Community Engagement

Community engagement is partly a mindset and an approach to community-facing work that involves relationship building with community partners and community members; understanding the community landscape and supporting community initiatives and projects; and actively listening to and having ongoing conversations with community members about their goals and needs. There are a number of approaches, channels, and tools that can help our members and partners engage with their communities, and WiLS is available to consult on different strategies that will work for individual libraries and other organizations.

Community engagement plays a critical role in every strategic planning process that WiLS coordinates. We offer a number of example tools and approaches that prioritize and center community voices. WiLS understands that not every tool or approach will work in every community, and so we partner with libraries and other organizations and use data such as community demographics to craft an engagement strategy that works well for as many people as possible. Community engagement is a mindset, not a one-time activity. WiLS helps empower our partners to ensure that community voices are actively and intentionally integrated into most, if not all, initiatives, services, or projects an organization considers.

Have an idea? Here’s how to get started with WiLS Community Engagement

Contact Melissa McLimans at melissa@wils.org or Laura Damon-Moore at laura@wils.org to learn more!