Community Engagement

Lecture 3: 11/03/23
Community Engagement or Community
Service?
• Volunteering to teach dance at an informal school in a low income
colony
• Researching on oral history of Chandni Chowk
• Working with women of your native place towards their economic
empowerment
• Participating in a cleanliness drive in your local marketplace
• Working in your village to spread awareness around menstrual health
and hygiene
• Organising a bhandara outside a temple on your birthday
Difference between Community Engagement
and Community Service
Community engagement and community service are related concepts that involve working to benefit one's
community, but they differ in their approaches and goals.

• While community service describes activities that are provided to, intended for, or done in communities,
community-engaged service describes activities that are undertaken with community members in a
context of reciprocal partnership
(https://communityengagement.uncg.edu/definitions/#:~:text=While%20community%20service%20descri
bes%20activities,a%20context%20of%20reciprocal%20partnership)

• Community service typically involves volunteering one's time and resources to directly provide a service or
meet a need within the community. Examples of community service include volunteering at a local food
bank, participating in a neighbourhood clean-up effort, or tutoring children in need. The focus of
community service is on providing a specific service or meeting a particular need.

• Community engagement, on the other hand, involves building relationships with community members,
collaborating with them to identify and address community needs, and empowering them to take action to
improve their own lives.
 What is Community Engagement
• Play Video
• “…the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of
people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar
situations to address issues affecting the well-being of those people .”
(CDC, 2011)
 Why Community Engagement?
• To learn and grow
• To drive change and contribute to building a world we aspire to live in
• To share our privileges
 Principles of Engaging with a Community
• Acknowledge specific community context
• Define goals, purpose and population
• Know the community
• Why is it important to know a community?
• What do you need to know about the community?
• How can you know a community?
• Primary and secondary sources
• Value community expertise
• Identify resources and assets of a community
• Build relationship and trust
• Look for collective self determination
• Partner with the community
• Be flexible and prioritise community interests
• Understand that community engagement is a long term commitment
 Class Activity
Watch the documentary ‘Period. End of a Sentence.’ and note how
various principles of Community Engagement appear in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrm2pD0qofM
References
• Clinical and Translational Science Awards Consortium Community Engagement Key Function Committee Task Force on the
Principles of Community Engagement (2011) Principles of Community Engagement, NIH Publication
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/communityengagement/pdf/PCE_Report_508_FINAL.pdf

• Zehtabchi R (Director, Producer, Writer) (2018). Period. End of a Sentence. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrm2pD0qofM

• University of Michigan. (n.d.) Community Engagement: Collaborating for Change. EdX

https://learning.edx.org/course/course-v1:MichiganX+CommunityX+2T2022/home