Michelle Lach

February 12, 2015

Communications Audit
North Shore Community Engagement Program

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Introduction
The North Shore Community Engagement Program is a program
in the works to get people more involved and engaged in the
community. The program has focused on building relationships in the
community through community events, one-on-ones, and local
campaigns during the first few years of the organizations growth. The
Community Engagement Program is a smaller part of the organization
North Shore Community Development Coalition which is an
organization to help build affordable housing for people who are in
need of it, and to invest in neighborhoods to create thriving
communities.
The North Shore Community Development Coalition is located in
the heart of the North Shore region in Essex County, north of Boston.
They focus their work in Salem, Beverly, and Peabody, but their work
impacts the entire region. They have a vision that states: we envision a
North Shore where every neighborhood is one of choice and
opportunity. They also have values that consist of: developing leaders
for tomorrow, believing everyone deserves a place to call home,
believing in community and that is best built up from the ground,
believing in focusing their real estate development on transformational
opportunities which have a broad impact on the communities they
serve, and believing environmental responsibilities start with them.

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The Community Engagement Program is currently working in
Beverly and Salem and is trying to expand to Peabody and other
surrounding towns as well. According to their website, they have 24
people on their staff currently, 2 full time staff members, and two yearlong master level fellows to dedicate time to the community. The
NSCDC does not just want to build houses and say goodbye to the
community members they are helping out. They want to stay actively
involved with them for the long run, and help to build a stronger
community as a whole, that is where the engagement program comes
in. The purpose for this audit is to provide a comprehensive report
detailing positive and negative aspects about The North Shore
Community Engagement Programs communications strategies focusing
on external communication efforts.
The external target audiences for the Community Engagement
Program specifically address residents, stakeholders, and funders.
Regarding residents they dont target any specific individuals for
affordable housing. They just reply on three criteria for housing
applicants. The criteria consist of:
1. Their income being less and or equal to 80% of the average
median income (AMI).
2. Passing a CORI check.
3. References.

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As for stakeholders, a stakeholder is anyone who has a stake or
vested interest in the community. For the Community Engagement
Program their stakeholders are usually engaged residents, and
business owners to the State Representatives. In Salem some specific
stakeholders they work with are Salem State University, North Shore
Career Center, and the City of Salem (specifically the Latin Affairs
Coordinator). They also work with all of the businesses in the point,
and they help by marketing fliers and some employees attend their
ESL classes.
Finally the last external target for the Community Engagement
Program is their funders. Their funders consist of Boston Financial
Investment Management, Community Credit Union, a number of
different banks around the area, and of course the residents
themselves from the communities built, and the people who are
involved with the North Shore Community Development Coalition.
Methodological Approach
Through emailing my community partner, listening to them talk
in class, and online research I have found out many things about the
North Shore Community Engagement Program. I collected most of my
data from listening to our clients in class and going to one of the
NSCDC meetings. At the meeting I attended I listened to members
from the NSCDC talk about their organization, what it is about, and
how they want to expand with getting people more engaged. The

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North Shore Community Engagement Program is a growing community
that started off with 600,000 dollars in 2010/2011 and has grown to
almost $ 2 million as of today. I choose to collect my data by emailing
and attending a meeting because I felt it was the most hands on way
to collect my data. I could have used their website, and social media
sources more, but you can only get so much information that way. By
attending a meeting and emailing back and forth with my partner, I got
my questions answered directly and got to actually see what a unit
that the NSCDC created for people to live in looks like. I also go a tour
of one of the buildings where the community engagement members
gather to create plans of action, and hear about steps of action to get
things done.
Audit Results
With my finding there are many qualities strengths and
weaknesses regarding the North Shore Community Engagement
Program. The quality of the organization in a sense of what they are
doing for the community, as a whole is as good as it gets. The North
Shore Community Engagement is dedicated to helping people in the
community who are in need and helping the community grow as a
whole. Right now they are currently putting most of their focus on
getting people more engaged in the community, and are doing so
through many different strategies. They do so by not only building
houses for low income residents but by staying involved long after. By

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staying involved after they have helped out, this helps the community
stay whole instead of just doing something good and then abandoning
it.
The Community Engagement Program has been a central part of
the NSCDC since the beginning. There were two founding organizations
that both integrated community engagement into their programs from
the beginning. The Salem Harbor CDC began using community
engagement strategies in the 1980s and the Beverley affordable
housing coalition used community engagement strategies in their
housing development since 2000. In 2010 these two engagement
organizations merged. Through doing so the engagement program
began working with Fellowship programs, the Jewish organizing
initiative being one, and secured enough funding through housing
developments to bring on a full time staff position in 2011.
One of the main strengths of the engagement program is being
able to stay involved after housing is build. They do so my conducting
community meetings, and staying in touch with people they have
worked with years after a project is done. Every year the Community
Engagement Program conducts a survey to see changes made in a
neighborhood they have worked in, and give out a gift card for people
who complete the survey. They also make note on things like the
number of 911 calls that were placed before hand in the community

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and the dramatic drop in calls that take place after the NSCDC gets
involved.
The weaknesses involved with the Community Engagement
Program consist of not getting more people involved in the community
by not having enough reliable sources to do so. They have a great crew
to get the work done but could improve their strategies of getting
people more engaged. Without going into one of there offices or
hearing about the Community Engagement Program from a direct
source, you most likely would know nothing about it.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Overall the Community Engagement Program is doing everything
right regarding helping with the community. In order to get more
people involved and to get their name out more, I would recommend
visiting more schools, posting fliers about the North Shore engagement
program in surrounding towns and getting more involved with the town
officials to get there name out there more. If the engagement
committee could somehow get a list of town official emails, or students
emails, that would also be greatly beneficial for the North Shore
Community Engagement Program. I also think their website could use
a bit of improvement. The website delivers an abundance of
information for those who want to learn what the NSCDC is, but there is
no direct link to the Community Engagement Program. I would also
recommend creating community projects for staff members and for

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people who live in the neighborhoods to participate in. One idea is a
community garden where everyone can plant things in the spring that
they can harvest in the late summer. This would help staff members
and residents in the communities engage and work as whole to help
keep the garden going through the whole season. Another idea would
be a weekly or monthly potluck dinner where anyone who brings
something can join in and eat together as a group.
Starting with adjusting a few things on the website, by creating a
direct link would be the easiest and the most important thing to
helping the engagement program improve. Following that would be the
potluck dinner and then working to create the community garden. The
garden would come last because it is more time consuming and takes
planning to be done, but if done right it could have greatly beneficial
results.

Work Cited
"North Shore Community Development Coalition." Facebook. N.p., n.d.
Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
"North Shore Community Development Coalition." North Shore
Community Development Coalition Home Comments. N.p., n.d. Web.
12 Feb. 2015.
N.p., n.d. Web.