Community engagement and participation are the core approach used throughout our project. Target communities are key players in designing and delivering our CMHE programs. To accomplish this goal, we will strategically work with communities through concrete steps. This will ensure the entire program is informed by communities’ lived experiences.
We set up an advisory committee for each program that represents the spectrum of community members including community leaders, community members, and cultural brokers. Our past community-based initiatives taught us that community leaders play a crucial role in ensuring the program is well received. We reach out to community leaders but also send an invitation to engage community members who would like to sit at the table. We bring forth the voices of those they represent. Each advisory committee member also serves as an ambassador who promotes the program in their social networks.
Several sessions are held with the advisory committee to discuss more details about the program, their roles, responsibilities, and commitments. The Advisory Committee’s main role is to ensure that the final products are useful and applicable to their communities.
The advisory committee’s decisions are based on consensus. Where there is no consensus, recording divergent views and the considerations that make these recommendations unclear is encouraged as part of alerting the co-chair to the need for further study, a new approach, a commission, or other means to explore this area further to find a sensible way forward. Committee members are encouraged to ensure their recommendations, including those that call for further development, are clearly articulated in a way that provides clear and reachable steps; each one should be:
- Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
- Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
- Achievable (agreed, attainable).
- Relevant (reasonable, realistic, resourceful, and results-based).
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