Assessing Community Engagement

Workgroup managers should actively encourage feedback from workgroup members to understand where they are succeeding and where their approach needs improvement. It is not enough to passively accept feedback or claim to have an “open door policy.” Rather, workgroup managers should proactively seek out feedback from workgroup members.

Create a brief survey that invites workgroup members to share their thoughts about their experience. If the workgroup in question is short term, one survey or assessment at the end of the project may suffice, or you may want to issue a survey bi-annually or annually if the workgroup is ongoing for a longer period.

Assess workgroup members’ experience by sending an anonymous survey including prompts such as:

• Did you feel welcome, supported, and heard while participating in this workgroup?
• Is this workgroup effectively fulfilling its intended purpose in a way that centers the voices of those most impacted by the topic?
• Describe what elements of this group, the meeting facilitation, and workgroup organization overall do you think worked well? What did not work well?

Reflect on the results and apply lessons learned to future improvements.