"Community Engagement"

Engaging communities today for sustained community development and growth can be quite challenging and a daunting task. However, this is a very powerful force used by governments, corporations, non-profits and education institutions in attaining desired goals. Community engagment involves taking a strategic approach to an organisation's community-based stakeholders. This will involve build sustainable relationships, develope communication and manage interactions in order to achieve specific outcomes for the organisation and the community itself. In other words, community engagemnet is a type of stakeholder engagement. Other terms used to describe community engagement include civic engagement, Public consultation, public participation, community consultation, stakeholder management and community management.

Why Community Engagement

Building relationships with the community, communicating with them, and giving them opportunities to participate seems like a lot of work… is it really worth the effort? It sure is. Community engagement gives you more information and perspectives, which can help you make decisions that consider the bigger picture and impact on all your stakeholders. Also, By engaging with the community, you can become more aware of social, environmental, and economic factors at play and (hopefully) contribute in a positive way. By communicating with community members, you demonstrate greater transparency, which can help to build trust. Increased trust and satisfaction as a result of community engagement can make it more likely that your organization and project will gain community acceptance (in other words, a social license to operate).
By strategically engaging with the community (identifying and analyzing stakeholders), you can pinpoint potential sources of conflict earlier, as well as identify potential common ground that might help different groups (and your organization) negotiate and move forward with the project.
In all, both organizations and communities have a lot to gain from a successful community engagement.

Scource : Grantmakers in Health

C.E Continuum

But what does the community engagement process look like
Outreach — This involves communicating, providing balanced and objective information about new programs or services, and the reason for choosing them, prividing updates during implementation.
Consult — Inviting feedback on alernatives, analyses and decisions related to new programs or services and also letting community know how their feedback has influenced program decisions.
Involve — Working with community members to ensure that their aspirations and concerns are considered at every stage of planning and decision making. letting them know how their involvement has influence program decisions.
Collaborate — Enabling community members to participate in every aspect of planning and decision making for new programs or service
Shared Leadership — Giving community members sole decision-making authority over new programs or services and allowing professionals to serve only in consultative and supportive roles.