Civic leaders can mobilize the latent political will of communities to create demand for and support of high-performing public education systems. When leaders, stakeholders and citizens work together to create an infrastructure of public responsibility for education across a community, strategic improvements are more likely to be created and sustained.
Smart, well-executed engagement can change the nature of the education conversation and relationships within a community. Collaborative works on engagement strategies of various types including:
- Community-wide vision setting for education
- Issue-specific community understanding and input
- Targeted engagement to shift a politically contentious debate into a productive conversation
- Community engagement designed to add perspective to events or products
Additionally, Collaborative has a history of relationships and skills that we also bring to research and technical assistance on the issues of community engagement.
Beyond local community engagement Collaborative engages communities of interest to drive their work and build new strategies. From our efforts creating a network of mayors working together on statewide education issues to efforts to engage dispersed networks of people, we exercise engagement sensibilities that strengthen voices and deepen connections.
One of our signature approaches to community engagement is a comprehensive strategy that creates the structures and opportunities for cross-sector understanding of, commitment to and energy for a community-wide vision for public education. Our proven model is based on four key engagement components:
- Structure and facilitation of a steering committee representative of all key stakeholders.
- Design, coordination, facilitation and documentation of conversations among residents across all neighborhoods.
- Design, facilitation and documentation of cross-sector community-wide forums that build and solidify a community vision for public education.
- Application of citizen aspirations and voices into strategic action for schools districts, local organizations and individuals.
