2. About NCME:
We help stations engage their
communities.
We are funded by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting to design, develop,
and deploy print, digital, online, and other
resources that:
3. • You and your colleagues can use to initiate or enhance a
two-way conversation with community members.
• Help tell your community and potential funders about your
value as an essential local institution.
• Identify opportunities that can help you find partners and
funding for your work.
For more information:
Visit our website at mediaengage.org
Call us at 866-234-2016
Email us at info@mediaengage.org
7. Outreach Engagement
• Extension of an
organization’s core
service (value-added)
• One to many
• Talking to people
• Approaches audience
with answers
• Integrated with an
organization’s culture,
strategy and practices
• Builds a pathway for
dialogue
• Listening to people
• Works with the
community to identify
solutions.
8. If the focus is on you, your
station or what you do, it’s
probably promotion.
(and that’s important, too)
9. Engaging requires a completely
different orientation from
broadcasting or outreach or
promotion.
AND
Engaging informs all of those
activities.
10. “Part of the work is making
changes, listening and adjusting.
–Ariana Hall, WWOZ, New Orleans
11. Cultivate an Engagement Ethos
Deeply engaged organizations have community interactions
that are authentic, meaningful and responsive to community
needs
CULTIVATE AN ENGAGEMENT ETHOS
Community Engagement means: working collaboratively to discover, understand, and address community needs and aspirations.
Deeply engaged organizations tend to act in certain ways. They have interactions that are authentic, meaningful and responsive to their community's needs.
Organizations that Shift Their Thinking:
Turn outward and reorient themselves toward the community.
Are open to change.
Innovate and experiment with new ways of working internally and externally.
Focus on community needs rather than the organization.
Organizations that Start Listening:
Learn how to listen appreciatively without an agenda.
Keep the focus on the community rather than the organization.
Bring together leaders and diverse cross sections of the community for productive dialogue.
Commit to continually discovering and understanding the community's needs and aspirations.
Organizations that Know Their Value:
Review their mission and vision relative to the organization's strategic role in the community.
Intentionally leverage their assets to best serve the community.
Identify the unique value they offer as a partner, community stakeholder and media outlet.
Define success for the organization in terms of shared benefit to the community that can be measured, demonstrated, improved and sustained.
Constantly gather information and feedback about how they can make their work more relevant and effective.
Organizations that Build Relationships:
Understand that authentic relationships are rooted in trust and shared experiences that build social capital.
Tap into community networks by attending community functions and creating a consistent, in-person presence beyond promoting the organization.
Constantly engage other organizations and individuals in conversations.
Stretch their comfort zone by pursuing opportunities to understand the community through the lens of diverse citizens and organizations.
Organizations that Collaborate:
Seek partners whose strengths complement their own.
Build collaborations through established relationships that have grown over time.
Identify and respect mutual organizational needs, goals and aspirations.
Integrate their work with others rather than working in parallel.
Clearly articulate and safeguard their editorial integrity.
Actively seek opportunities to sustain the work over time.
