The Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement has an enormous mission and vision.  Not only do they work with 47 communities across Canada to reduce poverty, but they also support communities to co-create and collaborate on complex community challenges. Wow. That means that through supporting knowledge creation and sharing, there is no wicked problem that falls outside the purview of their mandate. And to be sure, a three-day community engagement workshop attempts to tackle as much of this messy, unpredictable, evolutionary and shape-shifting thing we call ‘engagement’, but it only begins to scratch the surface. So much is contextual, so much is subjective, so much can intersect with the political and the powerful.

Mark Holmgren, one of the fine facilitators of the event, asked us to reflect on the ‘pebbles from heaven’ throughout; the small gems of wisdom, the ongoing food for thought. This approach suited me just fine. It made it easier to break down some of the complex issues that come up when thinking about ‘engagement’.  I’ll share my takeaways with you now.

1. Engagement is best activated when a group is encouraged to think about their aspirations and not just their needs. This framing allows for imagination and creativity, giving people the opportunity to look beyond their immediate challenges and come together on a shared vision for the future. Hope and aspiration are strong motivators and great life rafts for when things get stormy. 
2. Things will likely get muddy from time to time. Maybe not full-fledged stormy, but true engagement means that we invite a whole host of diverse perspectives to hear from each other and learn from one another. Often people come with competing interests: not from a combative point of view, but different approaches for different reasons. Successful engagement is built on trust and empathy. That requires some skilled facilitation of healthy differences to achieve shared ownership over the challenge and the goals of the community.
3. This takes time. It’s possible it takes more time than you’re allowed at work or that people have in their families, not to mention financial resources. What does this mean? How will you measure incremental changes to demonstrate your success? How can you sustain community interest? 
4. Don’t get discouraged. This isn’t going to be a linear process, and it isn’t going to be a predictable one. We are often inundated by discouraging messages that say our society no longer knows how to care for one another. Paul Born argues that people continue to care for one another immensely, but we aren’t capturing these new measures of caring. There will be community champions and there will be followers. Approach your work with curiosity and an open heart, and both will join you to get the work done.

All in all, this workshop has given Citizens Academy a great deal to think about as we launch our CityMaker Skills workshop series in the spring. We understand that it’s imperative to support skill building for our community, despite all the financial constraints.

What gifts do you have that you would like to share with your community and where would you like to see more engagement in #ottcity? Tag your ideas on Twitter #engageyow!

This blog was submitted by Laine Johnson, a participant at the Community Engagement: The Next Generation workshop in Ottawa from March 9-11, 2016.