Process of Community Engagement and Skills of A

PROCESS OF
COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT AND
SKILLS OF A
COMMUNITY WORKER
OBJECTIVES:
 Explain the important strategies of

consciousness-raising and participatory
strategy in community engagement.
 Distinguish ideal practices from
unsatisfactory practices in community
engagement.
 Articulate the process of doing
community engagement.
 Imagine and illustrate examples of
community engagement activities.
STRATEGIES IN
COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT
CONCIOUSNESS-RAISING
Community engagement involves the
process of consciousness-raising,
where the volunteer helps poor
sectors and groups to reclaim their
self-confidence.
Volunteers should not fall into the common trap of treating poor people
as helpless, and that outsiders needs to do things to do things people.
Volunteers should promote the self-confidence of the people through

encouragement and through small activities where people experience
small victories.
Volunteer should avoid considering themselves as superior to community

people, because such thinking will in contrast promote feelings of
inferiority among the community people.
Consciousness-raising is also about the equal exchange of knowledge

between community people and volunteers.
Outsiders should not impose their views on the people, and instead listen
to people’s perspectives.
Outsider-volunteers should open spaces where a respectful dialogue can

take place.
Dialogue is an opportunity for collaboration between volunteers and

community people to understand local conditions, and to analyze these
conditions in connection to social, economic, political, and cultural
processes around them.
From this deeper analysis of conditions, local people /must be encourages

to bind together and decide and act on issues that need to be addressed.
PROMOTING PARTICIPATION
Participation of people in processes and matters concerning their lives is a
basic human right.
Participation can be realized by motivating people, ensuring their active

involvement, and building organizations and groups together with the most
disadvantaged sectors.
Participation is a crucial aspect of human development where the poor

enhance their initiative, resourcefulness, responsibility, and cooperative
actions.
Participations begins with consciousness-raising or the self-awakening of

the people about their situation, and the collective decision-making to
transform their situation.
Both CONCIOUSNESS-RAISING and PROMOTING
PARTICIPATION are crucial processes the encourage
people to talk with one another about things they care
about as a driving force for change.
The Process of
Community
Engagement
This process includes the necessary elements to
prepare volunteers and community members to work
together and to maintain equal partnership
PLANNING ACTION
Joint
COMMUNITY IMMERSION/ Joint analysis of JOINT implementation
community
ENTRY INTERGRATION situation PLANNING and learning
LEARNING REFLECTION
All volunteers, whatever knowledge, skills and
background they have, can journey and work the
poor through the following processes.
• COMMUNITY ENTRY – includes identification of a partner community,
creating contact with community leaders or community organizations, and initial
gathering of information about the partner community.
• INTEGRATION / IMMERSION – immersing in community life, which

includes informal and non-formal conversations, and living with the people
where volunteers can empathize and share in the pains and dreams of the
community.
• JOINT ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY SITUATION – means

conversation with community people to encourage them to become
“researchers” of their own situation. It is not merely about answering
questionnaires but more of the active role that community members can
assume in narrating their difficult conditions. Volunteers assume a facilitative
role in the joint analysis.
• JOINT PLANNING – allows people to decide on:
o What they want to do based on their awareness of

community issues;
o what they want to do differently from their common practice;
o What short-term and long-term needs should be

addressed;
o What strategies / actions will address there needs.
• JOINT IMPLEMENTATION of activities allow people to share tasks and
set their plans into actions. Through participatory learning, people reflect on
questions such as:
o After implementing the collective actions, what changed?

o Who were involved in the actions?
o What were the sentiments / feelings of the people?
o What factors led to the success or failure of the collective
actions?
o What can be improved next time?
o What insights can be derived from doing the actions?
Joint planning and implementation are interwoven processes. The
reflections about implementation will help in continuously improving
future planning and collective actions.
All community engagement work is time-bound. Eventually,

community engagement volunteers will needs to build its own capacity
to undertake the cycle of ACTION – REFLECTION – LEARNING – PLANNING
to achieve its short-term and long-term goals.
COMMUNITY ENTRY
• Select community
• Build contact persons and

organization
• Understand local life ways

IMMERSION / INTEGRATION
• Understand the everyday life of
people in the community
(through conversations and
participation in community
activities).
• Listen to people’s stories, pains

& dreams.
JOINT ANALYSIS OF
SITUATION
( can focus on general or specific situations of
educations, infrastructure, health, sanitation,
literacy, leadership and livelihoods, and among
others )
• What are the respective needs and

capacities in each situation?
• What are the root causes of the problems?
• How can people solve their problems?

JOINT PLANNING
• Prioritize which needs can be
addressed
• Identify short and long-term
solutions
• Build on community knowledge
and experience
• Consider local people as
primary decision-makers
JOINT IMPLEMENTATION
AND LEARNING
• Provide substantial roles for community
people to implementing activities and not
simply to become passive receivers of
activities.
• Conduct joint reflection sessions.
• Document learning to be used for next

plans / actions.
EXAMPLES OF COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
These are some of the activities that can be

explored on when working with communities.
• TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE – Volunteers and community members jointly
design and implement technical solutions to practical community problems
( such as water sanitation, energy, pollution, waste management, disaster risk
reduction, and infrastructure development, among others ).
• ASSISTANCE IN PROVIDING SERVICES – Volunteers can extend

services connected to health, education, energy, or nutrition. Community
members and volunteers jointly design and implement the provision services.
• ADVOCACY AND COMMUNITY MOBILIZATIONS – Community
members, in solidarity with volunteers, engage powerful sectors, such as the
different government agencies and business, into a dialogue. These may involve
dialogue meetings, consultations, and demonstrations where the community can
demand the powerful agencies to make decisions in favour of the community.
Volunteers can show solidarity by joining in persuading the decision-makers to
change policies, procedures, and practices
• PROVIDING ACCESS TO INFORMATION, KWOLEDGE, AND

SKILLS – Volunteers can assist the community to have better access to
knowledge and information through trainings, information campaign ( e.g.
community radio and printed educational materials ), mentoring, and coaching.
• OTHER FORMS OF SUPPORT – Volunteers can support
communities in terms of building community leadership, supporting community
organizing, creating positive images of poor sectors, and linking communities
with other relevant agencies.

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PROCESS OF

 Explain the important strategies of

Volunteers should promote the self-confidence of the people through

Volunteer should avoid considering themselves as superior to community

Consciousness-raising is also about the equal exchange of knowledge

Outsider-volunteers should open spaces where a respectful dialogue can

Dialogue is an opportunity for collaboration between volunteers and

From this deeper analysis of conditions, local people /must be encourages

Participation can be realized by motivating people, ensuring their active

Participation is a crucial aspect of human development where the poor

Participations begins with consciousness-raising or the self-awakening of

• INTEGRATION / IMMERSION – immersing in community life, which

• JOINT ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY SITUATION – means

o What they want to do based on their awareness of

o what they want to do differently from their common practice;

o What short-term and long-term needs should be

o After implementing the collective actions, what changed?

All community engagement work is time-bound. Eventually,

• Build contact persons and

• Understand local life ways

• Listen to people’s stories, pains

• What are the respective needs and

• What are the root causes of the problems?

• How can people solve their problems?

• Conduct joint reflection sessions.

• Document learning to be used for next

These are some of the activities that can be

• ASSISTANCE IN PROVIDING SERVICES – Volunteers can extend

• PROVIDING ACCESS TO INFORMATION, KWOLEDGE, AND

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