Incentives for involvement
ABCD and Community Organizing/Engagement
In Springfield, a colleague (Eric Smith with Springfield Promise) working in the context of a neighborhood grade school, invited parents from a particular neighborhood to apply for community connector roles:
1. They would get $100 to complete a training on how host conversations with their neighbors
2. They would get an additional $150 if they successfully hosted 5 events with neighbors that had 3 or more neighbors participating. And during these events they had would talk about life in the neighborhood, what was good, strong, and what would make it even better.
3. One person from each of the conversations was expected to (and did) participate in a community wide planning event (world cafe style) where the outputs of the conversations were shared with the community. Together they prioritized 6 things they wanted to work on.
4. Residents each walked to the 1 thing (posted around the room) they had most passion to work on with their neighbors. 6 working groups were formed that night and all worked hard and successfully after the meeting with minimal support from my colleague.
Incentives can be a blessing to get things rolling, and it need not cost a lot.