You're evaluating community needs for program adaptations. How do you pinpoint the most urgent ones?

Engaging locally is not just listening, assessing and then determine a course of action - this process rather continues to uphold traditional power dynamics of extracting knowledge and deciding for people what should be done. Truly engaging locally begins with humility and establishing trust. Listening, yes, but listening to learn what has been done and what has worked or not - this is the source of evidence! Engaging locally means being a thought partner - sharing knowledge of innovations and possibilities while seeing those as closest to the challenge as the subject matter experts. Engaging locally is collaboratively planning and designing programming where those with resources share what they are willing to contribute transparently.

Deep, active listening. Support, don't direct. Facilitate a conversation amongst community members. Be inclusive: languages, generations, etc. Include children. Listen, reflect back, transcribe. Organize the information and bring it back to the community. Offer a structure for prioritization, perhaps with short- mid- and long-term goals. Offer a structure for prioritizing items in each category. Guide discussion about making change in the community. Who are the decision-makers? What body has final say? Seek advice from communities that have worked on similar goals. Nuts & bolts: When, where, how to speak to decision makers. Meeting structures. Daisy-chain public comment, avoid repetition. Help advocates create a visual identifier. WIN!

In working with disadvantaged groups and communities I’ve discovered that most of the time, if you listen carefully and with an open mind you’ll realize that “the beneficiaries” have an excellent understanding of the problems and, most of the time, they can also imagine the solutions. What they need help with is engaging the decision makers, and attracting the financial resources. Then another important contribution that the consultants can make is to built trust and lasting partnerships.

When engaging stakeholders the facilitator’s first job is to identify “key informants” or “leaders” who can serve as access points to their natural social networks. These individuals may not be the obvious or traditional power brokers but will have deep and wide connections to groups that might otherwise go unengaged. To truly make this community centered, the topics, target audiences and sub-groups, the input methods, meeting locations and times should all be driven by input provided by the stakeholders before the “kick-off” to begins to gather any formal input. Most importantly, and the area that nearly every stakeholder input process falls short, set shared expectations for feedback loops to participants and the community at large!

Tallk to the end user and non end users. Street level front line, engage. Emote. Listen to human stories, ask questions. Bring Pizza if you can.

Identifying the most urgent community needs starts with listening closely to their voices. Once you've gathered their feedback, dive into the data. Numbers tell us how many are affected, but stories and personal experiences give meaning and urgency to those numbers. Look for recurring themes and patterns that highlight what matters most to the community. This holistic approach ensures your programs address not just the widespread issues, but also the heartfelt concerns that resonate deeply within the community.

Data analysis is critical for every project. But the community engagement process will be seen as transactional and extractive if the stakeholders are not top of mind when considering feedback loops. Both individual participants and the community at large should be among the first recipients of any data analysis and summaries BEFORE any reports are released or published. Using the opportunity to “verify” that what communicated by participants, was captured accurately, interpreted authentically and verified fully before being published is of paramount importance when building stakeholder buy-in and simultaneously undergirds the integrity the process.

Prioritizing needs based on data analysis is crucial for effective decision-making. I think it's essential to consider the severity of each issue and your organization's capacity to address it. While some needs may be urgent, you must be realistic about what your non-profit can do within its current resources. Please focus on areas where you can make a tangible difference while responding to critical needs and recognizing operational limits. Prioritization is essential to maximizing impact and ensuring efficient resource allocation.

Setting priorities creates a roadmap for action and begins the timeline creation process. Not everything can be done at once but everything can and should be categorized! Grouping all of the priorities in a set of Phases - Now, Near, Next and Longterm/Future - ensures acknowledgement/inclusion of all of the needs while also creating alignment and a timeline for when the other phases will be acted upon. This approach acknowledges that everything is worthy of consideration and action but not everything shares the same sense of urgency and some items have predecessor actions and or environmental conditions that need to be in place before that need/prioroty can be addressed effectively!

Consider what things address the problem at hand AND are still within your immediate sphere of influence right now. By building small, tangible wins, you can get a snowball effect of support and excitement for your mission. From there, you'll become linked to more partnerships and opportunities to address systemic needs.

This step is critical, and where so many efforts fall short. It is easier to repeatedly ask for community input than to take the leap and do something. Universal consensus is never possible and shouldn’t be an excuse for inaction. Effective leaders are well-served by heeding Lee Iacocca’s axiom to “Lead, follow, or get out of the way!”

Pinpointing urgent community needs for program adaptations hinges on evaluating impact effectively. Beyond gathering data, understand how your programs affect people's lives. Look at numbers like participation rates and service delivery, but also listen to stories and experiences that reveal the real impact. This dual approach ensures your adaptations address critical needs and resonate with the community. Continuous evaluation not only strengthens current programs but also sets a precedent for responsive, impactful initiatives in the future.

When defining metrics for evaluating effectiveness it is important to include process indicators for inclusion of and accountability to ‘stakeholders’ in monitoring & evaluation. There may be important tradeoffs between gathering enough data for rigorous analysis & statistically significant results - and engagement of the community (beneficiaries) in collecting & analyzing the data which is meaningful enough to them that they are likely to continue to collect and use that information. The two penultimate measures of program success are that 1) the community finds it useful enough to continue implementation & 2) that continuation of the project by the community is informed by regular periodic assessment & internalization of learning.