Examples and Tools for Engagement
Engaging Stakeholders in ARISE Communities
Along with its community partners, the ARISE project supported community roundtables and focus groups to foster engagement among a broad array of stakeholders in Kansas. ARISE communities comprise the eastern urban Kansas City, Kansas, metropolitan area covering Wyandotte and Johnson counties and the western rural communities covering Ford, Finney, and Seward counties.
The goal of the engagement collaborations was to gain a clearer picture of the current state of the community populations and their climate infrastructural systems encompassing transportation, water, and energy sectors. By so doing, ARISE built partner networks of interested parties and action groups for informed resilience-focused capacity building and systems improvement. The interested parties serving to provide advisory services to the ARISE project include representatives from ARISE communities who are informing the research initiatives of ARISE. They include community residents, utility service providers, industry consultants, city/state administrators, city planners, emergency management staff, and representatives from social organizations.
In 2023, six community roundtable sessions were held in the following communities: Ford County in March (Dodge City); Finney County in March (Garden City); Seward County in May (Liberal); Wyandotte County in June and October (Kansas City) – two sessions, and Johnson County in December (Olathe). These roundtables were co-hosted with a lead community partner agency, and attendance included representatives of the County Economic Development Councils; County and Municipal Government; Emergency Services, Local Utilities Board – public works, wastewater, and stormwater; Health Department; Civic Organizations such as Groundwork NRG, WyCo Health Equity task Force, Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation; County Community Colleges; School Districts; Neighborhood Associations such as the Armourdale Renewal Association. ARISE/EPSCOR team representatives, including investigators, researchers, and other team members supporting community engagement activities, introduced ARISE and its goals during the community roundtables. Afterward, participants discussed issues in their community related to infrastructural resilience, social equity, disaster resilience, primary community needs, and critical investments in infrastructure.
Additionally, the ARISE project implemented community-engaged research (CEnR) roundtables to enhance its internal researchers’ and team members’ capacity to understand better how to advance community engagement and best practices for engaging with the communities they serve. First, ARISE team members involved in community engagement were required to complete training modules related to ethical considerations for practicing community-based participatory research. Secondly, ARISE implements a series of virtual CEnR roundtables quarterly to facilitate the capacity-building of its team members in engaging the community and understanding the community perspective to issues such as community capitals, social equity, community resilience, and community assets.
Tools and Resources
- ARISE Project Overview – Community Partner (pdf)
- Community Engaged Research Training Instructions (pdf)
- List of Stakeholders, Sectors, and Settings engaged by ARISE (xlsx)
- Tool for Identifying Stakeholders (pdf)