Practical Guide to Community Engagement: Approaches to Help Researchers Get Started

The Practical Guide to Community Engagement: Approaches to Help Researchers Get Started combines available frameworks and the authors’ practical experience in a resource to help researchers interested in pursuing thoughtful, ethical, and effective community engagement processes within convergence research. Developed by the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources as part of the Intermountain West Transformation Network, the guide synthesizes literature and practitioner experience to clarify what community engagement is, why it matters, and how to determine the appropriate level of participation—from outreach to shared leadership. Organized around four interconnected dimensions—who, why, what, and how—the guide emphasizes goal alignment, power dynamics, reciprocity, compensation, and iterative dialogue with community partners. It includes engagement spectrums, reflective questions, case examples, and a readiness checklist to support decision-making before and during partnerships. The guide is intended for graduate students, early-career researchers, and established faculty seeking to integrate meaningful community collaboration into research that addresses societal and environmental challenges.

This work was funded by the National Science Foundation under grant #2115169.