An infographic titled "Continuum of Engagement" depicting five stages of community engagement arranged left to right along a multicolored arrow path. Each stage is paired with a brief description below or above it:
Ignore (Purple):
Description below: Organizations overlook the community entirely, with little to no acknowledgment of input or involvement in decisions.
Placate (Dark blue):
Description above: Organizations may appear to listen but act mainly to pacify, not to address real concerns.
Involve (Red):
Description below: Organizations value community input and seek to include it in decision-making.
Collaborate (Green):
Description above: Marks a more equitable partnership where stakeholders share decision-making power.
Co-Create (Blue and Orange):
Description to the right: Represents the highest level of engagement—shared ownership, genuine partnership, and equality between organizations and communities.
Each stage is visually connected with a bold arrow, illustrating progression from low to high engagement.
A visual titled “Community Engagement Approach” showing five levels of engagement from organization-led to community-led across five columns:
Ignore (leftmost column)
Placate
Involve
Collaborate
Co-Create (rightmost column)
Each column contains four rows labeled:
Impact
Goal
Message
Activities
Column Summaries:
Ignore:
Impact: Marginalization, erosion of trust.
Goal: Deny community involvement.
Message: “Your input is unnecessary.”
Activities: None.
Placate:
Impact: Tokenism, disillusionment.
Goal: Appear to listen but don’t act.
Message: Pseudo-engagement without commitment.
Activities: Asking for feedback without using it.
Involve:
Impact: Proactive engagement, valued input.
Goal: Move beyond superficial efforts.
Message: Commitment to integrating community input.
Activities: Workshops, focus groups, advisory boards.
Collaborate:
Impact: Empowerment, equity, shared decision-making.
Goal: Promote collaborative relationships.
Message: Shifting to inclusive and equitable practices.
Activities: Joint planning, transparent communication.
Co-Create:
Impact: Shared ownership and trust.
Goal: Community-led, relevant outcomes.
Message: Partnership and equal collaboration.
Activities: Co-design, public forums, pilot projects.
A gradient arrow runs along the bottom from “Organization Led” on the left to “Community Led” on the right, emphasizing a continuum of engagement.
Samuel Martin and Pamela Javier with the Co-Design Institute shared the Continuum of Engagement and the Community Engagement Approach from ignoring to co-creation in their talk "Sharing power: strategies from lived experts on engaging lived experts” at #SDinGovVirtual.
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