65 Community Engagement and Collaboration | Considerations | Readiness to Collaborate

In order to effectively collaborate and engage with the community, an individual and/or team needs to be ready and prepared to do so. The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) has developed a series of checklists for individuals, groups organizations and communities to use in order to assess their readiness for community collaboration. The NAAEE checklists are based on the work by Ayre, Clough and Norris (2002) in their Facilitating Community Change Handbook, and form a useful tool for considering if a project or team is prepared and motivated to commit to a community project. Items noted in the checklists include points such as “I am open to people who don’t look or act like me”, “our group understands the values and principles behind leading a community collaborative”, “these organizations or sponsors are committed to continuous quality improvement and are committed for the long haul” and “We have enough acceptance from the larger community to move our effort ahead” (NAAEE). Take some time to review this resource and consider your own readiness to collaborate.

Activity

After reviewing the above resources on accessibility, please revisit the module worksheet and complete section 13.