7: Techniques for Community Engagement

Module 7 Techniques for Community Engagement
Getting people engaged in community development is hard.  Keeping
them engaged is even more difficult.   

The key is to get lots of people involved, find those with the skill sets that are critical to aparticular project and engage them meaningfully so they will be motivated to come back the next time.  

Communities are constantly searching for people who are willing to volunteer for community activities.  Newcomers are one source of volunteers, so it’s important to have an effective strategy to welcome people new to the community and get them engaged.  

One technique to get people involved is a “ladder of community participation,” starting withsomething simple and limited in time and scope and then working up the ladder to those tasksthat are more complex and more time-consuming.  Make it easy to say “yes,” and more peoplewill be inclined to do so.

Here is a list of ideas for recruiting new leaders, a resource provided by the Heartland Centerfor Leadership Development - http://www.heartlandcenter.info