“The organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community.”
– Saul Alinsky
Here are a few quick thoughts on these differences as they relate to leading social change.
- There is a role for both outreach, and for engagement when organizing for change.
- Community engagement should happen early, and often. Its goal is organizing to act in support of achieving your desired change.
- Community outreach is a function of communicating to engaged partners, or gathering information or data from them.
- Outreach defines the community (audience) it is intended to reach.
- Engagement can create self-defined communities (affinity groups).
- Community engagement is formative. It thrives on both diversity, and inclusion.
Read more about this distinction at buildthefield.org.
Leading Differently 
Hi. When I clicked on the link “buildthefield.org” I get a message saying that the link expired.
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Hi, I just tried the link and the document was there. Its location is https://nexuscp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BTF-DistinguishYourWork.pdf It looks like the buildthefield.org domain may have expired, but the link goes to the site above.
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