The Importance of Community Engagement Programs
Community engagement programs are an integral part of the development of a community by gathering the views of the people. Several communities have a lot of racial prejudices and malpractices which can be reduced by setting up an example for them in the form of an event to ensure that racial equality is practiced by everyone (McLeod Gilmore and Jones 2017). The community-based program will ensure that the issue of racial malpractice reaches more people and helps in raising awareness. The provision of information about the atrocities against several people based on their race can be achieved through this particular event.Various people can be invited from different communities via social media platforms in order to make sure that this malpractice reaches a large number of people. The theme associated with the program will help in attracting a lot of crowds as it has an aspect of ethics related to it. The community program will help in bringing forward the views and the trauma that many have to undergo on a regular basis (Mitchell 2017). The narration of real-life events to the audience may evoke a sense of empathy among many which will prove to be a positive aspect for the people.
A community engagement program is a collaborative program that is generally conducted to bring together several segments of people. This event has been conducted on an ethical note to bring together people from various segments in order to reduce the racial prejudices and the crimes that branch out from it. The Community Engagement Theory focuses on the aspect of working collaboratively with several groups of people who are interconnected through geographical proximities, shared interests, or similar situations that they may be facing which may be affecting their well-being to some extent (Aldana Bañales and Richards 2019). Therefore, invites had been sent to the racially bullied people groups on the social media website in order to prove the solidarity of the community towards those groups. Invites had also been sent to activists who are actively involved in fighting for the cause of racial discrimination. This had also helped the community-based activity to capture the attention of the social media, which has caused it to be a grand success. The cause had been shared all over the social media websites which in turn had caused the cause to gain a lot of momentum.
The Participatory Action Research Cycle had been utilized in organizing this event. The following of this action plan made the organizers and leaders plan the action properly with the aid of visioning and evaluating the seriousness of the theme selected for the event. The implementation of the action plan had been boosted by a monitoring team which had helped the cause to a great extent. Therefore, the four major aspects of the participatory research cycle include observing, reflecting, planning, and finally acting (Carlson et al. 2018).
Figure 1: Participatory Action Research Cycle
(Source: Carlson et al. 2018)
The research work on the issue of racial discrimination faced by many people has helped the community to highlight the aspect successfully through the event. The discrimination against the black community had been aided by the provision of various cases of atrocities against them on a global level. A community mapping had been conducted with the aid of the leaders of the community by conducting a survey on the people of the black people of the particular community. As the survey was conducted on the black people of one community it was a micro approach. The survey could have been done on a larger scale and online forms could be sent out through social media network sites. The macro-level of the survey could have helped the leaders to attain a better view of the issue and compare the issues with that of the other communities (Lee et al. 2020). However, that aspect would have been quite time-consuming and the event has been accomplished on quite a short notice therefore there was a lack of time management in the event. There was a provision of several speeches based on the topic which had highlighted statistical data of atrocities regarding the black community. The inclusion of statistical data had made the speeches more reliable and had helped in moving the people present in the event to a great extent (Scanlan and Johnson 2020). Personal experiences were also shared during the event which had caused a lot of people to relate to each other. Therefore, the event has been successful in increasing the connectivity of the community with several other communities which have caused it to branch out and have a greater reach (Mosley et al.2021). The community-based event not only focussed on the racial discrimination against the black community, but people from various other communities also could relate to the aspect highlighted in the event and therefore were invited on the occasion to share their ideas on the topic.
An Ethical Community-Based Program to Reduce Racial Prejudices
The most important types of community-engagement programs include meetings of the community, forming focus groups, conducting surveys, and creating an online engagement of the people of the community (Cherney and Hartley 2017). The aspects of the focusing on focus groups, conducting meetings, and conducting online engagement had been conducted by the leaders. However, they had failed to collect any feedback from the people who had attended the event. Their failure to send out feedback forms to the guests of the event was a major drawback as they could not gather any assessment of the event. Collecting feedback could have reflected the actual impact of the event on the people present there and the people watching the event online. The program was streamed online which had caused it to gain some popularity on the internet. The only assessment that could be done of the event was through the comments that the online viewers had left. Feedback is deemed very important as it helps in formulating the next plans that are to be taken (Silva 2018). The event organizers and the leaders could also have gained a lot of motivation through the positive feedback which could have assisted them in setting up the next event.
The three C’s of a community engagement program consists of collaboration, communication, and consultation (De et al. 2018). All three aspects had been effectively utilized before planning the event.
Figure 2: 3 C’s of Community Engagement Plan
(Source: De et al. 2018)
There was effective communication among the leaders which led to a proper collaboration among them. Consultations and discussions regarding the important factors had been done prior to the event with the stakeholders and the investors. A proper explanation of the cause of the event helps the stakeholders to get a better view of all the aspects. The investors have also been convinced to invest in the event through proper communication and consultation. Budget planning for the event has been done by consulting the investors and other members of the community. An active consultation aids in raising greater awareness and enhancing commitment among the members of the group. This aspect also has helped in building up of trust among the leaders of the community (Di et al. 2019). Proper communication with the members of the community also helped the leaders to attain support from them in ensuring that the event becomes a grand success. Communicating effectively leaves all the members of the party feeling satisfied and having a sense of mutual accomplishment.
This community engagement practice has brought a greater sense of understanding among the members of the community. The alignment of the ethical beliefs of all the people has ensured that the event becomes a success. The community engagement program has also ensured that the voices of the common people are heard out and the issues are resolved to some extent (Hollebeek Juric and Tang 2017). The community-based ethical events are also responsible to some extent to bring about positive changes in society and spreading awareness. The event organized by the community was quite an engaging one. Community engagement programs can be viewed as tools to spread ethical and social awareness among the common people. Several questions were asked to the activists of the cause regarding various challenges that they had faced while working for the cause. Their answers had motivated a lot of members and had caused them to be inspired by them to a great extent. The questionnaire session had helped the common people to gain a lot of knowledge about the event and in raising awareness among them. The inclusion of a focus group has provided the event with momentum (Saltmarsh 2017). As they have helped the cause of the community by providing constructive feedback on how the community can do community-based services to help in eradicating the crimes and atrocities against racial discrimination.
Community Engagement Theory
However one of the major drawbacks of the event included just a focus on a small segment of discrimination. This aspect would have attained greater attention by focusing on discrimination against several communities. The brutal killings and atrocities against other minor communities would also have supported their causes and would have put a more large-scale impact on several communities. The event had made the inclusion of the narration several case studies and an illustration of those cases. Cases such as “The shooting of Trayvon Martin”, “Choking of Eric Garner”, and “Shooting of Michael Brown” were presented in the event to highlight the discrimination that several black people have had to face throughout the years. There was an impact on various theories of racial discrimination which had caused the people to get a detailed understanding of the injustice that is prevalent in the society (Konsti and Rantala 2018).
The community-based practice also included fun activities such as staging up of programs to highlight the cause of the event. The staging of several activities and the inclusion of fun activities like small games at the end of the event and the provision of a brief prize distribution ceremony had added to the charm of the event. Community-based activities hold major significance as they help in consolidating ethical views and implementing them in the sphere of society. This event will ensure that people are concerned about the aspects of the discrimination and will raise their voices in support of the victims if they witness any racial injustice in society (Lightbody 2017). The organization of the event has ensured that a positive and ethical change is brought about in the community to a great extent. The success of this event will ensure that the members of the community are motivated to engage in similar acts of highlighting some major social issues.
Conclusion
This report focuses on the characteristics of the event carried out to ensure that a social message is conveyed through it. The major social message that has been conveyed through this event is retaining solidarity among people from all racial backgrounds. Community engagement activities help in analyzing an event from a neutral point of view (Lightbody 2017). The act of engaging a community and introducing them to new social aspects helps in keeping the members of the community informed about various topics and enhances their decision-making capabilities by focusing solely on their own issues. The inclusion of various other communities in the event has also helped the members of the community to attain a lot of different views on the topic. Various relevant suggestions regarding the topic have also come up with the aid of varied views on the topic. Strategy planning is also one of the most important aspects of active community engagement in formulating plans to mitigate the issues. In this particular event, active communication and collaboration on the part of the members have facilitated the free flow of ideas to ensure that the event becomes a grand success. Active consultation is also one of the major aspects which have aided in conducting the program smoothly. Active community engagement ensures that there is a formulation of new ideas generated in the process which encourages the active involvement of the members in the social aspects (Ellis and Abdi 2017). This particular event has caused a lot of people to gain education and be more cautious of the social evil of racial discrimination.
Reference List
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