Planning Ahead Introduction

The PEAR Plan and Playbook states, “Community is the guiding light for planning, implementing, continuously improving, evaluating, and measuring government actions to achieve pro-equity anti-racism outcomes in the state of Washington.” Effective collaboration requires trust amongst collaborators. Therefore, to have successful and productive work groups that include community, we must make government more relational and be accountable to the people we serve. 

As part of institutions, agency staff have more power or control over decisions, so effective collaboration between government and community requires government staff to create a space that allows everyone to influence decision making in essential and relevant ways. Because there is often distrust of government, effective collaboration also requires agency staff to be accountable to community by gaining trust of community members by being transparent and doing what they say they will do. 

Below are templates, checklists, best practices, and supportive anecdotes that will help agency staff establish, recruit, select members, onboard, and manage a workgroup that includes community members.

The sections below are arranged to guide you through each phase of a workgroup with community members.