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Summary
Community engagement is your first critical step toward reaching service sustainability. The goal of engagement is to create supportive, long-term community relationships that are mutually beneficial for the health, strength and well-being of the community.
Before strong engagement plans begin, it is important to conduct timely community research to uncover who lives in your community. Community research (also known as a community assessment) uncovers population and demographic changes. Methods of conducting a community assessment include reviewing published data and reports, conducting focus groups, key informant interview, and surveys, and reviewing community newspapers. Each method has advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to weigh the pros and cons of each before beginning.
