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Section 1: Deciding When and How to Engage Community Partners

Effective emergency management requires intentional interactions with communities before, during and after a disaster.Community engagement is a sustained process of learning and trust building that includes a variety of outreach activities and partnership collaboration to carry out planning, policies, programs, and services. Engagement will look different across every community. Individuals planning and executing engagement activities should consider several community-specific factors, including:

  • Community values, communication styles and preferences.
  • Historic, cultural, socioeconomic, religious and political dynamics.
  • Availability of resources and community lifelines (i.e., food and water, infrastructure, safety and security, etc.).
  • Capacity of community members, emergency managers and leaders.
  • Community awareness and understanding of risks and the emergency management processes.

As emergency managers, we need to be aware of the needs of all facets of our community, but some communities require extra effort and intention because they have been intentionally or unintentionally forgotten, misunderstood, underinvested in, or discriminated against, including:

Underserved community: Populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life.[1]

Marginalized community: Communities that experience discrimination and exclusion because of unequal power relationships across economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions.[2]

All communities have unique priorities and capabilities. This means there is no one-size-fits-all approach to community engagement, and outreach should be customized to the audience and goals. One way you can tailor and prioritize your community engagement activities is by using a Community Engagement Spectrum.[3] This spectrum shows four “types” of engagement (inform, consult, collaborate, support) and the level of input from partners and community-based organizations required for each. The spectrum can help identify engagement goals and determine how much partner involvement and input may be needed. The spectrum is non-linear—not every situation will call for full partner[4] involvement.

Graphic
Graphic for Increasing Level of Community Involvement and Input - Inform, Consult, Collaborate, Support

Footnotes

2. As defined by the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health.

3. The model of participation shown below has been adapted from the International Association of Public Participation Spectrum and can be tailored to support the specific work happening in emergency management before, during and after disasters.

4. A cooperative, formalized, and reciprocal relationship between emergency management organizations and individuals, businesses, inter­est-based organizations, educational institutions and affiliates, government entities, or a combination of these, where the overarching purpose is to facilitate more effective prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery activities.