My Guide to Transparent Community Engagement

1. Begin with the Call (Llamado)

A community practice, for me, begins with a call to gather, to create space for voices, stories, and questions to rise. Make and respond to that call with intention and humility, listening to all voices.

2. Root in Relationship

Strong community work is relational, not transactional. To build deep, trust-based connections, honor collaboration over competition. Let your practice be shaped by the people walking alongside you. We each carry wisdom rooted in our personal histories; every one of us is both teacher and student. Make intentional space to understand and honor the wisdom everyone brings. 

3. Be Patient

Relationships are not built overnight. A community practice is exactly that—a practice. It requires time, honesty, and consistent presence.

4. Follow Through

Do what you say you are going to do. If circumstances change, be honest about it.

5. Make Space for What Surfaces

We often arrive with a plan for how a gathering should go. Then something surfaces—a loss in the family, a neighborhood shooting, the loss of a job. You cannot move on as if nothing happened. Make space for people to speak, grieve, and be witnessed, even if it means the meeting won’t go as planned. Life happens to all of us—sometimes beautifully, sometimes painfully. Making space for what arises is essential for creating safety, trust, validation, and long-lasting bonds.

6. Make Healing Collective

Healing is not a solo act. Create spaces where people can breathe, grieve, speak, and imagine, together. Healing is more sustainable when it’s held in community. Remember: we are all walking around open wounded. Leading also requires vulnerability. You are not saving anyone; you are simply practicing alongside others. 

7. Consider Art as a Tool and an Offering

Art is a tool of care. Poetry, performance, and storytelling are not just creative expressions—they are sacred medicine. Let your creative work be a bridge to connection, not merely a platform. Use art to facilitate conversation. Get artists involve to think outside the box, to guide difficult conversations. Pay them. 

8. Commit to Accessibility

Ensure your spaces and offerings are welcoming and inclusive. Consider who is in the room—and who isn’t. Adapt your work to meet people where they are: in neighborhoods, clinics, classrooms, kitchens, living rooms, and on street corners.

9. Build With and For the People

A sustainable community practice is co-created. You are not rescuing anyone; you are inviting others to contribute, lead, and shape the work. Share power. Build circles, not hierarchies. Paulo Freire, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, reminds us that everyone is a teacher, bringing the wisdom of lived experience. Embrace diverse understandings. Make space for questions, suggestions, and mistakes.

10. Stay Grounded in Place and Ritual

Let your practice be informed by place, memory, and ritual. Whether you’re in residency, in your neighborhood, or in global spaces, bring reverence to the land, the ancestors, and the present moment. Remember that we, too, will one day be ancestors. We are building legacy.

11. Mentor the Next Generation

Pass the torch. Pay attention to who surfaces as a natural, caring leader. Support emerging voices. Make room for youth, visionaries, and cultural workers to lead. Your role may evolve into one of guidance and stewardship. Make peace with letting go. Sometimes your work is to start something—you may not be the one to finish it.

In the nonprofit world, politics and community projects, we often see leaders stay long past the point where their leadership is liberatory. Reflect honestly: Do your values still align with the organization, party or project? Are the programs serving the broader community rather than your own interests? Do staff, community feel safe offering new ideas? Have the boundaries between home and work blurred? Leadership requires self-reflection and the willingness to step back when it’s time.

12. Trust the Process, Trust the People

Community work is not linear. Trust the unfolding. Allow the work to be shaped by breath, story, and collective rhythm, not urgency or ego. Sometimes this means letting go. You may not be part of the future of the work, but you will always be part of its foundation. Trust others to carry what you helped steward.

13. Keep Answering the Call

This work is not a moment—it’s a life practice. Continue to show up. Recommit to your purpose. Deepen the calling. Keep answering—together. Uplift the communities you belong to, even when you are no longer physically present. When you leave an organization or a project, redefine your purpose and trust your ability to continue evolving.

14. Stay in Touch

After the work is done, stay connected. If the relationship was rooted in true partnership, this should not be an imposition but a pleasure.