Community engagement

The community engagement process for the P-20 Cradle-to-Career Campus at Marygrove is more than just meetings and events. Civic engagement establishes relationships with various stakeholders. It is an open, inclusive and ongoing, two-way dialogue between stakeholders and community members working together to move the P-20 campus forward. As plans for the campus continue to evolve, the P-20 partners will continue to ask the community to help bring this vision to reality. Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC), the community engagement facilitator, has worked with the P-20 partners to elevate the following goals:

• BUILD TRUST – Build trust between Marygrove partners and the community.
• DIALOGUE – Develop and nurture a longstanding, robust community dialogue.
• KNOWLEDGE SHARING – Involve stakeholders in the process of knowledge sharing to inform and shape programs that reflects stakeholders’ priorities in the implementation phase. 
• CHAMPION – Build a coalition of residents and district stakeholders who will help communicate the Marygrove Campus vision to the community.
• COLLABORATE – Inform a governance structure that empowers shared decision making and ensures all campus partners are held accountable to keep residents’ concerns as a priority in long-term planning. 
• INTEGRATE – Develop a clear feedback loop that demonstrates how community voices have been integrated into the process.

Since fall 2018, DCDC has been engaging the community through a variety of topics and tactics. DCDC has hosted two large community meetings, attended existing community meetings, and has facilitated focus groups for several P-20 educational programs. DCDC also recognizes that not everyone is able to attend a community meeting, so the organization has aimed to meet people where they are on their daily path by hosting “Roaming Conversations” at local hot spots, and by visiting local businesses and institutions to have conversations with residents.