Kate Downing Khaled | Founder & CEO
Streamers and balloons cover every inch of wall space. A DJ makes beats as children giggle underneath a piñata. Across the room, neighbors fill their plates with snacks purchased from local businesses and gather together around circular tables.
That sounds like my type of party — and it was also an essential part of our community engagement to help the West Side Community Organization redesign its central business corridor.
You may have spotted Imagine Deliver in the community, popping up at your neighborhood block party or in front of your local library. However, interacting with crowds and passersby isn’t the only way we discover rich community insights.
Deep engagement with a smaller group of stakeholders creates an environment of trust, intimacy, and creativity. Where community members can more easily imagine what a new future can look like, far beyond what is accessible in quantitative data, survey responses, or “drop-in” interactions.
We do our best to make them feel more like parties rather than formal meetings. These invitation-based parties, charettes, or fireside chats last about 2-3 hours, and delicious, culturally-affirming food is non-negotiable.
We also pick a space with plenty of natural light, fill it with color and music, and bring along our favorite art-based icebreakers. We typically compensate participants more than we would for filling out a quick survey because they invest significantly more time and energy.
This alchemy encourages the most brilliant community genius to come forward. And I suspect it’s for a couple of reasons.
First of all, gatherings like this are multi-generational by nature. That makes it easy to tap into the wisdom of the youth and elders simultaneously.
Secondly, intimate conversations are held around a table — or while painting a shared mural — they bridge the inherent “communication gaps” in even the most thoughtfully designed survey.
Our Associate Strategist, Jenny Tam, recently shared that she often finds herself rewording questions or even going off script to best support the community members she’s interacting with. Off-the-cuff questions can often result in the best answers, but not everyone can adjust on the fly. This kind of flexibility takes a certain level of intelligence that comes naturally to people like Jenny.
Free-flowing conversations open up a space where dreaming can happen outside a predetermined scope of questions. Community members sit down, break bread together, and open up to one another. Across cultures, it’s a setting that helps us lower our barriers and dream together.
So, is hosting an “engagement party” the right decision for your organization?
We recommend this approach for clients who have had the same bold organizational goal for decades but are struggling to find actual receipts demonstrating their impact. You know, think of that organization that’s focused on “eliminating homelessness”…but can’t really tell you how they’ve done that.
These organizations usually have a wealth of quantitative data about their community but can’t connect the dots to show that data has informed their programming or priorities.
These are indicators that an organization might not have built a solid foundation to support its “why.” And there’s no better way to get on track than gathering rich, qualitative data from your community members.
Would you consider throwing an “engagement party” for stakeholders? What kind of elements would you love to see there? A selfie wall? Finger paint? Performances from local musicians? Email me and let me know — I’m always on the lookout for party planning tips.