Empowering Your Community, Stage 4: Recruitment
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The previous three stages of community action developed the group structure and focused plans for change. In the fourth stage, community action efforts are advanced through Recruitment (Wilkinson, 2023; Olson & Brennan, 2018; Berardi & Brennan, 2020). While small-scale recruitment efforts may have emerged earlier during the initial formation of the group (stages 1 and 2), the recruitment in stage four represents a clear and focused process of identifying and mobilizing local activists who can significantly contribute to community action efforts. However, this stage must be open to the entire community and representative of the diverse groups of people who reside in it (Olson & Brennan, 2018; Matarrita-Cascante et al., 2020). While we may be familiar with people that we already believe to be capable of leading community action, we might be unaware of other individuals who can contribute to an even greater extent. The process of recruitment serves to bring in new voices, skills, and experiences and to prove to the community that participation from all is wanted and encouraged.
Recruitment
Facilitating the recruitment and the active involvement of residents in community development efforts often can be time consuming and challenging. Recruitment can become even more time consuming when seeking a broad and representative grouping of the whole community. However, in order to build community support, involvement, and interaction, all community residents should have the opportunity to actively contribute. While it is often unrealistic to expect total participation, all efforts must be made to actively and routinely reach out to members of the diverse groups that make up the community. It may be helpful to ask group leaders to invite and empower other community residents to join and share leadership in a learning environment where all can build upon the strengths of others in the group (Lamm et al., 2017).
The recruitment phase originates from the effort of the original group of active residents, council, or planning committee to mobilize and plan for action (work completed in previous stages). Through the initial stages, economic, human, physical and other resources are mobilized. During this process, cohesion develops, leadership is enhanced/developed, and the actions of various groups are focused to achieve maximum impact. This stage also helps increase the sense of ownership, self-reliance, and agency community residents have over the action plan (Matarrita-Cascante et al., 2020). At this point in the action process, a committed and active force of community residents is recruited to carry out action plans.
Recruitment in Your Extension Work
The recruitment stage can be successfully implemented by taking a variety of steps. Each of these recommendations build upon the framework established in the earlier stages and provides a wide range of opportunities for increasing awareness and drawing others into the action process.
1. Hold a formal community-wide gathering of residents.
Holding a community meeting to inform residents of the group's vision, goals, and strategies for improving local life is a useful way to create awareness and to provide opportunities for involvement. Once again, it is vital that no individual or group feels alienated, uninvited, or unwelcome. If such conditions emerge, the end results are likely to have disastrous effects on community action efforts. All means available to reach a wide audience should be used to promote, market, and generally encourage attendance from all community members. Some avenues for reaching the whole community include:
- advertising in local newspaper
- social media posts and advertisements
- newsletters and emails
- digital and print flyers
- school and church bulletins
- public announcements through politicians, leaders, organizers, and religious representatives
- formal invitations extended to all resident groups, coalitions, and organizations
2. Present a focused overview of the action efforts.
Once brought together, this diverse group should be informed of the planning and actions taken to date by the original group of participants and organizers. Included would be introductions, presentations describing the background of organizers, and a summary of the events that have brought them together. Also included would be a presentation of the mission statement, goals, objectives, and strategies for achieving change. For all of these items, it is vital that the process and activities that led to the creation of these items be fully presented and explained in detail to all interested parties. This serves to enlighten future participants as to the scope of the issues (as supported with data accumulated in stages 1 through 3), as well as to legitimize the community action efforts by showing all efforts have been developed in an unbiased and systematic way.
3. Provide opportunities for general public feedback and contribution.
Those presenting community action efforts are provided with a remarkable opportunity to receive feedback from other community residents who can actively contribute to the formation of goals and objectives. This meeting also provides an opportunity to gauge the reaction to proposed community action efforts and the acceptance or rejection of these efforts can be a valuable tool in the program and policy development for the organization.
It is therefore vital that invited participants have extensive opportunities for voicing questions or concerns and to provide various forms of feedback. It is also an opportunity to measure the group's reaction to proposal plans of actions and to instigate group discussions. During this meeting and discussion, all efforts should be made to promote the program to attendees and to encourage their active participation. This can take several forms, depending on the population. Activities such as formal meetings, focus groups, group interviews, and other tactics can be used to measure public interest and support, as well as to address needs that are not otherwise common knowledge.
4. Formal initiation for participation and active involvement
The above steps culminate in an opportunity to formally invite all community residents to be actively involved in community action efforts. This opportunity cannot be overstated, and further highlights the importance of the previous steps in the community action process. This is the single best opportunity to garner public support and to recruit activists, helping to share responsibility and create sustainable support for the action plan. At this point, participants can be asked to self-select into subgroups or to sign up to participate in the general program.
Conclusion
This stage is essential in that it provides the basis for developing an active, enthusiastic, and informed group of activists. These are the troops that will carry out the active phase of community development. These informed and active citizens will also aid in spreading awareness of issues and serve to bring other residents into active involvement. Those brought together during the recruitment stage will lead the next phase, Implementation.
References and Useful Reading
Berardi, M. K., & Brennan, M. (2020). Importance of Local Community Action in Shaping Development. PennState Extension.
Lamm, K. W., Carter, H., Lamm, A., & Lindsay, A. (2017). Community Leadership: A Theory-Based Model. Journal of Leadership Education, 16(3), 118–133.
Matarrita-Cascante, D., Lee, J. H., & Nam, J. W. (2020). What elements should be present in any community development initiative? Distinguishing community development from local development. Local Development & Society, 1(2), 95–115.
Olson, B. & Brennan, M. (2018). From Community Engagement to Community Emergence: The Holistic Program Design Approach. International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. 5(1): 5-19.
Wilkinson, K. (1970). “Phases and roles in community action.” Rural Sociology. 35 (1): 54-68.
Wilkinson, K.P. (2023). The Community in Rural America. Denver, CO: University of Colorado Press.
