Press On...

...because there's a lot of work to be done in relation to community engagement. Very few people appear to be doing it. Putting ideas into action is hard, especially when it involves collaboration and partnerships, which are essential. Those that are doing this work are often learning as they go and using whatever resources are available or that they've gained from someone else. It's hard for those learning things "hands on" to train others, although nothing is impossible--to do the work of bringing people together for the common good, to bring about change in the community, especially since it takes endurance, a lot of passion, a humble heart, flexibility, tolerance, a thick skin, and training wherever you can get it. If you get a buddy, partner organization, or adviser to journey with you and champion the effort, this often helps and you learn from each other and the experience.

In terms of the work that needs to be done, there's going to be people who are grateful one day and ungrateful the next--sometimes they are the same person(s). They don't necessarily understand what is being done and why. The traditional models may be all they know and words like conversation, negotiation, and consensus are foreign or seem inefficient and they worry it will make things take longer. It is true that listening to people and developing relationships can take time. But sometimes doing things quickly though can end up taking twice as long or more when not getting people's opinion or hearing their stories only makes people angry or suprised that something appears to have been pushed through. Then a process may have to start all over.

Be prepared when when your group offers to bring the voice of the community to bear on issues, based on your group's experience in working with various groups in the community and receiving input from them on issues/concerns. Public officials tell your organization to convince the people to come to them instead and tell them what they think, as opposed to them doing outreach to those who may not ever step foot in a government meeting. Public officials may ask what authority your group has and may express doubt or dismiss what you do get to share with them. Then it hurts when your organization's leaders often have to stand alone, beause no one stands behind them during critical moments, when they are trying to make a case or take a stand for something. People recover from that, especially when people see that the community engagement work being done is making an impact--when community leaders/officials start using the same language/terms that have filtered from the grassroots to the top--when they make positive statements of how the work being done is good for the community. You have to give people time to accept change and to see the big picture or the reasons for doing things a different way, or the reason for doing things in conjunction with other people and organizations that people aren't used to working with.

Along the way, organizations that work in the area of community engagement may become successful in becoming an information clearinghouse to the community and a convener when it comes to pulling together the community for dialogue and deliberation on issues and concerns important to the citizenry. Over time, your organization's leaders may find that many groups are trying to do what your organization is trying to do, although each group may be at a different stage or dealing with different issues, but are following a similar, yet self-learned template. Join forces with these groups. Partner with bigger ones (like the United Way), to utilize their strengths, their network, and their people and material resources. Your group can't do what they're doing forever. Some leaders can't always make it to the "promiseland." There always needs to be a plan for who is going to replace those in leadership--takeover what they are doing. The word sustainability applies here.

In relation to your passionate group you work with, and this probably applies to just about any group, some people may want to be a leader and not a follower. Some may not want to wait to lead and some may never step forward at all, even if a position will have to remain open or leadership will have to be recycled (officers trade positions). Things can often get dysfunctional or simple things that people do annoy one another or people take things out of context. You're confused yourself because when teams form and people take a crack at leading, you take the liberty of stepping in to lead when you feel it is necessary as opposed to letting someone make a mistake and learn a lesson from it. You find that mob mentality (organized chaos, leadership by committee) sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't.

Whether it's the mob leadership or other fellow leaders or citizens stepping forward to lead, there's a saying (and I'm paraphrasing), "if you're upsetting both sides, you're doing something right." If you're only upsetting one side, then you may have to recalibrate. Whatever the case, if you compare where your community started compared to where it is today, there probably is a difference because a group of individuals decided that community engagement was the way to go--to bring together all the isolated community groups, neighborhoods, and officials to move forward together--to do community problem solving and find solutions together--to develop a common language, shared goals, and sense of community. You may not be able to see the results today, but in hindsight you will be able to inventory what has been accomplished or attempted and then build on that, building on capacity and social capital, building on hope, even it is one baby step after another. Even if there are times that it feels like the community or a portion of it is taking two steps back and then one step forward, press on...

-Rod Reyna