| Stakeholder engagement should be tailored to fit each community’s specific context. This page offers some general tips and suggestions as well as sample materials that can be modified and adapted to fit your unique situation. |
The links below contain sample materials for gathering stakeholder input:
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- Reach out to stakeholders by geography, issue area, and demographic group
- Include representatives from nonprofits, community-based organizations, governments, advocacy groups, social service agencies, grassroots organizing groups, academia, and philanthropy
- Develop a process that will engage people of varying backgrounds and levels of technical expertise
- Build core partners first and have them assist with outreach to their networks and constituencies
- Explain the project and demonstrate its potential by showing examples of other equity atlases
- Identify and highlight ways that the project can align with and support each stakeholder group’s interests and goals
- Use a combination of discussion and written feedback so that people can provide more detailed input without bogging down the group process
- Avoid open-ended questions that will not generate meaningful input. Frame the options and choices narrowly enough that the input will be useful, while still providing genuine opportunities for stakeholders to shape the project. For example, asking for input on a menu of potential indicators will generate more meaningful input than broad questions such as “what indicators do you think we should map?”