Introduction
Community engagement refers to the process through which a certain community benefits its individuals and organizations. This is achieved through a permanent and ongoing relationship between the two with the main aim being to apply a vision that is collective in nature for the community’s benefit. In most cases, the organizing tends to involve building movements in a community at a grass root level. Community engagement, however, seeks to move a given community to achieve change. In trying to achieve this, the key interest is put on the suspended or a stalled position.
For community engagement to be effected, there are some principles that must be keenly employed. These principles are geared towards ensuring that community engagement is successful. Before a community engagement practice, the parties must ensure they are clear about their goals and purpose of the engagement.
This principle also requires that one becomes aware of the communities and the populations that they wish to engage. In essence, a person who seeks to engage a certain community ought to communicate to the community the benefits of participation. Simply involving the community without communicating the advantages that will be realized does not guarantee one that the community will fully participate. The implementers of community engagement should be ready to face the community and explain the realizable benefits to them. The expected participation should be geared towards meeting the engagement’s goals and objectives.
The second principle entails being knowledgeable about the culture of the community, its economic position, the structures of political power, its history, its social networks among many other more details. Important to learn at this early stage is the perceptions that the community may develop to the initiators of the engagement programs. Through such learning, one gets into a better position to make better decisions. This will also promote consensus building, as one knows what to expect from the society and how to handle it.
A crucial principle of community engagement is to try to build trust, establish relationships and try as much as possible to work with both the formal and informal leadership of the community. In order to engage a community, one has to receive support from that community. Positive change can only be as a result of the community embracing the policy and playing an integral role in its implementation. Through meeting and appreciating the key stakeholders in the community, one gets in a position to mobilize them to support the engagement.
One has to remember that self-determination that is collective in nature is the right and responsibility of the community members. As such, one has to take into account the fact that the external forces may not play a major role in mobilizing the community to act on their own. This principle seeks to incorporate the community’s key leadership to the projects in order for the locals to feel part of it. Through this, community empowerment will be realized.
In order to improve health and create change, it is necessary to partner with the community. Through the partnerships that may be created with the community, the person seeking to implement the community engagement stands a better position to receive support and favor from the members of the community. Through this, implementing their policies will be easily effected, hence promoting change.
In seeking to establish community engagement, one has to recognize and respect the community’s diversity. This requires them to learn the community’s cultures and other factors that may affect diversity. This is crucial in planning the approaches to be employed to community engagement. In a way, one must seek to understand the community’s educational, economic and employment status for their benefits.
It is important for one to identify and seek to mobilize the community’s assets. Through this, they can develop its capacity. This is important in making decisions and taking action. This is a key principle to community engagement if one is to be successful.
One must also seek to have long-term commitment to community collaborations in engaging the organization and the partners. There are several stages of development in community developments. In order to meet all these stages and be effective, one must ensure that they intend to have a long-term commitment in order to be fully successful in their endeavors.
There are several examples that have led to successful community engagement programs. The first successful example is that of Community Action for Child Health Equity (CACHE). This community engagement approach was initiated in the year 2002 when the National Institute of Child and Human Development decided to fund the Community Child Health Network with the main aim being to establish how several factors led to disparities in health during early childhood and infancy (Clinical and Translational Science Awards Consortium, United States, & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). In order to meet the principles of community engagement, several families were recruited for the study and the approach was divided into three phases. First, it sought to develop partnerships with the community. The approach, secondly, sought to conduct an observational study with the aim of realizing and highlighting the factors that led to the disparities. Thirdly, the engagement sought to come up with interventions that would eliminate the disparities, basing their judgment on the observational study.
In order to achieve the objectives, the approach employed the community-based participatory research. Essentially, most of the community engagement principles were employed, seeing around 27 leaders of the community taking positions in the community advisory committee. Important to note is the fact that the community leaders played a crucial role in the decision making process. Effectively, the community engagement allowed the members of the community to realize the issues that faced families of the Lake County. In order to realize this success, community wisdom played a crucial role. By employing the community engagement principles, the approach succeeded in its objectives and goals.
The second successful community engagement example is that of HEALTH-E-AME initiative. In essence, this was a collaborative project by The Medical University of South Carolina and the African Methodist Episcopal (Clinical and Translational Science Awards Consortium, United States, & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). According to their early research, AME revealed that the members lacked physical activities. In order to reduce the health disparities within their members, the leaders of AME highlighted physical activities as being of a great importance. Because of this necessity, AME decided to collaborate with the Medical University of South Carolina to effect the same. All the organization had to take an active participation in order to ensure success was achieved. Through the successful partnership that the parties had, successful results were realized. In essence, this was achieved because the two parties agreed to work together. The Medical University of South Carolina played a crucial role in incorporating the church leadership in their decision-making process. Through this, they were in a position to facilitate physical activities in the community, leading to the success of the community engagement.
References
Clinical and Translational Science Awards Consortium, United States, & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) (2011). Principles of community engagement. Washington, D.C.: Dept. of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Clinical and Translational Science Awards.
