community engagement essay

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How to Write the Community Essay – Guide with Examples (2023-24)

September 6, 2023

Students applying to college this year will inevitably confront the community essay. In fact, most students will end up responding to several community essay prompts for different schools. For this reason, you should know more than simply how to approach the community essay as a genre. Rather, you will want to learn how to decipher the nuances of each particular prompt, in order to adapt your response appropriately. In this article, we’ll show you how to do just that, through several community essay examples. These examples will also demonstrate how to avoid cliché and make the community essay authentically and convincingly your own.

Emphasis on Community

Do keep in mind that inherent in the word “community” is the idea of multiple people. The personal statement already provides you with a chance to tell the college admissions committee about yourself as an individual. The community essay, however, suggests that you depict yourself among others. You can use this opportunity to your advantage by showing off interpersonal skills, for example. Or, perhaps you wish to relate a moment that forged important relationships. This in turn will indicate what kind of connections you’ll make in the classroom with college peers and professors.

Apart from comprising numerous people, a community can appear in many shapes and sizes. It could be as small as a volleyball team, or as large as a diaspora. It could fill a town soup kitchen, or spread across five boroughs. In fact, due to the internet, certain communities today don’t even require a physical place to congregate. Communities can form around a shared identity, shared place, shared hobby, shared ideology, or shared call to action. They can even arise due to a shared yet unforeseen circumstance.

What is the Community Essay All About?             

In a nutshell, the community essay should exhibit three things:

• An aspect of yourself, 2. in the context of a community you belonged to, and 3. how this experience may shape your contribution to the community you’ll join in college.

It may look like a fairly simple equation: 1 + 2 = 3. However, each college will word their community essay prompt differently, so it’s important to look out for additional variables. One college may use the community essay as a way to glimpse your core values. Another may use the essay to understand how you would add to diversity on campus. Some may let you decide in which direction to take it—and there are many ways to go!

To get a better idea of how the prompts differ, let’s take a look at some real community essay prompts from the current admission cycle.

Sample 2023-2024 Community Essay Prompts

1) brown university.

“Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community. (200-250 words)”

A close reading of this prompt shows that Brown puts particular emphasis on place. They do this by using the words “home,” “College Hill,” and “where they came from.” Thus, Brown invites writers to think about community through the prism of place. They also emphasize the idea of personal growth or change, through the words “inspired or challenged you.” Therefore, Brown wishes to see how the place you grew up in has affected you. And, they want to know how you in turn will affect their college community.

“NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world-class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience.

We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community. Please respond in 250 words or less.”

Here, NYU places an emphasis on students’ “identity,” “backgrounds,” and “diversity,” rather than any physical place. (For some students, place may be tied up in those ideas.) Furthermore, while NYU doesn’t ask specifically how identity has changed the essay writer, they do ask about your “experience.” Take this to mean that you can still recount a specific moment, or several moments, that work to portray your particular background. You should also try to link your story with NYU’s values of inclusivity and opportunity.

3) University of Washington

“Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW. (300 words max) Tip: Keep in mind that the UW strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values and viewpoints.”

UW ’s community essay prompt may look the most approachable, for they help define the idea of community. You’ll notice that most of their examples (“families,” “cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood”…) place an emphasis on people. This may clue you in on their desire to see the relationships you’ve made. At the same time, UW uses the words “individual” and “richly diverse.” They, like NYU, wish to see how you fit in and stand out, in order to boost campus diversity.

Writing Your First Community Essay

Begin by picking which community essay you’ll write first. (For practical reasons, you’ll probably want to go with whichever one is due earliest.) Spend time doing a close reading of the prompt, as we’ve done above. Underline key words. Try to interpret exactly what the prompt is asking through these keywords.

Next, brainstorm. I recommend doing this on a blank piece of paper with a pencil. Across the top, make a row of headings. These might be the communities you’re a part of, or the components that make up your identity. Then, jot down descriptive words underneath in each column—whatever comes to you. These words may invoke people and experiences you had with them, feelings, moments of growth, lessons learned, values developed, etc. Now, narrow in on the idea that offers the richest material and that corresponds fully with the prompt.

Lastly, write! You’ll definitely want to describe real moments, in vivid detail. This will keep your essay original, and help you avoid cliché. However, you’ll need to summarize the experience and answer the prompt succinctly, so don’t stray too far into storytelling mode.

How To Adapt Your Community Essay

Once your first essay is complete, you’ll need to adapt it to the other colleges involving community essays on your list. Again, you’ll want to turn to the prompt for a close reading, and recognize what makes this prompt different from the last. For example, let’s say you’ve written your essay for UW about belonging to your swim team, and how the sports dynamics shaped you. Adapting that essay to Brown’s prompt could involve more of a focus on place. You may ask yourself, how was my swim team in Alaska different than the swim teams we competed against in other states?

Once you’ve adapted the content, you’ll also want to adapt the wording to mimic the prompt. For example, let’s say your UW essay states, “Thinking back to my years in the pool…” As you adapt this essay to Brown’s prompt, you may notice that Brown uses the word “reflection.” Therefore, you might change this sentence to “Reflecting back on my years in the pool…” While this change is minute, it cleverly signals to the reader that you’ve paid attention to the prompt, and are giving that school your full attention.

What to Avoid When Writing the Community Essay  

• Avoid cliché. Some students worry that their idea is cliché, or worse, that their background or identity is cliché. However, what makes an essay cliché is not the content, but the way the content is conveyed. This is where your voice and your descriptions become essential.
• Avoid giving too many examples. Stick to one community, and one or two anecdotes arising from that community that allow you to answer the prompt fully.
• Don’t exaggerate or twist facts. Sometimes students feel they must make themselves sound more “diverse” than they feel they are. Luckily, diversity is not a feeling. Likewise, diversity does not simply refer to one’s heritage. If the prompt is asking about your identity or background, you can show the originality of your experiences through your actions and your thinking.

Community Essay Examples and Analysis

Brown university community essay example.

I used to hate the NYC subway. I’ve taken it since I was six, going up and down Manhattan, to and from school. By high school, it was a daily nightmare. Spending so much time underground, underneath fluorescent lighting, squashed inside a rickety, rocking train car among strangers, some of whom wanted to talk about conspiracy theories, others who had bedbugs or B.O., or who manspread across two seats, or bickered—it wore me out. The challenge of going anywhere seemed absurd. I dreaded the claustrophobia and disgruntlement.

Yet the subway also inspired my understanding of community. I will never forget the morning I saw a man, several seats away, slide out of his seat and hit the floor. The thump shocked everyone to attention. What we noticed: he appeared drunk, possibly homeless. I was digesting this when a second man got up and, through a sort of awkward embrace, heaved the first man back into his seat. The rest of us had stuck to subway social codes: don’t step out of line. Yet this second man’s silent actions spoke loudly. They said, “I care.”

That day I realized I belong to a group of strangers. What holds us together is our transience, our vulnerabilities, and a willingness to assist. This community is not perfect but one in motion, a perpetual work-in-progress. Now I make it my aim to hold others up. I plan to contribute to the Brown community by helping fellow students and strangers in moments of precariousness.    

Brown University Community Essay Example Analysis

Here the student finds an original way to write about where they come from. The subway is not their home, yet it remains integral to ideas of belonging. The student shows how a community can be built between strangers, in their responsibility toward each other. The student succeeds at incorporating key words from the prompt (“challenge,” “inspired” “Brown community,” “contribute”) into their community essay.

UW Community Essay Example

I grew up in Hawaii, a world bound by water and rich in diversity. In school we learned that this sacred land was invaded, first by Captain Cook, then by missionaries, whalers, traders, plantation owners, and the U.S. government. My parents became part of this problematic takeover when they moved here in the 90s. The first community we knew was our church congregation. At the beginning of mass, we shook hands with our neighbors. We held hands again when we sang the Lord’s Prayer. I didn’t realize our church wasn’t “normal” until our diocese was informed that we had to stop dancing hula and singing Hawaiian hymns. The order came from the Pope himself.

Eventually, I lost faith in God and organized institutions. I thought the banning of hula—an ancient and pure form of expression—seemed medieval, ignorant, and unfair, given that the Hawaiian religion had already been stamped out. I felt a lack of community and a distrust for any place in which I might find one. As a postcolonial inhabitant, I could never belong to the Hawaiian culture, no matter how much I valued it. Then, I was shocked to learn that Queen Ka’ahumanu herself had eliminated the Kapu system, a strict code of conduct in which women were inferior to men. Next went the Hawaiian religion. Queen Ka’ahumanu burned all the temples before turning to Christianity, hoping this religion would offer better opportunities for her people.

Community Essay (Continued)

I’m not sure what to make of this history. Should I view Queen Ka’ahumanu as a feminist hero, or another failure in her islands’ tragedy? Nothing is black and white about her story, but she did what she thought was beneficial to her people, regardless of tradition. From her story, I’ve learned to accept complexity. I can disagree with institutionalized religion while still believing in my neighbors. I am a product of this place and their presence. At UW, I plan to add to campus diversity through my experience, knowing that diversity comes with contradictions and complications, all of which should be approached with an open and informed mind.

UW Community Essay Example Analysis

This student also manages to weave in words from the prompt (“family,” “community,” “world,” “product of it,” “add to the diversity,” etc.). Moreover, the student picks one of the examples of community mentioned in the prompt, (namely, a religious group,) and deepens their answer by addressing the complexity inherent in the community they’ve been involved in. While the student displays an inner turmoil about their identity and participation, they find a way to show how they’d contribute to an open-minded campus through their values and intellectual rigor.

What’s Next

For more on supplemental essays and essay writing guides, check out the following articles:

• How to Write the Why This Major Essay + Example
• How to Write the Overcoming Challenges Essay + Example
• How to Start a College Essay – 12 Techniques and Tips
• College Essay

Kaylen Baker

With a BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College, an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Translation from Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Kaylen has been working with students on their writing for over five years. Previously, Kaylen taught a fiction course for high school students as part of Columbia Artists/Teachers, and served as an English Language Assistant for the French National Department of Education. Kaylen is an experienced writer/translator whose work has been featured in Los Angeles Review, Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Guardian, France Today, and Honolulu Weekly, among others.

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How to Write a Great Community Service Essay

College Admissions , Extracurriculars

Are you applying to a college or a scholarship that requires a community service essay? Do you know how to write an essay that will impress readers and clearly show the impact your work had on yourself and others?

Read on to learn step-by-step instructions for writing a great community service essay that will help you stand out and be memorable.

What Is a Community Service Essay? Why Do You Need One?

A community service essay is an essay that describes the volunteer work you did and the impact it had on you and your community. Community service essays can vary widely depending on specific requirements listed in the application, but, in general, they describe the work you did, why you found the work important, and how it benefited people around you.

Community service essays are typically needed for two reasons:

#1: To Apply to College

• Some colleges require students to write community service essays as part of their application or to be eligible for certain scholarships.
• You may also choose to highlight your community service work in your personal statement.

#2: To Apply for Scholarships

• Some scholarships are specifically awarded to students with exceptional community service experiences, and many use community service essays to help choose scholarship recipients.
• Green Mountain College offers one of the most famous of these scholarships. Their "Make a Difference Scholarship" offers full tuition, room, and board to students who have demonstrated a significant, positive impact through their community service

Getting Started With Your Essay

In the following sections, I'll go over each step of how to plan and write your essay. I'll also include sample excerpts for you to look through so you can get a better idea of what readers are looking for when they review your essay.

Step 1: Know the Essay Requirements

Before your start writing a single word, you should be familiar with the essay prompt. Each college or scholarship will have different requirements for their essay, so make sure you read these carefully and understand them.

Specific things to pay attention to include:

• Length requirement
• Application deadline
• The main purpose or focus of the essay
• If the essay should follow a specific structure

Below are three real community service essay prompts. Read through them and notice how much they vary in terms of length, detail, and what information the writer should include.

From the Equitable Excellence Scholarship:

"Describe your outstanding achievement in depth and provide the specific planning, training, goals, and steps taken to make the accomplishment successful. Include details about your role and highlight leadership you provided. Your essay must be a minimum of 350 words but not more than 600 words."

From the Laura W. Bush Traveling Scholarship:

"Essay (up to 500 words, double spaced) explaining your interest in being considered for the award and how your proposed project reflects or is related to both UNESCO's mandate and U.S. interests in promoting peace by sharing advances in education, science, culture, and communications."

From the LULAC National Scholarship Fund:

"Please type or print an essay of 300 words (maximum) on how your academic studies will contribute to your personal & professional goals. In addition, please discuss any community service or extracurricular activities you have been involved in that relate to your goals."

Step 2: Brainstorm Ideas

Even after you understand what the essay should be about, it can still be difficult to begin writing. Answer the following questions to help brainstorm essay ideas. You may be able to incorporate your answers into your essay.

• What community service activity that you've participated in has meant the most to you?
• What is your favorite memory from performing community service?
• Why did you decide to begin community service?
• What made you decide to volunteer where you did?
• How has your community service changed you?
• How has your community service helped others?
• How has your community service affected your plans for the future?

You don't need to answer all the questions, but if you find you have a lot of ideas for one of two of them, those may be things you want to include in your essay.

Writing Your Essay

How you structure your essay will depend on the requirements of the scholarship or school you are applying to. You may give an overview of all the work you did as a volunteer, or highlight a particularly memorable experience. You may focus on your personal growth or how your community benefited.

Regardless of the specific structure requested, follow the guidelines below to make sure your community service essay is memorable and clearly shows the impact of your work.

Samples of mediocre and excellent essays are included below to give you a better idea of how you should draft your own essay.

Step 1: Hook Your Reader In

You want the person reading your essay to be interested, so your first sentence should hook them in and entice them to read more. A good way to do this is to start in the middle of the action. Your first sentence could describe you helping build a house, releasing a rescued animal back to the wild, watching a student you tutored read a book on their own, or something else that quickly gets the reader interested. This will help set your essay apart and make it more memorable.

Compare these two opening sentences:

"I have volunteered at the Wishbone Pet Shelter for three years."

"The moment I saw the starving, mud-splattered puppy brought into the shelter with its tail between its legs, I knew I'd do whatever I could to save it."

The first sentence is a very general, bland statement. The majority of community service essays probably begin a lot like it, but it gives the reader little information and does nothing to draw them in. On the other hand, the second sentence begins immediately with action and helps persuade the reader to keep reading so they can learn what happened to the dog.

Step 2: Discuss the Work You Did

Once you've hooked your reader in with your first sentence, tell them about your community service experiences. State where you work, when you began working, how much time you've spent there, and what your main duties include. This will help the reader quickly put the rest of the essay in context and understand the basics of your community service work.

Not including basic details about your community service could leave your reader confused.

Step 3: Include Specific Details

It's the details of your community service that make your experience unique and memorable, so go into the specifics of what you did.

For example, don't just say you volunteered at a nursing home; talk about reading Mrs. Johnson her favorite book, watching Mr. Scott win at bingo, and seeing the residents play games with their grandchildren at the family day you organized. Try to include specific activities, moments, and people in your essay. Having details like these let the readers really understand what work you did and how it differs from other volunteer experiences.

Compare these two passages:

"For my volunteer work, I tutored children at a local elementary school. I helped them improve their math skills and become more confident students."

"As a volunteer at York Elementary School, I worked one-on-one with second and third graders who struggled with their math skills, particularly addition, subtraction, and fractions. As part of my work, I would create practice problems and quizzes and try to connect math to the students' interests. One of my favorite memories was when Sara, a student I had been working with for several weeks, told me that she enjoyed the math problems I had created about a girl buying and selling horses so much that she asked to help me create math problems for other students."

The first passage only gives basic information about the work done by the volunteer; there is very little detail included, and no evidence is given to support her claims. How did she help students improve their math skills? How did she know they were becoming more confident?

The second passage is much more detailed. It recounts a specific story and explains more fully what kind of work the volunteer did, as well as a specific instance of a student becoming more confident with her math skills. Providing more detail in your essay helps support your claims as well as make your essay more memorable and unique.

Step 4: Show Your Personality

It would be very hard to get a scholarship or place at a school if none of your readers felt like they knew much about you after finishing your essay, so make sure that your essay shows your personality. The way to do this is to state your personal strengths, then provide examples to support your claims. Take some time to think about which parts of your personality you would like your essay to highlight, then write about specific examples to show this.

• If you want to show that you're a motivated leader, describe a time when you organized an event or supervised other volunteers.
• If you want to show your teamwork skills, write about a time you helped a group of people work together better.
• If you want to show that you're a compassionate animal lover, write about taking care of neglected shelter animals and helping each of them find homes.

Step 5: State What You Accomplished

After you have described your community service and given specific examples of your work, you want to begin to wrap your essay up by stating your accomplishments. What was the impact of your community service? Did you build a house for a family to move into? Help students improve their reading skills? Clean up a local park? Make sure the impact of your work is clear; don't be worried about bragging here.

If you can include specific numbers, that will also strengthen your essay. Saying "I delivered meals to 24 home-bound senior citizens" is a stronger example than just saying "I delivered meals to lots of senior citizens."

Also be sure to explain why your work matters. Why is what you did important? Did it provide more parks for kids to play in? Help students get better grades? Give people medical care who would otherwise not have gotten it? This is an important part of your essay, so make sure to go into enough detail that your readers will know exactly what you accomplished and how it helped your community.

"My biggest accomplishment during my community service was helping to organize a family event at the retirement home. The children and grandchildren of many residents attended, and they all enjoyed playing games and watching movies together."

"The community service accomplishment that I'm most proud of is the work I did to help organize the First Annual Family Fun Day at the retirement home. My job was to design and organize fun activities that senior citizens and their younger relatives could enjoy. The event lasted eight hours and included ten different games, two performances, and a movie screening with popcorn. Almost 200 residents and family members attended throughout the day. This event was important because it provided an opportunity for senior citizens to connect with their family members in a way they aren't often able to. It also made the retirement home seem more fun and enjoyable to children, and we have seen an increase in the number of kids coming to visit their grandparents since the event."

The second passage is stronger for a variety of reasons. First, it goes into much more detail about the work the volunteer did. The first passage only states that she helped "organize a family event." That really doesn't tell readers much about her work or what her responsibilities were. The second passage is much clearer; her job was to "design and organize fun activities."

The second passage also explains the event in more depth. A family day can be many things; remember that your readers are likely not familiar with what you're talking about, so details help them get a clearer picture.

Lastly, the second passage makes the importance of the event clear: it helped residents connect with younger family members, and it helped retirement homes seem less intimidating to children, so now some residents see their grand kids more often.

Step 6: Discuss What You Learned

One of the final things to include in your essay should be the impact that your community service had on you. You can discuss skills you learned, such as carpentry, public speaking, animal care, or another skill.

You can also talk about how you changed personally. Are you more patient now? More understanding of others? Do you have a better idea of the type of career you want? Go into depth about this, but be honest. Don't say your community service changed your life if it didn't because trite statements won't impress readers.

In order to support your statements, provide more examples. If you say you're more patient now, how do you know this? Do you get less frustrated while playing with your younger siblings? Are you more willing to help group partners who are struggling with their part of the work? You've probably noticed by now that including specific examples and details is one of the best ways to create a strong and believable essay .

"As a result of my community service, I learned a lot about building houses and became a more mature person."

"As a result of my community service, I gained hands-on experience in construction. I learned how to read blueprints, use a hammer and nails, and begin constructing the foundation of a two-bedroom house. Working on the house could be challenging at times, but it taught me to appreciate the value of hard work and be more willing to pitch in when I see someone needs help. My dad has just started building a shed in our backyard, and I offered to help him with it because I know from my community service how much work it is. I also appreciate my own house more, and I know how lucky I am to have a roof over my head."

The second passage is more impressive and memorable because it describes the skills the writer learned in more detail and recounts a specific story that supports her claim that her community service changed her and made her more helpful.

Step 7: Finish Strong

Just as you started your essay in a way that would grab readers' attention, you want to finish your essay on a strong note as well. A good way to end your essay is to state again the impact your work had on you, your community, or both. Reiterate how you changed as a result of your community service, why you found the work important, or how it helped others.

Compare these two concluding statements:

"In conclusion, I learned a lot from my community service at my local museum, and I hope to keep volunteering and learning more about history."

"To conclude, volunteering at my city's American History Museum has been a great experience. By leading tours and participating in special events, I became better at public speaking and am now more comfortable starting conversations with people. In return, I was able to get more community members interested in history and our local museum. My interest in history has deepened, and I look forward to studying the subject in college and hopefully continuing my volunteer work at my university's own museum."

The second passage takes each point made in the first passage and expands upon it. In a few sentences, the second passage is able to clearly convey what work the volunteer did, how she changed, and how her volunteer work benefited her community.

The author of the second passage also ends her essay discussing her future and how she'd like to continue her community service, which is a good way to wrap things up because it shows your readers that you are committed to community service for the long-term.

What's Next?

Are you applying to a community service scholarship or thinking about it? We have a complete list of all the community service scholarships available to help get your search started!

Do you need a community service letter as well? We have a step-by-step guide that will tell you how to get a great reference letter from your community service supervisor.

Thinking about doing community service abroad? Before you sign up, read our guide on some of the hazards of international volunteer trips and how to know if it's the right choice for you.

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Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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Relationship of ’Community Engagement’ to Society Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

The role and relationship of ‘community engagement’ to society.

Bibliography

This paper seeks to analyze the role and relationship of ‘community engagement’ to society. The analysis provides different strategies in enhancing community engagement within the society.

Apart from providing a fixed approach in viewing community engagement, it also provides a flexible approach that aims to understand community engagement as a solution to ethical problems associated with spin or propaganda.

Along with explaining what entails community engagement, the concept shall also be supported by various theories in playing its role and responsibility to the society.

Community engagement is the major concern of strong economic and social transformation in the society. The involvement of community engagement has ensured development of an effective and sustainable environment – a concept that has led to the solution of ethical problems associated with ‘spin’, or rather scheming tactics.

The strong connection ensured has also resulted to a greater influence to those who formulate and implement policies that govern the society. Community engagement examines the developmental and implementation of key principles within the society and the processes that are fundamental to community participation.

In addition, such familiarity among the societal members has resulted to a relationship formation: a social justice structures and communication awareness in the society.

Addressing ethical issues within the community may be impossible, and therefore there is need to have guidelines or programs to undertake such functions.

In enlightening the society, the educated have resolved to use different ways and projects that are compatible with the type of society, which such issues are addressed. Creating developmental programs within the institutions and community-based programs are the feasible methods applied in the realization of community participation.

Therefore, the society has developed an understanding on importance of the community engagement, aimed at creating a difference in their lives. Moreover, theories such as ethical theory, citizenship theory, stakeholder theory and democratic theory will help explain how community engagement is linked to the ethical issues associated with change.

Community Engagement is a keystone for effective public health practice. It represents the methods of ethical communication that are in building capabilities among individuals in the society, in a way to encourage participation and association in political debate.

Community participation enhances knowledge and ability in the society, and this is an essential aspect towards the wellbeing of the society. In a wider perspective, engagement within a society implies that people are able to use their own resources and knowledge to formulate and implement policies that can solve ethical problems (Sarkissian et al., 2009).

Community commitment can also incorporate trust, communication, and association. Therefore, a successful community engagement leads to activities and strategies that depict the desire, the requirements, and the resources that are reasonable to the entire community.

Alongside the community engagement being involved traditional risk reduction activities; it also plays a vital role in improving the health care of the society at large.

As it has recently been noted by the institute of medicine(IOM) if there is possible which could eliminate the social problems that the community is experiencing at the present time, it will only be through building better relationships with communities and therefore derive from the communities assessments of their need s and priorities (CDC, 1997).

Community engagement tries to harmonize the community regardless of the status in the society, and it does this by bringing people to the table – both the community members and the elites. They both put down their differences and focus on one issue, and therefore such an engagement will help in nurturing their participation in all the aspects of decision –making process.

Such participation is said to be “constructive citizen participation”, an orderly process that enable all people in the community to share their ideas towards a common goal. In the process of generating a favorable environment, strengths and values of the community provide a platform for independence through knowledge. In addition, the members of the society are respected with equality.

Ethical theory

In the process of generating the right decisions that the society should assume in leading a desirable life, there is a need for the participants to borrow a leaf from what composes the ethical theory. In this case, there is a need to explain what an ethical theory composes.

An ethical theory is the foundation of ethical analysis since according to the viewpoints generated from the theory; it offers guidance along the pathway to making a decision. The theory emphasizes on different points alongside giving predicting on the outcomes that may be expected out of one’s duties to others in reaching out to an ethically correct decision (Superstone, 2009).

In a broader perspective, ethical theory is aimed at guiding the community in doing what is good, at the least possible harm and also giving people an opportunity to make decisions on their own as they are the ones who entirely know what they really require in life.

This is also endorsed by the Utilitarian ethical theory, which is established on the ability to predict on the consequences of an action.

According to Utilitarian, the choice that relent the greatest benefit to most of the people is a decision that is ethically correct. Ethical theory therefore strongly supports the aspect of community engagement if only it is established on a common goal of bringing forth a successful society.

Citizenship theory

Citizenship theory is an increasingly essential focus when analyzing the concept of community engagement. Citizenship mainly focuses in political and social theory as well as in philosophy, legal studies, and touches on some of the humanities. The theory has also a vital concern on the kind of life that is lived in the society.

It mainly figures out on the way justice is outsourced in the society, that is, in terms of denial of rights, the economic benefits and also on the social services.

Though it focuses on this and many more issues all in the name of generating quality decisions towards the community, it’s a theory that does not guarantee on equality, fairness, justice, economic status of the citizens, dignity and the respect of each other in the society.

Such and others are some of the problems that have re-emerged in trying to harmonize the concept of community engagement within the society. This has not only affected the political affiliation of people in the society but also their sociology.

Citizenship theory therefore supports the concept of community engagement in the sense in tries to bring people together and develops a healthy relationship among the citizens (Goldlust, 1996).

Stakeholder theory

Stakeholder theory explains the importance of essential aspects in support of the roles and responsibilities associated with community engagement, and to the overall understanding of the concept.

In this case, the stakeholders are necessary within the community as they can find a solution for the community, which in turn will be used to trigger some thought and action. It is therefore from the stakeholders that one would be in a better position to learn about the community engagement.

This can somehow explain some issues concerning the community and help in strengthening the community bonds in an informed and respectful ways. However, this theory does not provide the ways and methods that ought to be used by the experts in bringing people together, and how the success ought to be achieved (Vandenberg, 2000).

Stakeholder theory somehow solves the ethical problems associated with spin. This is because when stakeholders engage in various activities in the society, they are able to understand the various values accepted by people, and therefore work towards developing sustainable communities.

Democratic Theory

To understand the idea behind community engagement, it is worth noting the notion behind the theoretical provenance. In essence, community engagement, to an extent, is linked to the citizenship theory and its various models such as equality.

In this case, democratic models are also essential and vital to the understanding of community engagement. Democracy may therefore be used to mean ‘freely and frequently’. Moreover, it may also mean practicing fairness and justice, or in other words – “rule by the people”.

The citizens may also establish the idea of democracy on the fact of direct participation. This would also refer to a situation where citizens play an imperative role towards the state. This can however be a difficult task to achieve in situations where the society is large (Gastil and Levine, 2005).

Representative democracy is another model of democracy that ought to be playing a pivotal role in enhancing community engagement in the society. This concept seeks to address the fact that the cities are too big to apply the concept of direct democracy.

This would mean that the decisions that are implemented in the society and the problems linked to them are not associated to the community, but by the members who are elected to represent the entire society. Additionally, deliberative democracy is a model in support of the roles played by community engagement to the society.

This aspect expands on the concept of democracy as a form of ‘government ruled by many people, and accentuates on communication as inherent in the making decisions within a political aspect.

Deliberative democracy would therefore outsource the idea of community engagement as a measure of quality decision making and as a tool for effective communication within the society (Sarkissian et al., 2009).

Therefore, the concept of community engagement is determined by how stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations, social groups, governments, and business organizations can decide on important issues surrounding them.

Is “Community Engagement” a solution to ethical problems?

From the above explanation, people need to be free to select the best solution in solving ethical problems. Democracy enables the community to participate in developmental programs without fear. People can present their views on how their leaders operate and on the pressing issues within the society. In doing so, the community becomes enlightened and thus, avoids problems associated with spin.

The community may not always be able to harmonize their ideas and build an outstanding relationship, a problem that may be generated by the environment. Theory sometimes becomes hard to fulfill since some things cannot be thought, but may be difficult to do them practically.

In this case, the roles and responsibilities played by community engagement may not be sensible to the entire society since some aspects might demand a lot from the community and therefore such issues are assumed. To an extent, community engagement may not be a better parameter or a measure towards solving ethical problems.

Ethics as discussed in the ethical theory is at times too philosophical and religious – an aspect that may not be conversant to every person in the society. Therefore, saying that community engagement may solve ethical problems in the society can be a little bit biased.

Some issues within the society do not require a process in generating a decision but rather an instant solution. In this juncture, the society thus goes against the Utilitarian theory, which bases most of its arguments on fairness and equality.

Is community engagement a solution to the ethical problems associated with Spin?

The term Spin is a concept or a form of propaganda that is achieved through providing an interpretation about an event in order to gain favor from the public against an organization or a person which or who might be viewed as a public figure.

Therefore, a person manipulates an issue in order to support him or herself. On the other hand, he or she might be defaming the name of the other person or thing in order for the public to have a negative feeling towards the other individual.

In other words, the term spin might imply dishonesty, deception since in most of the times it is done in fulfillment of one’s interest. As mentioned in the discussion not all aspects in the society that ought to be solved in an ethical manner since some might cause commotions or chaos in the society.

In the United States, the public affairs that deal with the military contacts during the commencement of the war against Iraq used a spin tactic. In this case, several military wanted to high public relations firms to send out misleading information for the public to support them to begin the war.

Some officers did not want to join hand since this reduced military’s credibility. The type of spin used here was to blow up some certain circumstances in the public that would be seen viable and thus, the public would heartedly see the need of the war.

However, the war could solve very many issues in America and stop the Iraq from attacking the nation, but that is unethical. The nation could use another method to stop the attacks, for instance bar them from any trade affairs.

On the other hand, the country is justified to fight back. Considering this, one cannot conclusively say that community engagement can be a solution towards the ethical problems associated with spin.

The above discussion has affirmed that various examples have been brought since the concept of ‘community engagement’ emerged, all in the name of addressing issues of inequity and injustice. Indeed, community engagement is now a key player in the struggle against drawbacks in the society.

Improving community engagement within the concept of business strategies, policies, and in various societal sectors has resulted to the transition of education sector to become committed to community service as one of the community engagement aspect.

However, such a transition is still underway, but it also requires some support from the society. It is also very vital to note that the partakers in the community development affairs have a long way to go before stemming such aspects in the minds of people.

Therefore, the knowledge acquired from the service learning programs, besides theories used in support of this concept, has provided a force for this transition in implementation of community engagement.

Furthermore, the collaborative and development of effective and sustainable commonness within the society strengthens the role and responsibilities played by community engagement, which strives to solve ethical problems associated with spin.

Through the discussed theories (stakeholder, democratic, and citizenship), it can be established that critical relevance of community engagement is that the society brings a great difference in people’s lives. Moreover, such an insight has also resulted to providing various ideas in the organizational structures needed for an effective community engagement.

In essence, it is very critical for the society to provide structures, and a favorable environment that will enable community engagement to take effect to overcome the society’s problems and transform the society into a better place.

Alasdair, R. S. 2005. “Spin Control and Freedom of Information: Lessons for the United Kingdom from Canada”. Public Administration , 83: 1.

CDC., 1997. Principles of Community Engagement . Atlanta, GA: Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Web.

Gastil, J. and Levine, P., 2005. The deliberative democracy and handbook: strategies for effective civil engagement in the twenty first centuries , San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.

Goldlust, J.,1996. Understanding citizenship in Australia, Bureau of immigration, multicultural and population research . London: Australian Government Publishing service.

Sarkissian, W., Hofer, N., Shore, Y, Vajda, S. and Wilkinson, C., 2009. Kitchen stable sustainability: practical recipes for community engagement with sustainability . Earthscan: London.

Superstone, A., 2009. The Moral Skeptic . New York: Oxford University Press.

Vandenberg, A., 2000. Citizenship and democracy in a global era. London: St Martins Press.

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• Why is Community Engagement Important? Why is Community Engagement...

Why is Community Engagement Important?

With the rise in deepening and expanding public engagement globally, the importance of community engagement has become pivotal for well-functioning, twenty-first century democracies. Constructive relationships between communities and the institutions of government make community engagement not only desirable, but necessary and viable as it is likely to lead to more equitable, sustainable public decisions and improve the liveability of local communities. This is why community engagement is important for individuals, public organizations, and governments alike.

Where traditional, executive-led approaches are ineffective, community engagement is important in its collaborative approach to the design and/or delivery of services. For the complexity of issues in any given community – where traditional approaches have been ineffective if non-inclusive in the extreme – community engagement enables better understanding of communities’ needs and aspirations.

This article will explore the following topics

Why is community engagement important for:

• building and sustaining cohesive communities
• improving outcomes
• ensuring access and community empowerment
• helping local governments to promote sustainable decisions
• driving social transformation
• deepening democracies

Why should we use community engagement?

Community engagement builds and sustains cohesive communities.

Community engagement is primarily, part of a dialogue where organizations and communities can make decisions to create social capital.

Compelling stories of the importance of community engagement range from creating (or indeed preventing) change in local policies and service provisions that not only enrich everyday lives and liveability of communities, but help shape and envision a community’s future, bringing with it not only wider societal change but global impacts.

Community engagement leads to improved outcomes

Community engagement can lead to improved outcomes for communities when government organizations and public decision-making entities seek out the aspirations, concerns and values of communities, who, in turn, share their aspirations, concerns and values with governing entities. Incorporated into decision-making processes, public decision makers are better informed and better able to meet community needs.

Establishing long standing, effective partnerships between government organizations and communities, too, results in a greater sense of community ownership and an improved uptake of services as they are tailored to the unique aspirations of the community.

Community engagement ensures access and community empowerment

Meaningful, inclusive community engagement is important, even critical, to community well being.

Understood through the values of access and inclusivity, where community members are informed and educated on issues at hand, locals are able to contribute meaningfully to engagement and have the capacity to shape those activities. Building on the ideas of empowerment and participation, people’s wellbeing involves participating meaningfully in all aspects of one’s life . Community engagement, then, ensures that community members have access to valued social settings and activities, feel that they are able to contribute meaningfully to those activities, and develop functional capabilities that enable them to participate fully.

By including diverse voices, usually marginalized or overlooked voices are actively empowered within their community to participate in decision making that affects their everyday lives.

Community engagement helps local governments to promote sustainable decisions

Community engagement helps governments improve the efficiency, legitimacy and transparency of their decision making. By embracing and encouraging participation, it enables policy makers to make more informed decisions by engaging with, and carefully mapping out the needs, opinions and visions of local communities on issues that matter to them. It promotes sustainable decisions by recognizing and communicating the needs and interests of all participants – including decision makers. This increases acceptance of decisions and community commitment to outcomes as local knowledge from diverse groups shapes and creates inclusive, effective solutions. The flow on effect is increased trust in organizations and governance to make better public decisions.

This is especially vital given the declining trust in governments worldwide, which, coupled with the Smart City agenda, creates an opportunity for community engagement to deliver a transformative form of continuous engagement between citizens and governments.

“Community engagement is important as it takes action to influence stakeholders with government, political or funding power to implement public projects and policies that primarily benefit individual communities and drive social change.”

Community engagement drives social transformation

With an emphasis on collaboration and the promise of influence on decision making, the importance of community engagement is clear as it drives social transformation. It promotes advocacy that not only works to raise awareness, but passionate, locally-informed voices can be heard – especially during election time. As voters, communities have the power to make their voices heard. And elections represent a significant opportunity to drive change. Advocacy campaigns are at their most effective when local governments, municipalities and councils activate communities, mobilizing on issues that impact their everyday lives. For it is in the local, placed-based arena that community members can have their most direct impact on policy.

Traditionally, local government advocacy priorities have been determined by executive-led approach – essentially, without community input (and often buoyed by third-party research and data at times, leading to advocacy campaigns that worked to benefit external agencies). Community engagement is important as it takes action to influence stakeholders with government, political or funding power to implement public projects and policies that primarily benefit individual communities and drive social change.

Community engagement is critical to deepening democracies

Depending on the types of community engagement, and level of influence given over to communities in a public decision-making process, community engagement strives towards deliberative democracy which facilitates a collaborative exchange regarding a set of policies or actions.

Researchers have observed a pronounced expansion in community organizing since the mid 1980s – where they have increasingly become a locus of engagement during governments’ deregulation of power. Broadly speaking, since the 1990s, we have witnessed a rapid expansion in formal, state-based initiatives to facilitate public participation in decision making, where communities are invited to engage beyond voting.

The attendant mistrust or loss of faith in government and information on public policy through traditional and social news channels walks hand in hand with the shift from top-down governance to more horizontally organized governments. Here, all stakeholders of public policy projects – local governments and organizations, businesses, residents and communities – are brought into the decision-making process, nurturing the very democratic idea of community engagement that people should have a say over decisions that impact their everyday lives.

“All stakeholders[…] are brought into the decision-making process, nurturing the very democratic idea of community engagement that people should have a say over decisions that impact their everyday lives.”

Increasingly, over recent years, through digital democracy and digital participation in open government and e-democracy, digitization has spread into policy and decision making. This is coupled with wider social transformations as there is a call for transparency around public decisions and residents and communities are more motivated to weigh in on policies affecting their cities, towns and neighborhoods.

This is not to overlook the unbridled enthusiasm for technology that has, paradoxically, fuelled the current digital mistrust of tech and big data and the unreliability of information via social media. But, governments now must create intentional interactions that facilitates community engagement. In this way, digital-first engagement has a vital role. While the benefits of online community engagement are manifold in the current global state of digitization, digital-first engagement supports a continuous democracy and can enhance transparency and trust. For, primarily, digital-first engagement is more efficient – giving community leaders added opportunity to focus on community issues.

Community engagement increases the visibility and understanding of issues and empowers communities to have their say over decisions that affect their lives, their towns, cities and neighborhoods.

It provides opportunities for community members to contribute to public decision-making processes – and informing and educating communities on policy issues that impact their everyday lives. Through feedback, community engagement enables government and public decision-making organizations to listen and, in turn, demonstrate the impact of community contribution. Community engagement, then, builds deeper, stronger and more trusting relationships between public organizations and communities.

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Essay Papers Writing Online

The impact of community service – a deep dive into the power of giving back to society.

Community service essays serve as a powerful tool for individuals to reflect on their experiences, values, and impact on the world around them. Through the process of writing about their volunteer work, students are able to articulate the positive changes they have made in their communities and explore the lessons they have learned along the way.

Community service essays also play a crucial role in highlighting the importance of giving back to society and fostering a sense of empathy and compassion in individuals. By sharing personal stories of service, students can inspire others to get involved and make a difference in their own communities.

Moreover, community service essays can help students gain valuable skills such as critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving, as they reflect on the challenges and successes of their volunteer experiences. By documenting their service work, students can also showcase their commitment to social responsibility and community engagement to colleges, scholarship committees, and potential employers.

Why Community Service Essays Matter

In today’s society, the importance of community service essays cannot be overstated. These essays serve as a platform for individuals to showcase their dedication to helping others and making a positive impact on their communities. Through these essays, individuals can share their experiences, insights, and perspectives on the value of giving back to society.

Community service essays also play a crucial role in raising awareness about different social issues and encouraging others to get involved in volunteer work. By sharing personal stories and reflections, individuals can inspire and motivate others to take action and contribute to the betterment of society.

Furthermore, community service essays provide an opportunity for individuals to reflect on their own values, beliefs, and goals. Through the process of writing these essays, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their place in the world, leading to personal growth and development.

In conclusion, community service essays matter because they have the power to inspire change, raise awareness, and promote personal growth. By sharing their stories and insights, individuals can make a difference in their communities and create a more compassionate and giving society.

The Impact of Community Service Essays

Community service essays have a profound impact on both the individuals writing them and the communities they serve. These essays serve as a platform for students to reflect on their experiences and articulate the lessons they have learned through their service work.

One of the primary impacts of community service essays is the opportunity for self-reflection. Students are encouraged to critically analyze their experiences, challenges, and accomplishments during their community service activities. This reflection helps students develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their values, and their role in the community.

Another significant impact of community service essays is the awareness they raise about social issues and community needs. By sharing their stories and insights, students can shed light on important issues and inspire others to get involved in community service. These essays can also help community organizations and stakeholders better understand the needs of their communities and how they can address them effectively.

Overall, community service essays play a vital role in promoting social responsibility, empathy, and civic engagement. They empower students to make a positive impact in their communities and contribute to creating a more compassionate and inclusive society.

Guidelines for Writing Community Service Essays

When writing a community service essay, it is important to follow certain guidelines to ensure that your message is clear and impactful. Here are some tips to help you craft a powerful and compelling essay:

• Start by brainstorming ideas and reflecting on your community service experiences.
• Clearly define the purpose of your essay and what you hope to convey to your readers.
• Organize your essay with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
• Use specific examples and anecdotes to support your points and showcase your personal growth.
• Highlight the impact of your community service activities on both yourself and others.
• Showcase your passion and dedication to serving your community.
• Be authentic and honest in your writing, and avoid exaggerating or embellishing your experiences.
• Edit and proofread your essay carefully to ensure clarity, coherence, and proper grammar.

Examples of Effective Community Service Essays

Community service essays can have a powerful impact on the reader when they are well-written and thoughtful. Here are a few examples to inspire you:

1. A Well-Structured Essay:

This essay begins with a compelling introduction that clearly articulates the author’s motivation for engaging in community service. The body paragraphs provide specific examples of the author’s experiences and the impact they had on both the community and themselves. The conclusion ties everything together, reflecting on the lessons learned and the importance of giving back.

2. Personal Reflection:

This essay delves deep into the author’s personal experiences during their community service work. It explores the challenges they faced, the emotions they encountered, and the growth they underwent. By sharing vulnerable moments and candid reflections, the author creates a connection with the reader and demonstrates the transformational power of service.

3. Future Goals and Impact:

This essay not only discusses past community service experiences but also looks toward the future. The author shares their aspirations for continued service and outlines how they plan to make a difference in the world. By showcasing a sense of purpose and vision, this essay inspires the reader to consider their own potential for impact.

These examples illustrate how community service essays can be effective tools for conveying meaningful stories, inspiring others, and showcasing personal growth. By crafting a compelling narrative and reflecting on the significance of service, you can create an essay that leaves a lasting impression.

How Community Service Essays Empower Individuals

Community service essays provide individuals with a platform to express their thoughts, share their experiences, and make a meaningful impact on society. By writing about their volunteer work and the lessons they have learned, individuals can empower themselves to create positive change and inspire others to do the same.

• Through community service essays, individuals can reflect on the importance of giving back to their communities and the value of helping those in need.
• These essays can serve as a source of motivation and inspiration for individuals to continue their philanthropic efforts and make a difference in the world.
• By sharing their stories through community service essays, individuals can raise awareness about social issues and promote greater empathy and understanding among their peers.

Overall, community service essays empower individuals to take action, advocate for change, and contribute to building a more compassionate and equitable society.

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The Community Essay

“Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you’d like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had to help us understand you better—perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background—we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke.” 

As with every essay you ship off to admissions – think about something you want admissions to know that hasn’t been represented. What can you expand upon to show your versatility, passion and ability to connect with the world around you?

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Why Community Engagement Matters

Citizens are ‘engaged’ when they play a meaningful role in the deliberations, discussions, decision-making and/or implementation of projects or programs affecting them. Accordingly, organizational and government leaders need to broaden the way they see their responsibilities to include roles as facilitator, supporter, collaborator, and empower of citizens and stakeholders.

This change requires letting go of some of the traditional reins of power and trusting that citizens can and will effectively engage in the issues. The result is a partnership(s) that is nearly always healthy for a community and can more effectively address the issue or problem.

While research regarding the benefits and importance of community engagement varies, several key opportunities are commonly identified. Among these are:

• Increase the likelihood that projects or solutions will be widely accepted. Citizens who participate in these processes show significant commitment to help make the projects happen.
• Create more effective solutions. Drawing on local knowledge from a diverse group creates solutions that are practical and effective.
• Improve citizens' knowledge and skills in problem solving. Participants learn about the issues in-depth. Greater knowledge allows them to see multiple sides of the problem. Citizens can practice communication and decision-making skills.
• Empower and integrate people from different backgrounds. Groups that feel ignored can gain greater control over their lives and their community. When people from different areas of the community work together, they often find that they have much in common.
• Create local networks of community members. The more people who know what is going on and who are willing to work toward a goal, the more likely a community is to be successful in reaching its goals.
• Create several opportunities for discussing concerns. Regular, on-going discussions allow people to express concerns before problems become too big or out of control.
• Increase trust in community organizations and governance. Working together improves communication and understanding. Knowing what government, community citizens and leaders, and organizations can and cannot do may reduce future conflict.

(Adapted from Bassler et al, 2008).

In addition a well-designed engagement effort allows you to identify and understand:

• Differing values and priorities
• Differing frames, or ways citizens view the community or a particular project
• Various alternatives and consequences
• Perceptions of benefits and risks
• Different ideas and potential solutions and actions
• The characteristics and challenges of your " wicked " issue

Bassler, A. et al., " Developing Effective Citizen Engagement: A How-to Guide for Community Leaders ." Center for Rural America , 2008.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, tips for writing the community essay.

Hi fellow applicants! I've been working on the 'community essay' for some of my applications and I'm having trouble figuring out what to write about. Any advice on how to approach this essay and make it stand out? Thanks!

Hello! Writing a community essay can indeed be challenging, but with the right approach, you can create a standout piece. Here are some tips to help you craft a memorable essay:

1. Reflect on your personal experiences: Think about the communities you belong to, whether they're based on a physical location, a shared interest, or a certain background. Consider how your involvement in these communities has shaped the person you are today, and how you've contributed to their growth or well-being.

2. Be specific and provide anecdotes: To make your essay stand out, it's important to focus on a particular aspect of your community involvement. Share personal stories or unique experiences, rather than simply providing general descriptions of your community engagement.

3. Show growth and self-awareness: A well-written essay should convey the growth and personal development you've experienced through your involvement in a community. Don't be afraid to share challenges you've faced and the lessons you've learned from them. Demonstrating self-awareness and personal growth can give your essay a strong emotional impact.

4. Connect to your future aspirations: Reflect on how your community involvement has shaped your future goals and aspirations, and how you'd like to continue contributing to other communities in the future. This can help create a lasting impression on the admissions committee and show that you're committed to using your education for the betterment of your communities.

5. Edit and revise: As with any essay, make sure to thoroughly proofread and revise your work. This will help ensure that your essay is clear, concise, and free of any errors. Consider seeking feedback from a teacher, mentor, or peer to gain additional insights on how to improve your content.

In summary, to craft a standout community essay, focus on specific personal experiences, illustrate growth and self-awareness, and connect your involvement to your future aspirations. Best of luck with your applications!

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CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

Community Engagement Essays

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Community Service — Reflective On Community Service

Reflective on Community Service

• Categories: Community Service Personal Growth and Development

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Words: 608 |

Published: Mar 19, 2024

Words: 608 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, 1. personal growth and development, 2. academic enhancement, 3. social responsibility and civic engagement, 4. challenges and lessons learned, 5. future implications.

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Community engagement: a health promotion guide for universal health coverage in the hands of the people 

WHO has defined community engagement as “a process of developing relationships that enable stakeholders to work together to address health-related issues and promote well-being to achieve positive health impact and outcomes”. There are undeniable benefits to engaging communities in promoting health and wellbeing. At its core, community engagement enables changes in behaviour, environments, policies, programmes and practices within communities. There are different levels, depths and breadths of community engagement which determine the type and degree of involvement of the people. 

This guide is intended for change agents involved in community work at the level of communities and healthy settings.

Community Engagement

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2016
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Brian D. Christens 2 &
• Shepherd Zeldin 2  

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Community engagement of youth and adolescents is a set of processes by which young people become involved and constructively exercise agency in their surrounding environments. Young people can become engaged through involvement with existing organizations and government institutions and the establishment and leadership of new organizations. Community engagement is consistently regarded as an important facilitator of youth development. Less frequently (but increasingly) recognized are the ways in which youth community engagement contributes positively to adult development, community development, and a functioning civil society. This essay makes the case that youth community engagement is important from a civil society perspective, a social justice perspective, and that multigenerational partnerships are particularly critical in contemporary society. Recent literature is synthesized, drawing particularly on examples of youth–adult partnerships, youth involvement in governance,...

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Christens, B.D., Zeldin, S. (2016). Community Engagement. In: Levesque, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32132-5_24-2

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Empowering community participation for sustainable rural water supply: Navigating water scarcity in Karak district Pakistan

• Rasool, Abid
• Saeed, Sadia
• Ahmad, Sareer
• Iqbal, Asif
• Ali, Amanat

In the tapestry of life, water is the essential thread weaving through our existence. Imagine this thread not just as a simple element, but as the very pulse that sustains our communities. This study unravels the nuanced interplay between community engagement and sustainable water solutions in District Karak, shining a spotlight on a crucial but often overlooked aspect of rural water programs. Employing the theoretical framework of Social Capital Theory by Robert Putnam and Pierre Bourdieu, our research investigates the interconnected relationship between community participation and the long-term viability of water supply initiatives. Focusing randomly on three selected water supply schemes, we employed a sampling technique and collected data from 330 respondents through interviews. Community members, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), and executing agencies were sampled to analyze the extent and impact of engagement across program phases. The findings underscore the pivotal role of participatory approaches facilitated by CBOs and executing agencies, revealing active community engagement as a linchpin for sustained water supply success. Results of the study reveal that the synergy of community satisfaction and engagement paves the way for a resilient water future, offering a blueprint for District Karak and similar regions to pursue a more secure water future and mitigate the adverse effects of water scarcity through the promotion of community participation.

• Navigating water scarcity;
• Community participation;
• Sustainability;
• Water supply programme;