaboratively with different sectors including the public, community organizations, and agencies to make decisions, develop goals and implement strategies. Results of their work include reductions in violent behaviour and increased academic achievement. They also have developed curriculum materials, videos and workshops for schools, students, teachers, parents and other adults. It is a good example of community engagement because it is a multisectoral engagement project successfully working towards solving complex community issues.

Community Planning

Nos Quedamos is a non-profit organization that helps residents of the Melrose Commons area of South Bronx remain in their neighbourhood during urban renewal processes and play an active role in determining the process of development. They are a multisector coalition of homeowners, tenants, property owners, institutions, and business people. They encourage involvement with their work and use inclusive engagement strategies such as working groups, surveys, and meetings. As a result of their efforts over $50 million in development resources have been targeted to Melrose Commons.

Community residents created the Greater St. Joseph Community Plan in 2001 after a yearlong community planning process. The process began with the creation of a 30 person Steering Committee that used focus groups and surveys to gather input and identify key issues from over 3 500 community members. Community priorities were presented to the public at which time the community could give feedback and Issue Area Teams were created. Goals were created for each Issue Area Team and implementation began. Community partners from a number of sectors including government, business and educational institutions are used to help implement the plan. This is a unique example of a community engagement process that involved a large number of participants. Direction for the community plan was provided by the priorities of the local residents.

Vision 2020 began in 1992 as a result of a 2 ½ year community consultation process. Residents, City workers and councilors together decided what they wanted Hamilton to look like in the year 2020. The Vision is to create a sustainable community, where economic, environmental and social issues are jointly considered as decisions are being made. Progress is being made with cleaning up the waterfront, renovating buildings, cleaning up air quality, and increasing security and safety. Vision 2020 is a good example of community engagement because of the use of previous and ongoing community consultation processes. They use community priorities to provide direction to a common vision for the city. In addition, different sectors are included in a collaborative effort to promote sustainability in Hamilton.

Vision for a Greater New Haven is a community generated process for creating and implementing community goals. The program began by bringing together local leaders to discuss plans for the community. Community goals and recommendations were established, priorities were voted on and action groups were created to begin the implementation process. Vision is a good example of community engagement because it involves people in a collaborative effort, involving different sectors to set community priorities to solve complex issues. While only a short-term project, Vision helped motivate the community and create change. They also used a visioning process that included approximately 2500 community members.

Education

This program joins together community members and educators “to promote research-based reading instruction in the public and private schools of Brownsville, Texas with the overall goal of creating a more literate community.” It is an effort to address the problem of high illiteracy and school drop out rates. The basis of the program is the retraining of teachers to help them teach reading better. It has achieved significant results included mentoring over 2,000 area teachers in teaching reading, and increasing test scores in 14 school districts. It is a good example of community engagement because it brings different sectors together to work collaboratively to solve the complex problem of illiteracy. They won the All American City Award in 2001.

El Arco Iris is a community center with the primary aim of helping low income Latino-youth. They have worked with other community organizations, government, and area universities to create a place for youth ages 5-19 to go after school and during the summer. This is a good example of community engagement because different sectors are working collaboratively to proactively solve social problems in the local community. From 1998-2001 they helped 69 young people attended leadership and communication training, provided students with more than 1,000 hours of tutoring, and gave 1,700 art classes to over 200 students.

Teachers and administrators of the Grandview/?Uuqinak’uuh Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia came together in 1996 to revitalize the school. Working with community members and students the revitalization project included the development of an integrated computer assisted program, improving literacy and mathematical skills, and rebuilding the community. In one case, consultations were held with staff, students and community residents, for over a year, to plan the creation of green space and community gardens on school grounds. As a result of their effort Grade 1 literacy rates increased from 10-60% and there has been a decline in negative student behaviours. The Grandview/?Uuqinak’uuh Elementary School revitalization provides a case study of grassroots local action that has seen inspiring results. It uses community priorities to guide its projects and ensures social inclusion throughout its planning process.

Environment

The Alliance was founded in 1993 by Anne Pearson, a citizen of Annapolis, to start projects guided by sustainability principles within the Greater Annapolis Area. She has established connections and interest among different community organizations, residents, businesses, and educators. Alliance holds public meetings to create visions and plans based on community needs. One of these needs was the improvement of a low-income neighbourhood in Annapolis. A community gardens project was created which helped regenerate the soil, stimulate ecological diversity, stimulate the local economy and create new skills in gardening and landscaping. Alliance’s work meets our criteria for community engagement by fostering participation in an engagement process based on community priorities. It promotes multisectoral collaboration and creates movements and change.

Evergreen is a non-profit organization with the aim of bringing nature to cities through naturalization projects. They run three programs based on revitalizing schools, homes and the community. They bring people from different sectors together to learn about and implement naturalization projects. They also provide written materials to help people develop and implement their own projects. Evergreen is a good example of community engagement because they bring different sectors together to participate in learning about and creating naturalization projects that restore urban environments. Evergreen’s school projects help a number of schools in communities throughout Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, Halifax and Cuba. For example, their work at Burnaby Mountain Secondary School in B.C has helped the school initiate streamside planting and restoration activities, and establish their first and second annual Earth Day Celebration at the school.

The Georgia Basin Futures Project (GBFP) is a 5-year research project that sees researchers, experts and community members working together to explore pathways to sustainability. It uses a computer model called QUEST to simulate sustainability scenarios for the Georgia Basin in Western Canada to the year 2040. Community engagement is being used throughout the 5-year study to incorporate public views into the research process. Community engagement is used to identify issues that are of concern to the public and to generate public input on the scenarios that are developed from the QUEST model. This process encourages participation in an engagement process with the goal of solving sustainability issues. The project uses community concerns to drive the scenarios created in the QUEST model.

Concerned leaders in the Pacific Northwest created Sustainable Northwest in 1994. Their goal was to “build partnerships that promote environmentally-sound economic development in communities of the Pacific Northwest”. They work with a number of stakeholders including communities, government, businesses, indigenous peoples, and environmental groups to reach their goal. One of their programs is to help communities build the capacity to implement sustainable economic development and environmental restoration. They work with a number of partnering organizations to help facilitate a capacity building process within the communities. They are a good example of community engagement because they were created at a grassroots, local level. They promote multisectoral collaboration to help them achieve the complex goal of promoting environmentally sound economic development.

International

In 1989 a group of local citizens came together with the goal of closing down the lead smelters in Ezbet Mekawy, a low-income neighbourhood in Cairo. They gathered support from local government, doctors, and the broader public of Cairo to help them with their goal. Through legal and peaceful written protests, newspaper articles, media broadcasts and reports on the hazards of lead smelters the group forged ahead and finally got the smelters closed in 1994. This is a unique example of community members working collectively with different sectors to achieve a complex goal.

Dr. John Peters and Oklahoma City community members started world Neighbors in 1951. It was officially incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1952. Work began in India and spread to over 45 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. World Neighbors approach tries to improve communities’ ability to meet their basic needs and solve problems. The main priorities of World Neighbors’ work include food production, community-based health, family planning, water and sanitation, environmental conservation and small business. World Neighbors currently works with 15 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa to strengthen their capacity to solve their own problem related to hunger, poverty and disease. Their ongoing grassroots approach to community development has produced successful results and is an inspiration to others who are trying to foster community engagement.

Other

The Core Neighbourhood Development Council (CNDC) was created in 2001 to strengthen the quality of life in the core neighbourhoods of Saskatoon. Partners include government, community organizations, and businesses, many of which have been involved in their work for over a year. They consulted with over 300 community members and stakeholders for almost a year to develop a community defined strategic plan to improve the core neighbourhoods. CNDC’s work provides a useful example of the creation of a community organization and the implementation of community engagement strategies. The CNDC uses priorities of the local community to guide its work. Their ongoing work in this area will provide examples of the type(s) of work other organizations can do to improve their communities. In addition, their commitment for including all members of the community in the creation of a community defined strategic plan is an inspiration for any organization trying to engage their communities.

CRUNCH was created in 1996 by an informal group of service providers and funders in Victoria, British Columbia. The goal of the process was to create solutions to the problems facing downtown Victoria by developing community capacity to deal with complex problems, which have important human, economic and cultural components. A key part of the CRUNCH process was bringing together stakeholders from a variety of sectors to develop common understanding and goals. CRUNCH used roundtable discussions to identify issues and create a vision for their work. They had six action groups that respond to stakeholders concerns. In addition, a steering committee handled communication, fundraising and maintains project momentum. CRUNCH is an example of a community fostering community engagement. While CRUNCH no longer exists, it did follow a process that brought together a variety of stakeholders and incorporates their individual priorities into a shared community vision. Other organizations or groups could use the CRUNCH process as a guide to creating their own community engagement strategy.

Cultiva! is a community gardening project run by youth between the ages of 14-18. It was started in 1999 by an organization called Growing Gardens. Students plant, grow, and harvest the crops. They then sell a portion of the crops at the Boulder County Farmer’s Market and give some to local social service agencies. The project has many results including helping students gain employment, develop new skills, fight hunger and promote cultural understanding. It is a good example of community engagement because it promotes participation in an engagement process to confront local problems, such as teen unemployment.

‘Our Millennium’ Project
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.community-fdn.ca/doc/OurMillennium.pdf

The ‘Our Millennium’ project was started by the Community Foundations of Canada as a way to foster a sense of community. This was achieved by encouraging people to come together to develop and implement community enhancing projects and activities. In all, over 6 500 projects were established covering areas from youth and children to global citizenship. The project was a national way of harnessing community engagement and encouraging communities to work together. Our Millennium encourages communities to implement a variety of community engagement projects. As such, the project promotes all of the criteria we consider important to community engagement projects.

This organization was designed to improve the capacity for individuals, families, and neighbourhood self-sufficiency. Many partners are involved with the projects including government, universities, businesses, and churches. Their community engagement effort follows a unique process of dividing neighbourhoods into clusters of 12-15 000 people, partnering with them to help them identify local priorities, do their own planning and implement projects. They also use a resource team to help the clusters work with government and community organizations. Results of the program include a cultural festival, a youth published community newspaper, and a bike safety program.

Quality of Life Challenge
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
www.qolchallenge.ca

The Quality of Life Challenge is a partnership that draws together people from all sectors to create goals for the community, develop targets, mobilize action, and monitor change. It gathers and provides reliable information to the public about paid work and affordable housing, as well as developing indicators, benchmarks, and effective means to measure quality of life in the community that may not be represented in typical statistical measures. The focus of their work is on three interrelated issues: homes, paid work and community connections. They are a good example of community engagement because they use multisectoral collaboration to solve complex community issues. In addition, community priorities are used to drive their activities.

Poverty

Vibrant Communities
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
http://www.vibrantcommunities.ca/

Vibrant Communities is a community-driven effort to reduce poverty in Canada by creating partnerships that make use of our most valuable assets – people, organizations, businesses and governments.

It’s a unique approach to poverty reduction that allows communities to learn from — and help — each other.

Vibrant Communities links communities across Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador, in a collective effort to test the most effective ways to reduce poverty at the grassroots level.

Comprehensive local initiatives aimed at poverty reduction;
Grassroots collaboration involving all sectors of the community in these initiatives;
Identifying community assets and putting them to good use in poverty-reduction efforts;
A commitment to learning, change and sharing our learnings – whether they are the product of our successes or failures.

Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (BCAPI)
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
http://www.bcapi.ca/

BCAPI, started in 1997, brings together businesses and people living in poverty to create solutions to reduce poverty. BCAPI has engaged with people living in poverty and is acting as a catalyst to address their concerns. BCAPI has supported a number of initiatives including job preparation fairs, an information program for youth to prevent teen pregnancy and a youth resource center. It has won a number of awards for its work including Imagine’s “New Spirit of Community” 2003 Partnership Award. BCAPI is a unique effort that encourages businesses to work with their communities to create social change.

We think Opportunities 2000 (OP2000) is a good example of community engagement because they engage collaboratively with different sectors including the public, businesses, government and voluntary sector groups on the complex problem of reducing poverty.

OP2000 has also achieved results by assisting nearly 1700 families. OP2000 fosters social inclusion by including low-income leaders on its leadership roundtable and receiving feedback on their decisions and projects from groups of low-income residents.

Community priorities help guide the objectives of OP2000. OP2000 process also involves creating and following a mission and vision.

OP2000 was created in 1997 by Lutherwood-CODA as a way to achieve and coordinate local action to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region. Their work involves engaging with nonprofit organizations, businesses, government, and low-income earners to create poverty reduction strategies.

OP2000 works with different sectors to solve the complex problem of poverty in the Waterloo Region. Members of OP2000 and their Leadership Roundtable work collaboratively and determine their priorities based partially on community input.

From 1997 to December 2000, 87 OP2000 partners launched a total of 47 different projects that assisted nearly 1700 people on their journey out of poverty.

This was achieved by helping people obtain new or improved employment, start or expand small businesses, participate in training or education programs, expand their financial savings and/or improve their housing.