Why Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever)

Please join us as we welcome, Paul Schmitz, CEO of Leading Inside Out and a Senior Advisor at The Collective Impact Forum, for an interactive workshop on why community engagement matters and discussing the six key factors that are essential for building community support. Drawing from his 2016 Stanford Social Innovation Review article, “Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever)”, Paul will share tools and lead participants through a series of conversations to help you consider your purpose, definitions and approaches to engagement in order to better work with communities, not for communities.

Community engagement is about ensuring that those most impacted by social challenges have a say in designing and implementing solutions. The participation of intended beneficiaries and their families, neighbors, and trusted leaders should be an integral part of data-driven processes to achieve better results and a shift in power where community members own and help produce the result will lead to greater impact. Paul will share lessons from Public Allies, The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, and from collective impact efforts he has visited and advised on. He will also share the Community Engagement Toolkit he built to help groups create rigorous, comprehensive engagement plans.

Paul Schmitz builds the collective leadership of organizations and communities to achieve greater social impact. He is the author of Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up, and the former CEO of Public Allies, where he helped thousands of young adults begin careers working for community and social change. Paul is a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, was a social innovation advisor to the Obama White House, and has been named three separate years to The Nonprofit Times list of the 50 most influential nonprofit leaders in America.

Details:
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Registration starts at 5:00 p.m.; Dinner is served at 5:00 p.m.
Program: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Residence Inn Harlingen

109 Bass Pro Dr.
Harlingen, Texas 78552

This event is free and open to all members of the community, although advanced registration is required on a first-come, first served basis. Dinner will be provided. Please list any dietary restrictions in the comments section of the registration form.

Registration will close on Wednesday, January 29th, or once the event venue has reached its capacity of 70 people.

For more information or questions, please contact Sandra Martinez at (512) 619-4322 or smartinez@mhm.org.