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Social Work vocabulary · Community Work

Community engagement

Meaning in social work, with examples

nounCommon term

In social work, community engagement means: Involving local people and groups in identifying needs, planning services and making the decisions that affect them.

In Turkish: toplum katılımı, toplumla etkileşim, toplumun sürece katılımı

How it is used

Used by councils, NGOs and health services. Methods include public meetings, surveys, focus groups and working through community leaders. Good engagement is ongoing, not a single consultation at the end of a project.

Example sentences

  1. Community engagement showed that parents wanted evening sessions, not morning ones.

  2. The new centre was designed through months of community engagement.

Common collocations

  • community engagement work
  • community engagement officer
  • meaningful community engagement
  • community engagement strategy
  • community developmentWork with local people to identify shared problems and strengths and to take collective action that improves life in their community.
  • outreachTaking services out to people where they are, such as on the street or in the neighbourhood, instead of waiting for them to come to an office.
  • capacity buildingStrengthening the skills, knowledge, resources and organisation of people, groups or institutions so that they can act more effectively on their own.
  • volunteerA person who gives their time to help an organisation or community without being paid; as a verb, to offer to do this.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Community Work

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