Community Engagement

Community engagement is partly a mindset and an approach to library work that involves relationship building with community partners and community members; understanding the community landscape and supporting community initiatives and projects; and actively listening to and having ongoing conversations with community members about their goals and needs. There are a number of approaches, channels, and tools that can help libraries engage with their communities, and WiLS is available to consult on different strategies that will work for individual libraries.

How WiLS Community Engagement service has impacted Wisconsin libraries

Community engagement plays a critical role in every strategic planning process that WiLS coordinates. We offer a number of example tools and approaches that prioritize and center community voices so that the library can be inspired by their community when crafting and implementing their strategic plan. WiLS understands that not every tool or approach will work in every community, and so we partner with libraries and use data such as community demographics to craft an engagement strategy that works well for as many people as possible. Community engagement is a mindset, not a one-time thing. WiLS helps empower libraries to ensure that community voices are actively and intentionally integrated into most, if not all, initiatives, services, or projects a library considers.

Have an idea? Here’s how to get started with WiLS Community Engagement

Contact Melissa McLimans at melissa@wils.org or Laura Damon-Moore at laura@wils.org to learn more!