2. THE PROCESS
Who: Board members, Community
greening committee members, and staff
Major questions:
Why do we do community
engagement?
How do we define community
engagement?
How do we measure community
engagement
3. WHY?
Because Openlands believes that stewardship grows best in communities.
Access to nature enriches people, inspiring them to value, steward,
and advocate for the health of the region.
4. QUALITY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IS…
Openlands defines community engagement as the process of
working collaboratively with groups of people who are
connected by urban and rural landscapes, or who share
common community or environmental interests. It is a
powerful vehicle for connecting people to nature at multiple
scales. It contributes to a sense of stewardship and leads to
increased resilience and sustainability in the face of climate
change. By creating networking opportunities and providing
access to information and resources, it also fosters personal
recognition, skill enhancement, and contribution.
5. QUALITY COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT IS…
•Collaborative
•For people connected by landscape or interest
•A way to connect people to nature at multiple scales
•A way to increase stewardship, resiliency, and
sustainability in the face of climate change.
•A way to increase access to information and
resources
•Fostering contribution, skill enhancement, and
personal recognition
7. THREE CATEGORIES OF METRICS
Response to community needs
Shared leadership in the community
Individual/community actions as a result of the engagement.
17. INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY ACTIONS
Community members will…
• be engaged with Openlands
• recommend and advocate Openlands opportunities
• be connected with other opportunities
• demonstrate changes in behavior
• implement changes in physical property
• gain confidence in their knowledge and skills
Community engagement has been part of Openlands work for decades.
In 2014, Openlands recognized that a shared understanding of Quality Community Engagement among staff and board was necessary to make these connections.
So today I will quickly talk about our process for developing an Openlands definition of community engagement, then look at tools for measuring our success through the lens of community tree planting in Chicago.
Before creating a definition, we found that as a group we needed to agree on why quality community engagement is important for our work. As a land trust, we could pay contracts to plant X number of trees or install X number of school gardens or community gardens, but who would maintain them in the long run? By taking the time to involve community members from the start of the process they gain a sense of ownership and an interest to become stewards of those spaces. Involving people that live near these spaces or are likely to use them not only increases the sustainability of those spaces, but it increases access to nature and improves health of people involved.
Openlands defines community engagement as the process of working collaboratively with groups of people who are connected by urban and rural landscapes, or who share common community or environmental interests. It is a powerful vehicle for connecting people to nature at multiple scales. It contributes to a sense of stewardship and leads to increased resilience and sustainability in the face of climate change. By creating networking opportunities and providing access to information and resources, it also fosters personal recognition, skill enhancement, and contribution.
From reading this, you hearing this you may be able to hear the many perspectives that went into this definition. It is a lot! Here are the main elements.
Collaborative – working with community partners. We pride ourselves on our partnerships, but this doesn’t stop with large non-profits or municipalities like Audubon, Healthy Schools Campaign, or a Forest Preserve District. These partnerships are essential to our work too, but we also need to seek relationships with groups IN the community, like the local school or a neighborhood non-profit, to effectively represent the people we work with.
Connected by landscape or interest: this could be people within a particular school community or people interested in stormwater mitigration
The middle three are what I think make Openlands unique: We want to use our wealth of relationships and information that can increase a person’s access to nature at multiple scales – from the community garden, to the local park, to a larger space like Hackmatack Wildlife Refuge or Midewin Tall Grass Prairie. Through community engagement people can tap into this, and learn how they can make changes in their neighborhood to make it stronger and more resilient in the face of climate change and other threats.
Lastly, quality community engagement results in amazing accomplishments by individuals, in the community, and these individuals should be recognized.
Openlands seeks to monitor the quality of its community engagement work. The evaluation will focus on three areas: (1) response to community needs, (2) shared leadership in the community, and (3) individual/community actions as a result of the engagement. Evaluation tools will include staff self-assessment, compilation of existing data, and interviews with community members.
Openlands collaboration map- look at opportunities for trees
Grant allows for flexibility in planting locations, species, types and reasons.
KAM multiple grants
BIG turning a vacant lot into a food forest, selecting species etc.
Family planting a tree in their housing co-op, becomes “their” tree. Those who could not plant helped out in other ways.
Volunteer appreciation, TK 25th, social media shout outs, recognized during event
Block club, TreeKeepers, Bartlett Tree Experts for mulch, local bakery for food
Tracking TK hours, sending thank you email, adding emails to constant contact
Grantees sending members to TK course, BAPA grants, other Openlands workshops
Grantees sending members to TK course, BAPA grants, natural area stewards/tree planters, tabling, service fairs
Long term goal? TreeKeeper quotes?
Self explanatory
Residents learn to plant/care for tree. Quote? New grants from neighborhood?