Justin Karmann of New Jersey experienced leader in nonprofit and corporate administration and event management. In the following article, Justin Karmann discusses the importance of community engagement, the principles behind them, and how to get involved.
At its core, community engagement consists of a group of people working together to incite positive change for a wider group of people. Sometimes, the people it serves can be geographically close to each other, have a special interest, or be in similar circumstances.
Justin Karmann of New Jersey explains that community engagement comes in many forms. And while the general importance of such acts is palpable, the distinct benefits aren’t fully appreciated until they’re completely uncovered through detailed investigations.
The Types of Community Engagement
Justin Karmann of New Jersey discusses below the various facets of community engagement. For the most part, groups categorize related activities into different types, such as:
Research and Scholarship
- Knowledge translation
- Community-based research
- Public-funded research
- Scholarship of engagement
- Development of curriculum
- Practice-based participatory research
Teaching and Learning
- Practice-based learning and course-based placement
- Community-engaged learning
- Experiential learning, like co-op placements and internships
Public and Civic Engagement
- Citizen science
- Policy labs
- Science shops
- Public dialogue
- Community outreach
- Community service
- Co-curricular engaged learning placements
- Deliberative democracy within the community
- Multi-sectoral roundtables and conferences
- Training
The Principles of Effective Community Engagement
Justin Karmann of New Jersey says that community engagement is deeply rooted in a range of activities, spanning light outreach to wholly transformative, long-term projects that change the way groups think, act, and communicate.
However, effective community engagement is less about the actual activities and more about how people go about them — that is, the principles behind the actions.
Guiding principles support and benefit both sides of community engagement according to Justin Karmann of New Jersey. Most groups have pre-defined guidelines that shape how they conduct engagement activities.
As a starting point, most community engagement groups should be founded on the following four guiding principles:
Inclusion and diversity — Listening to and learning from groups who’ve been marginalized, excluded, or disadvantaged is a must. Alongside that, community engagement groups must recognize and value diverse experiences, cultures, contexts, and knowledge.- Openness to learn and flexibility — Justin Karmann of New Jersey explains that learning from each other and addressing mistakes ensures effective adaptation to approaches as needs, priorities, or contexts shift.
- Transparency — Ongoing and honest dialogues must be maintained and detail processes, accesses, motivations, and ownership.
- Reciprocity — The exchanging of knowledge and resources should be conducted in a beneficial way for everybody involved.
Why It’s Important to Practice Community Engagement
Community engagement is integral to enhancing social, economic, and cultural well-being for everybody in a neighborhood, state, group, or country.
But, on a more targeted level, Justin Karmann of New Jersey says that community engagement is crucial for:
Building and Sustaining Cohesive Communities
Cohesive communities begin with collaborative engagement, where neighborhoods and organizations are both involved with policy decisions and service provisions.
Such policies and services can, therefore, work to enrich daily lives, envision the future, and bring wider societal and global impacts.
Ensuring Empowerment and Access
Community members are educated on any issues with the locality, allowing residents to meaningfully contribute and have the power to shape activities according to Justin Karmann of New Jersey.
Since individuals’ well-being involves participating actively in all parts of their lives, community engagement ensures members can get involved with valuable social activities to enrich their overall health.
Through access-driven activities, diverse voices (typically those marginalized or often overlooked) are given opportunities to be heard. Thus, empowering them to participate in decision-making that affects their daily lives.
Improving Outcomes
When governments and public organizations seek aspirations, values, and concerns from the communities, they can better meet neighborhoods’ needs, improving community outcomes.
Ensuring long-standing, beneficial partnerships between communities and government agencies provides a greater sense of ownership and improved service uptake.
Allowing Governments to Support Sustainable Decisions
Community engagement projects allow governments to improve the legitimacy, openness, and efficiency of decision-making practices. Encouraging participation enables policymakers to carefully map out the needs and visions of local groups and make better-informed choices.
After all, Justin Karmann of New Jersey says that sustainable decisions can only be made when there is far-reaching acceptance and commitment to outcomes by everybody in the community.
Social Transformation
The promise of effective decision-making and collaboration drives social change by promoting advocacy to raise awareness and ensure passionate voices are heard.
Deepening Democracies
Finally, community engagement is important to deepen democracy within localities.
Deliberative democracy facilitates a more collaborative approach to policy setting and action. Since the mid-1980s, there has been notable expansions in community organizing, ensuring increased public participation and engagement beyond simply voting.
And with the boosted digitization across the globe, community engagement is becoming increasingly accessible for everybody.
