WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THE ALAMANC

The almanac is intended to guide community engagement conducted today as we navigate varying degrees of “reopening,” and as we transition into a ‘post-pandemic’ world. The tools, assessments, catalog, and mini-guides allow for you to begin to adapt your community engagement strategies for this year and beyond.

 

All parts of the almanac can stand alone and work comprehensively together to provide the principles for why  and how we conduct community engagement. It also includes platforms available today and best practices for ensuring successful engagement. To help with ease of use and sharing, download the sections most pertinent to your engagement and team’s needs.

 

The almanac is intended to guide community engagement conducted today as we navigate varying degrees of “reopening,” and as we transition into a ‘post-pandemic’ world. The tools, assessments, catalog, and mini-guides allow for you to begin to adapt your community engagement strategies for this year and beyond.

 

All parts of the almanac can stand alone and work comprehensively together to provide the principles for why   and how we conduct community engagement. It also includes platforms available today and best practices for ensuring successful engagement. To help with ease of use and sharing, download the sections most pertinent to your engagement and team’s needs.

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Click on each title to download the individual sections or mini-guides.

PART I – INTRODUCTION
Provides information on how to use the almanac, advocacy points for why community engagement matters, even in times of crisis, a detailed definition of the spectrum of engagement, and a case study of successful community engagement.

PART II – TOOLS AND ASSESSMENTS
Provides the process to plan community engagement with targeted stakeholders; this section supports your approach, including choosing the right format for your stakeholders, uncovering your blind spots, and leveraging your resources for mutually beneficial engagement; all while ensuring your engagement is equitable, inclusive, and accessible. The tools can be downloaded as editable PDFs.

PART III – MINI-GUIDES
Presents best practices, resources, and checklists to support all aspects of the community engagement experience, as well as methods for promoting safety and inclusion, both in-person and remotely (virtually, digitally, or phone/SMS); the mini-guides are designed to be used independently as a way to build capacity or alignment; or address a specific need depending on the type of engagement.

Mini-Guide for Planning Engagements guides you through identifying the purpose of an engagement, building an agenda, utilizing arts and culture, and promoting the engagement. It also provides information on planning for participatory decision-making and planning for safety and inclusion.

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Mini-Guide for Engagement Evaluation covers strategies for effectively evaluating your engagement by providing resources on the identification of key performance indicators, collecting data, and results-sharing.

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Mini-Guide for Facilitation covers how to support productive dialogue and the roles and responsibilities of a facilitator. Within this section are key tools and guides for managing the flow of the engagement and stakeholder interactions.

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Mini-Guide for Anti-Oppression, Inclusion and Accessibility provides an overview and helpful strategies to plan and lead a more inclusive engagement. This broadly covers barriers to stakeholder engagement stemming from power dynamics, digital and internet access, and accessibility.

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Mini-Guide for Virtual Engagement guides you through everything from planning to facilitating virtual engagements. It includes strategies for supporting participants in engaging comfortably and best practices for leveraging digital collaboration.

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Mini-Guide for Phone/SMS Engagement guides you through planning and facilitating phone or SMS/text messaging) engagements while also providing resources for outreach.

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Mini-Guide for Physically Distant Engagement provides resources and information to support planning and facilitating a physically distant engagement. It includes strategies for planning while keeping safety front and center.

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Mini-Guide for Hybrid Engagement guides you through planning, facilitating, and structuring engagements that support in-person and virtual participants.

PART IV – CATALOG OF IDEAS
Presents a set of creative and effective ideas for leading engagements across alternative platforms both in-person and remote; these ideas feature methods for conducting engagement across the full spectrum of participation–from outreach to shared leadership. This section inspires with ideas for different ways to set up productive, creative, and safe engagements.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Although the almanac is chock-full of resources, it should not be considered an exhaustive list of all the options for facilitating community engagement during a crisis. Instead, our guide is more focused on the comprehensive ecosystem of planning and facilitating engagement, leading first with your intentions and approach, rather than with which digital tool works best. There are many other great toolkits and resources available that provide more platform options that can inspire and be used in tandem with tools included in this almanac. You can find some of our favorites here.

 

HELP US KEEP THE ALMANAC UP-TO-DATE

As with traditional almanacs, we intend this to be a living document, updated with information, resources, and tools relevant to our evolving context. You can share your own ideas, resources, or solutions to help build this almanac further by submitting information through this form.