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Navigating Your
You're in it! You are engaging with the community in a new way. Now what?
You're in it! You are engaging with the community in a new way. Now what?
Effective and sustainable engagement involves engaging in a way that is impactful and appropriate for the issue being addressed. It often requires kind and careful navigation for yourself and with your partners. It means being reliable in your work and communication, but also demands boundaries and self-care to avoid burnout. It means maintaining an authentic and reciprocal relationship with your community partner but requires reflection to ensure you are not being extractive.
Effective engagement is not a simple undertaking, but it is worthwhile. We hope these tools will help you in the journey.
📣 Community Voices:
How Can I Engage Effectively?
Our community partners offer great insight on effective service!
Believe in yourself.
Do the work required to build understanding.
Approach the work with humility and empathy.
Be authentic and build authentic relationships.
What does it mean to engage effectively?
What does it mean to engage effectively?
Covered in this section
Covered in this section
Preparing Yourself to Engage Effectively: From juggling your roles and managing your busy schedule, to the practice of bringing cultural sensitivity and humility to your engagement, preparing yourself is important to create a meaningful experience for everyone.
Navigating Engagement with Your Community Partner: Hear from our community partners on what they are looking for in folks coming to work with them. Learn about strategies for maintaining a healthy ongoing relationship with your community partner, like mutual goal setting and supporting mutual positive impact for your and your community partner.
Giving and Receiving Feedback: With care and attention, improve your practice of reciprocal communication and feedback - it is essential for a positive and meaningful experience.
What Next? Closure and Next Steps: Explore resources and advice about how to end an engagement experience with grace, gratitude, ongoing connections, and the tools to help you continue that important work into the future.
Preparing Yourself to Engage Effectively
Preparing Yourself to Engage Effectively
You are a busy student, and probably have a full plate. Yet, here you are digging in to the all the opportunities your college and your community have to offer. As you dig in, it is important to take time to prepare yourself to be successful. As your community invites you in to the important work of care and social change, it is important to reflect on how you will show up.
How will you make volunteer shifts and homework happen? How will you bring your knowledge and stay open to learning? How will you balance what is important to you and what is essential for your community partner?
These sections offer insight on how to build reciprocal, mutual relationships of respect and care.
Juggling Your Roles: Prioritization, Capacity, and Time Management
Juggling Your Roles: Prioritization, Capacity, and Time Management
📣 Community Voices: Prioritization and Capacity
📣 Community Voices: Prioritization and Capacity
"I tell my student leaders that I work with to think of it as juggling plates. And some of those plates are plastic, and some of them are glass material" - Marcos Villanueva, PSU Staff
Students are often juggling many different roles and responsibilities, making it hard to engage in community work. There is a push from our culture to always be doing the most possible, but that creates a high risk of burnout. Time management strategies and boundary setting can aid you in creating space to engage in a healthy way.
But remember, there are only 24 hours in a day, it is not possible to time manage your way out of being over-extended, meaning prioritization is also important.
NOTE: *In the above video, there was ableist language used. We chose to leave the clip and add an acknowledgment and apology. We did this because the advice given was valuable and the chance to publicly learn from our mistakes is a valuable one.
Here is an article on the harm of ableist language: Why You Need To Stop Using These Words and Phrases by Rakshitha Arni Ravishankar
Here is a collection of ableist terms to avoid: Ableist Words and Terms to Avoid by Lydia X. Z. Brown
📣 Community Voices:
📣 Community Voices:
Avoiding Burnout and Time Management*
Avoiding Burnout and Time Management*
"I no longer feel super anxious when I have a lot of things going on. I know that I now have this toolbox that works for me." - Kendall
"I'm assuming that people who are engaged in community engagement work want to see the world be better. And a better world includes people who are happy and healthy, and not overworked. You have to live that in order to build that world." -Ari
Time Management: Creating a Schedule
What would a perfect week look like for you? A week where you got all your key tasks done (not everything, but your key tasks). A week where you got time to see your loved ones. A week where you did some exercise and other activities to keep you healthy. A week where you spent time doing some of the things you love to do.
That sort of week is what we call an ideal week. A great time management activity is to create this week on paper. Check out the example below!
This activity was taken from www.time-management-central.net; check out their website for more tips and resources for time management! However, there are many online resources to support you in building out your schedule. Here's a few that work well:
Remember: Time Management Is Self-Care
Many folks tend to overextend themselves, especially in the name of helping others. But failing to prioritize your own needs and well-being only ends up hurting everyone in the long run.
While tasks like building a schedule or calculating your capacity can seem like an extra step or a waste, they are a crucial part of self-care and effective engagement.
Time management allows you to reliably commit to service in a way that is sustainable and beneficial to all those involved.
🔑 Essential Activity: Time Management Activity: Figuring Out My Capacity
This activity was taken from www.time-management-central.net; check out their website for more tips and resources for time management! If you want to use the same format used on the left, you can download it here!
We refer to capacity in terms of both time and energy. Time capacity is about how much you can get done in a block of time.
To complete this activity:
List all the things -- everything, big or little -- you think you want to get done this week.
Now, make a guess about how many total hours you think your list will take for the week, 40? 50 hours?
Next, allocate how much time you think each activity will take, then add in time for interruptions.
Now, add in time for travel, time for lunch or other breaks you might have.
Add it up and compare with the hours you thought you would work. How close where you? What insights can guide you?
Bringing Cultural Humility to Your Engagement
Module 3 discussed the importance of ethical engagement in community work, and cultural humility was among the first things listed as an important practice for ethical engagement. We highlight it further here to underline its importance in effective community engagement, and because it is a continuous process -- it is not something to check off a list and move past. Cultural humility is a practice you will engage in throughout your life, and it is important to revisit throughout your service experience.
📣 Community Voices:
Why is Cultural Humility Important?
📣 Community Voices:
Why is Cultural Humility Important?
Listen as members of the Pittsburgh University community discuss the importance of cultural humility in the university setting, particularly as it pertains to community work.
"The goal is to lower your own sense of self-importance to be open to receive other people and other people's way of life. To be present, to be listening, to be open, to see."
- Medina Jackson, PRIDE Program, Director of Engagement, University of Pittsburgh
"It's not coming in as if you have all the answers because you're at the university..."
- Jordana Stephens, Homewood Resident
Note that cultural humility is different from the idea of cultural competence. Cultural competence is often defined as the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures and tends to be thought of as a skillset that can be taught. In turn, cultural humility emphasizes the ability to recognize and reflect on one's own limitations in order to avoid making assumptions about other cultures.
Cultural humility was coined by Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia in 1998 while addressing disparities and institutional inequities in the field of public healthcare. Replacing the notion of cultural competency, cultural humility was based on the idea of focusing on self-reflection and lifelong learning. Tervalon and Murray-Garcia believed that health care professionals were not receiving appropriate education or training in terms of multiculturalism, and developed a new method of approaching the topic. Cultural humility acknowledges the role of power and privilege in a system, and the imbalanced role power and privilege can play in decision-making. It upholds each individual or community group as the experts and teachers on the content of their personal culture, and asks that we meet each person where he or she is by suspending judgment and resisting the need to impose personal values, beliefs, “truths,” and notions of right and wrong.
Cultural Competency
Implies an endpoint
Emphasizes a set of finite skills
Values training and knowledge
Enforces the idea that there can be “competence” in a culture other one’s own
Supports the myth that cultures are monolithic
Based on academic knowledge rather than lived experience
Believes professionals can be “certified” in culture and promotes a sense of achievement and completion
Cultural Humility
An ongoing process that we engage in
Values introspection/ co-learning
Positions professionals not as experts but as people interested in learning and understanding
Viewed as a philosophy, approach, tool (not something to be mastered)
Emphasizes humanity and self-humility rather than achieving a state of knowledge or awareness
Encourages personal reflection and lifelong learning
🔑 Essential Activity: Reflecting on Cultural Humility
Cultural humility is active engagement in an ongoing process of self-reflection on how one’s own background and the background of others impact the ways in which we engage with the world.
Below are four recommendations from the CDC website for how you can begin the reflection process toward developing cultural humility. Take some time to think about each one and consider your answers to the guiding questions below.
"Examine your personal history, background, and social position, related to assumptions, values, beliefs, biases, and culture, and how these factors impact interpersonal interactions."
How do I describe my own ethnicity? Race? Religion? Gender? Sexual Orientation?
Which parts of my identity am I most aware of? Conversely, which parts do I hardly ever think about? How does my sense of identity shift based on context and settings?
What are my most closely-held values? Where did those values come from?
"Reflect on how interpersonal interactions and relationships are impacted by the history, biases, norms, perception, and relative positions of power of a professional organization."
Which parts of my identity are privileged and/or marginalized? (Refer back to the Positionality exercise from Module 3).
What are the parts of my identity onto which people project? And which parts are received well, by whom? Where do these reactions come from?
How does my relative privilege and/or marginalization shape how I experience the world around me?
"Recognize areas in which you just don't have all the relevant experience and expertise, and then demonstrate a nonjudgmental willingness to learn from a person/community/population about their experiences and practices."
What assumptions have I made about other cultures in the past? Where do I think these assumptions came from?
How can I cultivate a sense of openness and willingness to learn from others in an authentic and respectful way?
"Gain deeper understanding and respect of cultural differences through active inquiry and openness, to establishing power-balanced relationships and appreciation of another’s expertise on the context of their own lives and contributions to public health and wellbeing."
What cultural and ethnic communities exist in my city?
How much do I know about local communities that are not my own? How can I learn more?
As I enter into new community engagement spaces, how will I ensure that I look to each individual or community group as the experts and teachers on the content of their personal culture?
🔍 Useful Resource:
Cultural Humility: People, Principles and Practices
This 30-minute documentary by San Francisco State professor Vivian Chávez mixes poetry with music, interviews, archival footage, and images of community, nature and dance to explain what Cultural Humility is and why we need it. It is worth a full watch!
🔍 Useful Resource:
Ethnic Newswatch Database
Have you ever read a newspaper from a community or culture that is different from your own?
There are many different news resources by and for culturally specific communities. You can pick these up in your local city, or access many of them through the Ethnic Newswatch Database, which provides full-text articles from newspapers, magazines and journals with a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints.
You can access the database through the PSU Library, the Multnomah County Library, and more!
🔍 Useful Resource: Cultural Humility for Student Leaders
For more on Cultural Humility, check out Level Up Leadership's full Cultural Humility Module, designed by the staff of Student Activities & Leadership Programs (SALP) for PSU student leaders. Anyone can take this module, whether you are a SALP student leader or otherwise!
Learn more about PSU's Time to Act: Plan for Equity and Racial Justice, with the goal of "eradicating persistent and structural racism, ushering in success for all students, more equitable working conditions, and an environment where people feel safe, belong, and prosper."
Navigating Engagement with Your Community Partner
Navigating Engagement with Your Community Partner
To effectively engage in service with a community partner, it is crucial to maintain an authentic relationship based on reciprocity and understanding. This is no easy task.
All relationships are work. Your relationship with a community partner is no exception, but the work you put in will deepen your impact in service and the impact the service has on you. We hope the tools we have provided you here will assist you in that relationship work.
📣 Community Voices:
Engaging Well With Community Partners
"Just be patient. Be really patient. Everyone is trying to do good work." - Michelle Harris, PSU Student
It is important to show up with intentionality and authenticity, but it is also important to operate with awareness of the capacity, context, and needs of your community partner. All of those require purposeful work, clear communication, and a decent amount of self-reflection.
Understanding your Role and Setting Mutual Goals
Understanding your Role and Setting Mutual Goals
Starting a new community engagement role can be filled with both excitement and trepidation. While you may feel excited to get started, you may also feel nervous about starting something new and unsure what exactly it will entail.
A good position description can go a long way in making sure you understand your role and what will be expected of you in your new position. However, many times, volunteer positions don't have fleshed out position descriptions; and even with a written description, it can still leave you with questions as you begin to learn the ropes.
As you begin your position, make sure you understand what training and orientation is offered to prepare you for your role, and what you may be expected to know coming in the door. If you have a regular supervisor or volunteer coordinator supporting your position, check in with them about what communication works best if you have questions -- can you come find them in their office? Do they prefer email communication or texting? Will you be meeting weekly or bi-weekly to check in?
One thing that can be helpful in establishing mutual understanding of your role and the goals for your service, especially if you are entering into a longer-term position, is something called an Action Learning Plan for Service (or "ALPS" for short). Created by two PSU professors, this tool gives you the opportunity to sit down with your community partner and walk through the goals and expectations of your position, identify benchmarks and deadlines, outline a schedule, and explore any learning goals you have for the experience.
🔍 Useful Resource
Check out the "Action Learning Plan for Serving (ALPS)" template, if you'd like some guiding questions to support mutual goal-setting with your community partner:
How Do I Balance Ethical Engagement and Desire to Build My Resume?
How Do I Balance Ethical Engagement and Desire to Build My Resume?
As covered in our exploration of ethical engagement, we know that the priority of our engagement should be the benefit to the community being served. We also know that adding experience to a resume is crucial to finding a job when you graduate.
Those two realities can challenge each other.
Additionally, for first-generation, immigrant, and Black and Brown students, sometimes you must prioritize resume building even more to overcome systemic barriers that unfairly demand students additionally "prove themselves" for employers.
We have to find a balance between those realities. We must figure out how to exist in the system we live in, without giving in to the pressures to exploit communities for our own gain. It is not easy, but it is possible.
Below you will find three things to help you accomplish this:
An explanation of the concept of instrumentalization, the exact thing we want to avoid.
A discussion from students and community partners on how to develop your skills as a student without engaging in exploitation
Resources to help you promote the communities you engage with.
The hope is that this combination will allow you to find an essential balance.
📣 Community Voices:
What is Community Instrumentalisation?
📣 Community Voices:
What is Community Instrumentalisation?
"Instrumentalisation involves using people as means to achieve ends, i.e. to treat people as objects to gain something," (Kaufmann, 2011)
Listen in to a nuanced conversation on balancing the need to prepare yourself for a job market with the risk of being extractive of a community. You'll find tips to strike a balance along with some practical advice for your resume.
📣 Community Voices:
Balancing Ethical Community Engagement with Building Your Resume
📣 Community Voices:
Balancing Ethical Community Engagement with Building Your Resume
"I know that jobs look for that. And again, a resume and packaging ones' lived experience into a resume, that is a byproduct of white supremacy culture. And white supremacy culture instrumentalises," - Carmen Dension, Oregon Campus Compact
Tips For Avoiding Instrumentalization:
Acknowledge that the risk of instrumentalization exists and reflect on it regularly.
When you are talking about the work you have done, speak about the systems at play and act as an advocate.
Keep the needs of the community at the center of all the work that you do
Building Skills During Your Engagement Experience
The reality is that many folks approach community engagement with multiple motivations. While we may work to center community needs and ethically engage according to what the community has identified are the needs, we often also find value and motivation in gaining experience and honing new skills through our service. You can effectively engage with communities and build your own skills, as long as you keep the balance and purpose in mind.
As you consider what skills you hope to gain through your service, ask yourself:
What skills do I already have that can help support this work? How will these skills benefit this community? What additional skills might be needed?
ex. I have strong writing skills and this position needs support in writing articles for their community newsletter. I feel like my writing skills will be an asset, but I may need to learn more about the community to ensure that I help capture their stories accurately.
In learning a new skill through my service, will I be able to bring value to the community? What do I need to learn first, to ensure that I do not cause harm in trying to help?
ex. I really want to gain experience in the classroom, but I haven't worked with this age group before. I also don't have experience in teaching kids to read. I think I could learn a lot through this position, but before I start working with the kids, I feel like I need to learn more about this age group and some of the common challenges in learning to read. I need to make sure I get some training in literacy development, so that I can best support the kids I am paired with.
Who am I serving in my role? What is the purpose of my service? How is my involvement adding to the community and not just my own resume-building?
ex. I really want to find a position that will help me gain marketing and outreach experience, since I'm a marketing major. I know service is one way I can do that... but I should really do some research to learn more about the organizations I've found who are looking for marketing support. I want to make sure that I understand their mission and that the community issues they address are ones I believe in -- or that I can learn more about before I begin.
Sometimes, as you get deeper into your engagement role, you might see opportunities to gain new skills and deepen your engagement in new ways. You might see areas the organization could use additional support, or ideas you have for new projects to take on. These can be exciting prospects and provide you the chance to do something new. With every new opportunity or idea, just take time to check in with yourself:
How will is this new opportunity centering a community need? Who has determined that this is a need?
In learning something new, am I creating more capacity or adding more work for others?
Advocacy, Allieship and Action Ideas: Support Your Community Partner's Success and Vision
As you get deeper into your engagement experience you and your community partner will be working towards reciprocal relationships and mutual goals. Working alongside eachother, the dream is that you can work together to create a positive social impact. So, that work doesn't have to stop at the doors of that agency or organization. There are so many ways to be an ally for your communities, and advocate at all levels for the world you hope to co-create. Leverage what you have learned in preparing for and working alongside your community and community partner, to tip the needle towards justice, and be an advocate for the community partner that helped you get involved.
To the right is an amazing resource for community engagement -- TCI's Engagement Tool Kit. It provides concrete guidance on many different ways of engagement, including:
Writing a Letter to the Editor
Circulating a Petition
Writing a Press Release
Testifying Before A Public Body
Posting Opinions Online
Being a Government Watch Dog
Communicating with a Public Offical
Organizing a Letter Writing Campaign
Organizing a BuyCott
Note: TCI uses calls its tool a "citizenship toolkit" to refer to the many types of community engagement it walks you through; however, you need not be a citizen to engage in many of the activities it covers. We prefer to use the term community engagement, to move away from the idea that you must be a citizen to be engaged in your community.
🔍 Useful Resource
Check out sections 2-5 for useful tools and template for how to advocate for your organization and the causes it stands for! To read through the whole tool kit, check out TCI's website
Copy of Many Ways to Engage- TCI Citizenship Toolkit.pdfRevisit Your Goals Often: Be Open to Shifting, Learning, and Growing
You came into your service experience with enthusiasm, a desire to serve, and some goals for your engagement -- and as you develop your relationships with your community partner, these may shift, grow, or require some revision! As you get to know your community partner and your community partner gets to know you, challenges may arise, the needs may change, and opportunities may present themselves that you had never considered when you first began. Taking time to check in with your community partner throughout your experience to revisit your goals and recalibrate as needed can be proactive step in making sure you're still on the same page. In the next section, we'll dig into why feedback -- both the giving and receiving of it -- is crucial to effective engagement.
The Importance of Giving and Receving Feedback
The Importance of Giving and Receving Feedback
Feedback is a crucial way to encourage growth and improvement. Receiving it will help you grow as an individual. Providing feedback helps your community partner grow as well!
Listen to our students and community partners talk about giving and receiving feedback in a community engagement setting, then check out some of the tools that can support you in the process.
📣 Community Voices:
📣 Community Voices:
Tips for Giving Feedback
Tips for Giving Feedback
"When you are going to that organization, and you provide that feedback, you are adding to the sense of community and belonging." - Raiyasha Paris, PSU Student
Receiving and Responding to Feedback
Receiving and Responding to Feedback
"Don't be hard on yourself. Take this as a learning moment, to approach it differently." - Raiyasha Paris, PSU Student
This graphic comes from Art of giving & receiving feedback – The Ultimate Guide. Check out the blog post to learn more about why feedback is important and to dive deeper into the tips listed above!
Tips for Giving Feedback
Tips for Giving Feedback
As you engage with your community, you will come across tasks, relationships, and processes that are challenging, or could use authentic conversation to understand or improve. You might wonder, "How do I talk about this with my community partner? Should I share what I am seeing, thinking, or feeling? Is that my place?" Providing feedback is important, and some settings might have clearly communicated processes for sharing, and other settings may not.
Tips for Receiving Feedback
Tips for Receiving Feedback
After some time working in and with community, you might also wonder, "How is this going? How am I doing? Am I making the impact and engaging in the way I had hoped?" In some engagement settings, community partners will have great systems for offering feedback, but others may not. Asking for feedback is important, and understanding your engagement through the eyes of your community is an important opportunity to learn and grow. Don't miss out!
As you engage with your community, you will come across tasks, relationships, and processes that are challenging, or could use authentic conversation to understand or improve. You might wonder, "How do I talk about this with my community partner? Should I share what I am seeing, thinking, or feeling? Is that my place?" Providing feedback is important, and some settings might have clearly communicated processes for sharing, and other settings may not.
One process for eliciting the important feedback you are looking encourages you to ask yourself some key questions before seeking feedback from others. Take some time to:
Define the goal(s) of feedback
Identify the right feedback givers
Prepare your questions
Ask for feedback in the right way
Make a commitment and follow up.
Check out the visual guide on the right to dig into each of these steps and get ideas!
There many more resources out there that provide wonderful advice on how to ask for feedback. While most are aimed at the workplace, they are still extremely applicable. We encourage you to explore on your own!
Here are a couple that stand out:
How to Get Feedback When No One Is Volunteering It by Karie Willyerd and Barbara Mistick
How to Ask for Feedback at Work in 5 Steps by Masterclass
🔍 Useful Resource: Asking for and Receiving Feedback
The graphic below comes from How to Ask for Feedback: The Ultimate Guide to Relevant Feedback. Take a look at the blog post to dive deeper into their tips!
Now What? Next Steps and Closure
Now What? Next Steps and Closure
Navigating Closure: Next-Steps, Goodbyes, and Gratitudes
Depending on the length and depth of your community engagement, it's helpful to take some time to think about how you will prepare for transitioning out of your role when the time comes. If you've only been engaged for a short time, it might be as simple as a short thank you and goodbye. However, if you have been in your role for a full term or a year, it's important to consider how to wrap up your time with your community partner. This is especially true if you've built supportive relationships as part of your service (e.g. mentorship), so that you don't just disappear on those with whom you've been working.
Teen Vogue's "Nine Tips for Ending Your Internship on a Positive Note" has some useful tips on ending an internship that can translate well to wrapping up with your community partner. They are reiterated below, with specific consideration for community engagement work:
Tie up loose ends -- Make sure you wrap up projects you've committed to finishing, and/or make a plan to transition unfinished elements to someone else.
Set up a time to talk with your supervisor -- This can be helpful to provide some closure, share your appreciation, and get advice as you move forward.
Ask for feedback -- While you have hopefully engaged in giving and receiving feedback prior to the end of your role (see section above!), the close of your time can be a great opportunity to ask for some closing suggestions for how you can continue to grow as you move forward.
Thank people other than your direct supervisor -- Many community engagement experiences put you in contact with lots of different people beyond a single supervisor or lead. If you've gotten to know other folks at your organization, take the time to share how they may have made an impact on you. You can leave a positive impression rather than leaving them wondering where you may have gone when they notice you're not there anymore.
Speak up if you’re job hunting -- It never hurts to ask about job opportunities if you've come to love the organization with whom you're working. They won't know you're looking unless you say something!
Are they willing to serve as a positive reference? -- If you hope to use your community partner as a reference, it is important to ask them if they are willing... and to determine if your supervisor or lead feels they could give you a strong, positive reference based on what they know of your work. Just asking for "a reference" doesn't mean it will be a good one. What are three skills you feel like you strengthened? Areas or projects you contributed to? Remind them, and share why you are asking them in particular. If you don't get an enthusiastic response, it might be helpful to ask someone else.
If you didn’t have a great experience, consider what you learned -- Sometimes, through service experiences, we learn just as much about what we *don't* like or *don't* want to repeat as much as we learn about what we do. Consider how you want to close out if you aren’t feeling great about the experience. Remember that our world can be a small place -- ghosting without a word or leaving in a huff may leave you with a reputation that follows you farther than expected. Revisit the feedback section above for ideas on how to share feedback without burning bridges and wrap things up respectfully.
Send a hand-written thank-you note -- In our electronic age, a hand-written thank you can go a long way in leaving a positive impression. If hand-written is not your thing, a personalized thank-you email can still do the trick!
Stay in touch -- Just because you're wrapping up your service experience doesn't mean you have to say goodbye for good! Communicate if you'd like to be kept in the loop for one-time engagements, stay engaged on social media, and take some time to reach back out to share updates or congratulate the team on a new intiative they've launched. Especially if you hope to reconnect for the purpose of a reference in the future, remaining in touch in the meantime can show that you still care about the work and aren't just reaching out when you need something.
🔍 Useful Resource: The PSU Career Center!
If you need real person, real-time support with translating community impact into future professional changemaking, want tips for how to ask for a good reference, or just need some ideas for the next step in your future career search - PSU's Career Center is filled with many amazing resources to help you explore your interests and land a job after graduation.
Take a look at their website, and even better schedule an appointment with a career counselor to maximize your support for your job hunt.
🔑 Essential Activities: Adding Engagement to Your Resume
🔑 Essential Activities: Adding Engagement to Your Resume
As you wrap up your experience, consider how you will list what you did on your resume. Even if a role is unpaid, it can still be listed under "relevant experience," when the skills you used and the work you accomplished relate to future jobs for which you are applying!
Using these resources below, take a moment to summarize your community engagement experience thus far in a format you could use on a resume format. Doing this while the experience is fresh will help make your job easier down the line!
How to Add Volunteer Work to a Resume:
🔍 Useful Resource: Transferable Skills Worksheet
Are you asking yourself, what matters? How do I summarize the amazing impact and relationships I cultivated in a way that fits into a simple resume? The guide below can support translation of your experience and work with your community partner into the buzzwords that a potential employer will be looking for on a resume.
Transferrable Skills worksheet.pdf
Now you are getting good at this! You have some new ideas, inspiration, and connections. How can you take your community engagement further?
Getting a group together to gather signatures for an important measure? Preparing a team to testify for a policy at city hall? Want to launch a new service project or community event?
Module 5 offers tools to sustainably lead engagment efforts with others!
At the end of each module, we invite you to take the opportunity to share your work from the Essential Activities, and take take to consider three reflection questions. Follow this link to capture your outcomes, and we will send your complete responses to you. Faculty or teams may also use the Reflection Surveys to share feedback and reflection.
Objective:
Proactively balance community engagement with your other responsibilities.
Gather personal and community-based insights to bring cultural humility into your engagement practice.
Develop partnership communication skills to set mutual goals, exchange meaningful feedback, and successfully close a community engagement experience.
Reflection: At its simplest, reflection is about giving yourself time, space, and support to be transformed by what you are learning and experiencing. For each Toolkit module, you will be offered three "Essential Activities" built into each module, as well as the invitation to answer the "Big 3," the same three questions each time to support conscious consideration of your thoughts, feelings, and even beliefs, and how you hope they will inform your future actions.
🔑 Essential Activities: Module 4
Time Management: Figuring Out My Capacity
Cultural Humility Reflection
Adding Engagement to My Resume
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