What does “community leadership” mean?
“Community leadership” refers to a community’s ability to pursue their own interests and needs. It’s about communities having the agency to pursue their priorities inside and outside of our work together.

Why is community leadership important in equitable community engagement?
Many communities already organize around their own local priorities. In equitable community engagement, we aim to acknowledge and appreciate that community leadership. In practice, that looks like finding mutually beneficial opportunities to embrace community strengths and assets. And by doing so, we ensure that community perspectives and stories guide our work together. That helps us invest in the communities we engage and improve our equitable engagement practices by learning from their expertise.

What is included in this guide?
This guide provides strategies for honoring community leadership in our engagements. It includes key concepts like:

Community leadership inside and outside of City government engagements.
Community strengths.
Community assets and asset mapping.

After reading this guide, you should understand how to:

Invest in community strengths in your engagement.
Invest in community assets in your engagement.

This guide is a part of the centering community section. That section includes other guides on building trust and community context.

Community Leadership

Learning objectives

Guidance