Ensuring all stakeholder voices are being heard will help establish relationships and foster trust. Respond to community concerns with honesty and action. The community knows its own needs. Never assume. Instead, listen with an open mind and think about how you can adapt your engagement to meet community needs. There should be “nothing about us without us.”
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Establishing trust requires transparent, flexible communication with respect to the community’s individual customs and needs. Communicate effectively with stakeholders to get buy-in.
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Community engagement cannot be done in isolation. Partnering with community leaders and trusted members of the public is key.
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Trust must be mutual. Place ownership of community engagement in the hands of community members. Each community will also have its own unique needs, as well as unique strengths, solutions, and resources. Each community should have ownership of its own shared knowledge and heritage. Actively promoting ownership of the project, encouraging the community to guide the project, and ensuring community ownership of the project results, may mean disruption of preexisting expectations, structures, and approaches. This requires that the power structure be balanced in a mutually beneficial, community-favored manner.
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This toolkit was originally created by NLM Fellow Allison Cruise in conjunction with the Office of Engagement & Training at the National Library of Medicine. Allison Cruise spent her 2nd Fellowship Year at UNM HSLIC.