In any project, getting participation beyond the “same ten people” and reaching those whose voices are seldom heard can be challenging. When creating its community development model, Community Heart & Soul®, the Orton Family Foundation realized early on that broad and diverse participation from residents was key to building stronger, healthier, and more economically vibrant communities.

As a solution to this challenge, Orton developed and refined the Community Network Analysis tool as a guide for examining demographic groups and finding people to reach them. By identifying segments of a community’s population that are typically underrepresented, Community Network Analysis goes beyond methods typical of stakeholder analysis assessment and helps communities discover ways to engage people on their terms. This free, step-by-step guide is designed to help users tap into local knowledge, and combined with census data, achieve broad engagement and participation throughout a community.

In the photo: In Cortez, Colorado, residents in a Hispanic neighborhood held a block party and pot luck on September 16, Mexican Independence Day. As part of a Community Heart & Soul® project, the neighborhood received assistance with expenses, but it was the local residents who prepared and served the food and invited officials. The event is one example of engagement with residents in their neighborhoods, on their terms, that went a long way towards bridging divides in the community.

Here is a link to the guide, which is free to download. To make the tool work for your community, watch a series of "how to" instructional videos created by the Orton Family Foundation.

Get the latest survey results on citizen engagement by downloading the June 2017 issue of Local Government Review.