As staff at The Presser Foundation, some of our favorite events are the Next Movement Idea Forums. Any time that we have the opportunity to connect with and learn from the Foundation’s grantee partners is wonderful, and Next Movement provides a space to grow through what we think of as connective tissue building i.e., the idea of learning from others while also building and strengthening relationships.
The most recent Next Movement, which focused on the idea of Centering Community Voice, was no exception. We had thought of the idea of this particular Next Movement in conjunction with April’s Centering Youth Voice. The two events go hand-in-hand with one other, as each features the expertise and guidance of multiple music organizations.
You can read more about April’s event here, but this space is for sharing what we learned about centering community voice from four music nonprofits – Ars Nova Workshop, Opera Philadelphia, PRISM Quartet, and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. We outline our learnings, related to both bringing in community voice into an organization’s artistic process and becoming a community-centric organization, in eight key takeaways (in no particular order). We hope that these can help guide any organization in centering community voice in their own efforts, and help transform art-centric organizations into community-centric organizations that provide arts programming.
1) Community is not a monolith
A community can be defined by set boundaries or guidelines, but no two people have the same opinions. The reminder during the session that individuals in a community are not a monolith, but are different people with varying beliefs and experiences, is an important one to keep front and center when designing and implementing community-focused work.
2) Move from transactional to relational
Are you engaging community to build an audience, or are you seeking to create a true connection and relationship with people? True community-based work centers on relationship-building. Transactions between parties don’t contribute to long-term relationships.
3) Meet and engage people where they are
Sometimes it takes going to a different neighborhood or area in order to meet and engage people. It’s important for organizations to connect with individuals in their own spaces and on their own terms – doing so can inspire story telling from participants and learning from organizations. As one panelist put it, “everyone has a story to tell.
4) Use data to inform your community-based efforts
Gathering data in equitable and inclusive ways helps inform who, what, how, and why when it comes to community-based efforts. Data, both qualitative and quantitative, can provide reasoning to begin a program. After a program is implemented, data shares insights and benchmarks about successes and if necessary, changes that need to be made.
5) Partnerships are incredibly valuable
Partnerships amongst organizations are valuable in a number of ways. They provide resources and additional voices that inform the creative process and can spark new connections and relationships. The wheel doesn’t have to be reinvented – there are number of wonderful organizations that can work with you to help inform your own community-based work.
6) Make sure individuals participating in community-focused groups have an out
If you have participants in a community advisory group, make sure you give them an out if they no longer want to participate or feel comfortable. It’s important to make them feel valued not only for their insights, but for themselves as people, which includes letting them withdraw/leave the group on their own terms.
7) Document and disseminate your process
If you have (a) process/es for centering community voice, share it with others. This comes from the notion of operating from an abundance mindset rather than a scarcity one. We think of it in an informal way of “sharing the cookies in the cookie jar.” Community and society are better when we share successes (and failures!) with one another.
8) You can’t be everything to everyone
As shared earlier, communities are not monoliths. They’re composed of different people with different ideas, beliefs, experiences, expertise, and more. Thus, one organization can’t be or do everything to everyone. It takes time to center community voice, so start where you can and go from there, realizing that it will take time and not all of “community” will be reached.
These takeaways scratch the surface of what we learned during the session – there are so many more insights that can be pulled from this forum. If you’d like to dig deeper, feel free to check out the recording (passcode 9Dt.^QFs) of the presentation.
