Contact:  Walt Whitmer, wew2@psu.edu

Description:  Effective community engagement seeks to better engage the community to achieve long-term and sustainable outcomes, processes, relationships, discourse, and decision-making in a community-context sensitive environment.  Engagement is not generally driven by a model so much as by a framework of guiding principles, strategies, and approaches. This framework is based on principles that respect the right of all community members to be informed, consulted, involved and empowered and employs and range of tools and strategies to ensure success.  It also places a premium on fostering and enhancing trust as a critical element in long-term, sustainable engagement and effective governance.

The tools and resources provided here are intended to help you assess your engagement needs, plan for effective strategies and processes, as well as implement and monitor your engagement efforts.

URL:  http://aese.psu.edu/research/centers/cecd/engagement-toolbox