Community Engagement: Volunteerism
What is Volunteerism
Community engagement involves tapping the resources in a community and developing projects that address the biggest issues your community faces. The best way to ensure a eco-friendly and well maintained project is by building capacity within a community – where members of that community can identify their own needs and strengths, plan the project and maintain the project themselves.
Being eco-friendly in terms of community engagement can mean several things:
- Designing a program and project that fits the community’s needs
- Ensuring the project and actions are maintained for the intended project life span
- Inspiring others to act and think in ways that reduce environmental impact
Why it is important
With the right mix of community engagement tactics you can help resolve some of your community’s most pressing social problems and mobilize others to action. The ultimate goal is make a lasting impact on the community while being eco-friendly. This can be accomplished by fostering:
- More efficient use of people and material resources
- A spirit of sharing and cooperation
- More creative and acceptable ways to protect natural resources
Who is involved
Community engagement is the first step and a recurring step in any eco-friendly project. Working with project proponents, partners, and the community early on in the project planning process will lay the foundation for the establishment of the goals and plans for the effort. This is the time to ensure that the project is eco-friendly and ensure that the community supports the project so that it will be cared for and maintained in the long-term.
