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In this stage, community stakeholders are brought together to provide their insights, input, and feedback. This can happen in many ways, but the purpose of community engagement for the ECFA is relationship-building, vision-setting, and data gathering. These activities should be viewed as feedback loops where ideas from the core team are shared in a way that invites input and feedback from community members as experts of their own experiences.
Preparing for Equitable Data Collection
Preparing for Equitable Data Collection
Get Familiar with Key Indicators
Get Familiar with Key Indicators
Starting from scratch on data collection can be overwhelming. Hopefully, your core team has used the community mapping worksheet or other tools to guide you to a place to start. But it can be helpful to gain perspective about some common metrics that might be applicable to your community.
This way, as your community helps you determine focus areas and priorities, you can consider coming back to adapt, utilize, or align with the following tools:
The Community & Agriculture Resilience Audit Tool - CARAT - helps community stakeholders assess how they currently utilize the assets of their local food system to achieve a substantial level of community resilience.
CARAT measures the resources within a food system via 101 indicators to determine possible next steps to increase community resiliency and food sovereignty.
"A baseline food system assessment is a tool for deepening a community’s understanding of its food system. It is a systematic way of collecting baseline data and stories that define a community’s food system with the goal of identifying ways to enhance or strengthen the food system."
Based on "Whole Measures," from the Center for Whole Communities, Community Food Strategies provides an overview and tools for how the "six Whole Measures guide a broad understanding of a food environment and can be used to evaluate cross-sector partnerships."
Determine Data Collection Methods
Determine Data Collection Methods
Determine data collection methods that align with your community’s values and the goals of the ECFA process.
Primary Data Gathering: Identify appropriate indicators or measures and data sources. Design your facilitation methods around your goals and community.
Dive Deeper: Host community meetings and establish workgroups or other appropriate methods to dive deeper into the issues generated by your initial scanning/research and community information gathering. These groups are established to continue collecting primary data from various, focused sources (could be by community or by issue, or other factors).
Engage the Community
Engage the Community
Craft the Meeting Agenda
Craft the Meeting Agenda
Build an equity-aligned agenda for community engagement
Build an equity-aligned agenda for community engagement
In the ECFA process, meeting agendas are designed to both celebrate the leadership and assets in the community as well as provide space to identify gaps and challenges.
A focused meeting(s) helps to bring the assets and challenges to the surface. Provide a simple, public timed, agenda with clear purpose and outcome statements.
Use this time with your fellow community members to inform the big picture. Community meetings are often more engaging and meaningful if you approach them with an abundance mindset and seek to foster a sense of joy!
Meeting Agenda Components
Meeting Agenda Components
Start with a Meaningful Opening
Start with a Meaningful Opening
Use storytelling methods to identify and write out your collaborative vision of the ECFA with your team. For example: Open the meeting by asking folks to share a favorite recipe or dish and the story that goes with it.
Community Agreements
Community Agreements
Introduce or develop community agreements. Take time to ask for feedback on clarification on how your participants will work together during your meeting.
It is good to create community agreements and consistently review and build on them each time you gather, allowing space for modification as you go.
Language Setting
Language Setting
Introduce your shared definitions. Spend some time with everyone to gather feedback and make changes. Note where there are questions or disagreements about definitions, but be clear that wordsmithing definitions will happen at a later date. This time is to gather feedback.
Data Gathering & Sharing Activities
Data Gathering & Sharing Activities
In the ECFA process, data gathering can take several forms. Prior to your community meeting, you likely engaged in pulling together quantitative or mapping data that you might want to efficiently share with your community. Beware of overwhelming your participants with information - seek to keep information sharing to a minimum.
Community meetings are far more valuable for listening to and capturing community member's thoughts. Use the Engagement Strategies tools below to find fun and engaging ways to successfully gather feedback.
Group Synthesis
Group Synthesis
If your agenda includes small group breakouts for your data gathering activities, be sure to bring folks back together to hear from one another and begin to put the puzzle pieces together.
Ask participants to identify major themes or takeaways from what they've heard and discussed in the meeting so far.
Close on Next Steps
Close on Next Steps
Clearly identify next steps:
Where will this information go?
How can people stay involved or get more deeply involved?
Is there an expected timeline for recommendations or action planning?
Engagement Strategies
Engagement Strategies
The activity below is adapted from this tool: Community Engagement 101: Ultimate Beginner's Guide - Visible Network Labs
This toolkit was developed by three Farm Bill organizers and includes an engagement strategeies index for inspiration.
From the Community Toolbox, facilitation methods and skill-building resources.
Example Community Engagement Strategy Ideas
Example Community Engagement Strategy Ideas
Public Dialogue and Consultation
Public Dialogue and Consultation
Town Hall Meetings
Public Consultations
Open Forums
Surveys
Research and Data Collection
Research and Data Collection
Focus Groups
Community-Based Participatory Research
Social Network Analysis
Surveys and Questionnaires
Digital and Online Engagement
Digital and Online Engagement
Online Forums and Social Media
Virtual Town Halls
Emails and Newsletters
Social Media Campaigns
Adapted from this Tool: Community Engagement 101: Ultimate Beginner's Guide - Visible Network Labs
Invite Participation
Invite Participation
Now that you have your community engagement agenda and data collection methods, create an invitation to build community and solidarity to engage with the planning or implementation.
Example invitation language:
“Anytown Food Policy Council invites you to join the Equitable Community Food Assessment Meeting which will help us work together as a community to identify our priorities and opportunities to improve our local food system.”
From the Community Toolbox, learn how to use persuasion and promotion to promote interest in community issues.
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