Meaningful Engagement

Our interactions with others are mostly automatic, requiring little conscious effort or thought. When we have the desire or responsibility of helping others, developing genuine connections is a key part of the process of designing an effective intervention for the person or community we want to support. Because we are so used to talking with others, it can be hard to change our approach to how we carry out our conversations. Inevitably, how we engage and interact with those we want to impact, greatly influences the outcomes of our efforts. Lack of attention and genuine intention within our interactions can make others feel uncomfortable.

Meaningful engagement can be used to create authentic, effective connections with our audiences so that we are more prepared to offer the help they truly need. We must consider the fact that our audience is not necessarily prepared to take advantage of the resources we offer, and that we often lack the lived experience needed to know exactly what our audience needs. With meaningful engagement, we use alternative thinking to tailor strategies and create comfortable environments where people can feel free to be themselves, be vulnerable, learn, and grow. This in turn, produces more information and tools, so that people can better understand and align their thoughts and actions to meet their  goals.