Investing in Capacity to Work with Communities Janice Barbee, Nexus Community Partners Frank Mirabal, City of Albuquerque Jeff Raderstrong, Living Cities November 17, 2015

Session Objectives Participants understand the necessary components to designing successful community engagement strategies. Participants analyze their assumptions about effective community engagement. Participants bring home ideas and resources for improving their community engagement strategies and/or their grantee’s community engagement strategies

Agenda Introductory questions Overview of Living Cities’ research on community engagement Building the Field of Community Engagement in the Twin Cities Community Engagement and Collective Impact in Albuquerque Exercise Closing questions

Top Down, Out Of Touch

Determine the “Why?” Amplify Voices Build Feedback Loops Three Approaches

Source: Collective Impact Forum, adapted from IAP2 and Tamarack Institute

Amplify the Voice of Community Members

Context experts vs. Content experts Amplify the Voice of Community Members

Leadership trainings Create shared aspirations Network building Grassroots/community organizing Amplify the Voice of Community Members

Create Feedback Loops

The Center for Effective Philanthropy The Fund for Shared Insight Markets for Good Feedback Labs Keystone Create Feedback Loops

Building the Field: Background What is community engagement? How is it different than “organizing”, “civic participation,” “outreach”, etc.? What kind of capacity is needed to support it?

Building the Field of CE: Definition, Vision and Mission Definition: A process that includes multiple techniques to promote the participation of residents in community life, especially those who are excluded and isolated. Building the Field of Community Engagement Vision: Community engagement is valued, understood, practiced, and well-resourced. Mission: Magnify and elevate the power of community engagement to change the way problems are solved and resources are invested.

How to “Build a Field”? Engaged Learning Series New Tools and Resources Stories of Impact “Mentoring”

Impact Graphic

Outreach or Engagement: An Assessment Tool  What kind of relationships do you have with community members?  Why are you engaging people?  How are you getting people involved? When?  How do ideas get generated?  How do your organizational policies and structures support engagement?

Challenging Assumptions “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. “ ~ Lao Tzu Find out first:  If people want to learn to fish  If teaching people to fish would solve the problem  If there are leaders within the community who could do the teaching  If people already know how to fish and the problem is something you are not seeing

Building the Field of Community Engagement: More Information

Frank Mirabal, Ph.D Director of Collective Impact

Our Approach: Collective Impact Shared agenda Shared measurement/metrics Cross-sector partnerships Backbone organizations

Plan for Prosperity (P4P) Surveyed over 1,800 ABQ residents Over 50 community dialogues at community centers, libraries, and small businesses Engaged researchers, educators, and content experts to define strategies

Molino Project: Engaging Through Human Centered Design Brainstorm solutions to civic challenges Use Design Thinking methodology to build prototypes Hands-on problem solving Over 40 people from 30 organizations participated

Small Business Deep Dives: Creating Feedback Loops with Community 15 small, focus group s with small businesses Identify challenges impacting businesses Ideation and co-creation of programs and policies

My Brother’s Keeper Action Forum: Head, Heart, Hands MBK Action Forum engaged over 300 youth, community leaders, policy makers, and community members The Head: Data informed The Heart: Personal Experiences, storytelling The Hands: Take Action!

Q&A

Exercise: Step 1

Source: Collective Impact Forum, adapted from IAP2 and Tamarack Institute

Exercise: Step 2

Closing Questions

Learn with us! Theresa Gardella, Nexus Community Partners, Frank Mirabal, City of Albuquerque, Jeff Raderstrong, Living Cities,