Journey to Engagement

Summary

Garland Yates went from a 17-year-old high-school dropout with few prospects to a respected community leader at 25. In this report, Yates provides a firsthand account of his observations on engaging community, developed through his experience as a senior associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, working with the Making Connections community in Denver. This report is part of “The Diarist Project” series of stories and reflections about the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections Initiative.

Table of Contents

• Contents
• What role should residents have in Making Connections in your site?
• Why is it important for residents to frame the solutions?
• How has it played out? What roles are residents now playing in your site?
• What strategies have you used to engage residents?
• Why work with existing organizing groups? How did you approach them?
• What has caused the other partners to embrace organizing?
• What’s worked and not worked?
• What have been the biggest challenges?
• Have your resident engagement strategies changed?
• What have you done to keep residents engaged?
• What is the relationship between residents and professional staff?
• What’s surprised you about this work?
• What other supports would be useful?

Key Takeaway

Engaged residents can transform communities

Creating meaningful, transformative community change requires that residents are engaged both in identifying problems and developing realistic solutions. Effective resident engagement means:

• Learning about the culture and history of the community.
• Involving the people who are affected by the types of problems to be addressed.
• Focusing on the neighborhood's assets, not just its deficits.
• Sharing information to raise residents' consciousness and start conversations.
• Developing strong communications that reflect the voices of the community.
• Documenting data and assessing outcomes.