Step 2: Connect with Community Stakeholders
To find young, enthusiastic active citizens in the community and those who will support them in their effort to create sustainable impact, we must immerse ourselves into the community and connect with community stakeholders.
Actions to Connect with Community Stakeholders: 1. Review the information collected during Step 1: Identify the Community, to identify community stakeholders who:
Should know a FL Community intends to or does exist in the local community
Can further inform you about the community’s needs
Can support you in your future efforts to formulate targeted solutions around the community’s greatest challenges
Can refer you to young community leaders or other stakeholders that can help meet these objectives
2. Research important stakeholders identified and begin collecting their information into an organized spreadsheet to easily be able to connect with them throughout the process.
3. Initiate communications with the individual stakeholders listed, through telephone or email, and request an in-person meeting.
You can also conduct group meetings with similar stakeholders or have meetings via telephone. Some stakeholders may request more information before meeting.
Do not be discouraged if they say no. Some stakeholders are not in a position to learn about new opportunities in their community.
Where to Begin: If you are unsure about which stakeholders to start with, begin with the Mayor of the local community, town or city. They are knowledgeable about the challenges the community faces and can often provide a variety of referrals for future contacts.
4. Add the dates, time and locations of scheduled meetings to a shared Community Team calendar. Be sure that those knowledgeable about FL and the community’s needs attend the meeting.
5. Your stakeholder meeting should be conducted in a way that:
Demonstrates your commitment to solving local needs
Listens to the needs of the stakeholder
Gathers further information about the community’s greatest needs
Asks for referrals to young community leaders who have the skills, time and passion to enable their community to achieve sustainable impact
Referrals to Young Leaders: This is the most important thing for you to walk away with after each meeting. While each stakeholder has valuable input about the community’s culture, you can not move forward while starting a FL Community without first connecting to young leaders.
6. Following the meeting, add important information and outcomes of the meeting to your organized stakeholder information.
7. Continue to repeat the process of Connecting with Stakeholders till you have identified, met and engaged at least five young community leaders who can be the foundation from which you will enable the community to achieve sustainable impact.
Next Step: As you connect with community stakeholders, you may find that sometimes you find one or two community leaders very early while the others may take longer to identify. Therefore, it is important to keep the young community leaders who have demonstrated their commitment engaged and passionate about creating sustainable impact with FL until you have identified all five.
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