ACTIVITY 3

pp.20

Community engagement takes a strategic approach to the relationships, communication and

interactions between community members and an organization to try to influence outcomes for
both.

Community engagement, also called civic engagement, is not a term most

people use regularly. However, most of us have experience with what
community engagement is all about! Community engagement is active
participation in your community and being invested in what happens in your
community. It includes direct service, policy and governance, community
organizing and activism, community-engaged learning and research, and
social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. 
“Civic engagement is acting upon a heightened sense of responsibility to
one’s communities and a heightened understanding of one’s identity. This
includes a wide range of activities, including developing civic sensitivity,
participation in building civil society, and benefiting the common good. Civic
engagement encompasses the notions of global membership and
interdependence. Through civic engagement, individuals—as members of
their communities, their nations, and the world—are empowered as agents of
positive social change for a more democratic world.” —adapted from B.
Jacoby, Civic Engagement in Higher Education, 2009
ACTIVITY 4

Explain your involvement in your community

Community involvement is the power to bring positive, measurable change to
both the communities in which you operate and to your business. Community
involvement examples include in-kind and financial donations, employee
volunteer days, enduring nonprofit partnerships, and more. The business case
for corporate community involvement has never been stronger.
In fact, the benefits of corporate community involvement are two-fold,
providing positive returns to local charitable organizations and neighborhoods
and boosting company performance indicators, such as reputation and
employee engagement. As your company builds partnerships and working
relationships with local community nonprofits and service-based
organizations, neighborhoods are strengthened