Community Engagement, What is it Good For?

Understanding community engagement can be a pretty difficult process. It's not an instant fix, like a band-aid on a bruise. It's not a short term deal, like a charity or fundraiser for victims of an earthquake. If anything, community engagement is best described as a doctor's appointment. You arrive perhaps twenty minutes before your appointment, in hopes of perhaps sneaking in earlier, but then of course you are brought in ten minutes past your original appointment. You go in, maybe get weighed, and then are eventually led to the inevitable second waiting room. In many ways, the second waiting room is more painful then the first. You're all by your lonesome, stuck in a two-by-four compartment. You can hear the doctors passing by outdoor, and you hope that one of them is yours, but of course it never is. Twenty minutes later, you're sweaty, coughing or sneezing depending on your illness, and ready to simply roll out on the stretcher and call it a life. Fortunately, the doctor finally comes in, and of course is the nicest person you've ever met, making you feel a little sour for all the hateful things you've mumbled about them while waiting. A feel here, a look there, and after all that waiting, you finally get what you came for - a prescription. You may feel a little heated about the long and agonizing wait, but deep down you're just happy to get what you came for.

Community engagement isn't all that different when it comes down to it. People don't just come, make a few warm gestures, drop a few dollars and leave. Community engagement is all about creating a long-term relationship that brings together. You might cringe at the idea of "long-term", especially considering all the economic problems plastered across our nation today and even just the idea of waiting a "long" time to make a current situation better, but lets look at it this way: the greatest movements against the big threats in modern history, from everything like civil rights in the United States to apartheid in South Africa to the end of slavery in the 1800s and the abolishment of concentration camps during World War II all took not a day, not a month, not a year, but ages to succeed. The idea behind community engagement is not to give instant answers, but rather provide anyone willing to listen an opportunity to bring positive change to those in need, often in their own community. It's not about words and promises either, but constant action and aid that helps build success.

Less Talk, More Action: The "How"
Unlike a government or a charity, community engagement doesn't look to force change in any way shape or form. This is very much a group process that brings everyone together. Communication is key, and perhaps the biggest part that separates community engagement from other forms of charity. Some places look to force their way in and provide fast relief, whether it is through money, material aid like medicine or shelter, all positive things to be certain, but sometimes not the answer to their problems. Community engagement, however, looks to take the time to get to the heart of the matter by talking with the community. Through research and data gathering, it tries to look at the big picture and develop some answers to the big problems at hand. This can be a long and difficult process, but it importantly brings the community into the study and gives them a voice, an arena, for their problems, allowing the researchers to focus what's important rather than accidentally going off on a tangent. The community is involved every step of the way, whether it is in the research, the development of "the answer" or the "action" part of the plan.