Daniel Norman - September 21st , 2022

Global Community Engagement Day

Global Community Engagement Day takes place on 28 January each year. Created in 2018, it’s a day for individuals and organisations to celebrate campaigns that empower communities to take action on issues that affect them.

Global Community Engagement Day takes place on 28 January each year. Created in 2018, it’s a day for individuals and organisations to celebrate campaigns that empower communities to take action on issues that affect them.

This article explains the background to Global Community Engagement Day and how you can get involved.

Read on to discover an easy way to celebrate this international holiday and support local
community champions today.

What is Community Engagement?

Community engagement is the process of helping communities to take power over the decisions that affect them.

This can be by facilitating links between under-represented groups and local or national government. It can also be by working with communities to strengthen their ability to communicate their feelings on key issues.

Fundamentally, community engagement gives communities a voice.

The History of Global Community Engagement Day

The idea of a Global Community Engagement Day was developed in 2018 by Andrew Coulson, a founder of the Australian non-profit organisation Engage 2 Act.

Andrew Coulson and his colleagues felt that more recognition was needed for people who spent time giving communities and local areas a voice.

There are two key reasons why creating a Global Community Engagement Day like this was worthwhile.

  1. It makes people working to empower and strengthen communities feel valued, motivating them to continue in their work.
  2. It raises awareness of community engagement work and encourages more people to get involved.

Why 28

In 2017, the non-profit organisation Engage 2 Act ran a poll on social media, asking people to choose which pioneer of community engagement had most inspired them.

The winner was Dr Wendy Sarkissian, an Australian academic. You can read about some of her

work in her article on giving a voice to the voiceless.

Dr Sarkissian’s birthday, 28 January, was chosen as the date for Global Community Engagement Day.

Since it was first observed in 2018, it has been celebrated around the world.

So how can you get involved and help local community-oriented organisations and individuals on Global Community Engagement Day?

Global Community Engagement Ideas and Examples

Unsure how you can mark Global Community Engagement Day? Supporting a local community engagement charity is a great way to join thousands of people around the world in celebrating this international holiday.

But it can be hard to find smaller community charities that would really benefit from your help.

One great way to discover local charities that make a real difference to communities is by joining Givto.

Givto makes finding and supporting charities simple by giving you a monthly choice of three charitable organisations to donate to.

Read the information provided about them. Then pick one and your donation will safely reach it, hassle-free. Read more about how it works below.

So what sorts of community engagement charities can you help?

Here are some real-life examples of community engagement charities that have given people power over the decisions that affect them.

Path Yorkshire

Path Yorkshire has been around for over 30 years. Based in the north of England, its focus is on improving the employment prospects and skill sets of economically and socially disadvantaged people like refugees, ethnic minorities and migrants.

Community engagement is central to this objective. Path Yorkshire forges links between industries and disadvantaged communities to help them communicate and work together.

It’s a great example of the benefits of community engagement and how it helps everyone.

Industry gets access to a wider and more representative range of talent. At the same time, disadvantaged communities get a chance to better their lives by improving their skills and experience.

Learn more on the Path Yorkshire website.

To find more charities like this that really change communities’ lives, join Givto. It’s the perfect way to celebrate Global Community Engagement Day.

Scope

Scope is a national charity that works to change perceptions of disability. It supports disabled people into work and in daily life, and it helps the parents of disabled children to deal with issues and challenges.

Like Path Yorkshire, community engagement is an important part of Scope’s work.

Through its Community Engagement Programme, which runs throughout the country, Scope brings local people together into action groups to create change.

These groups can, for example, organise disability awareness training for local services or push for more accessibility for disabled people in public and commercial spaces.

By making local areas more inclusive and accessible, Scope’s community engagement work benefits the lives of everyone.

Support Scope this Global Community Engagement Day to help this work continue.

Communication Matters

Communication Matters is a national charity that focuses on supporting people who have difficulty with their speech and with communication.

Communication Matters provides mentoring as well as training with, for example, new technology to aid communication.

Community engagement plays a key role in this work. By making businesses and local authorities aware of the needs of those with communication difficulties, their needs can begin to be addressed.

Visit Communication Matters’ website to donate or organise a fundraising campaign today.

To discover more charities that are making a real difference, sign up to Givto today.

What Are The Challenges of Community Engagement?

Community engagement faces challenges that can only be overcome with your support.

Here are three key challenges facing community engagement—and what you can do to help on Global Community Engagement Day.

1. Lack of Awareness

Individuals from disadvantaged and under-represented communities are often unaware of the organisations that seek to help them.

In order to represent their needs, organisations conducting community engagement need to conduct significant outreach work.

2. Lack of Trust

Even when links are built up between communities and organisations, individuals from those communities can be reluctant to engage.

Their previous experiences with institutions may have made them distrustful and sceptical about the benefits of community engagement.

Community engagement organisations need to listen to concerns and work hard to show tangible benefits. Only by winning the trust of local communities can they make real change.

3. Lack of Funds

These challenges for community engagement can begin to be resolved with adequate funding.

More money means more options to raise awareness and build connections. It also means more staff being able to devote more time to win over communities.

But organisations that conduct community engagement often lack the resources to make these changes.

So how can you help to overcome these challenges?

How To Support Global Community Engagement Day

It can be tricky to find small charities that are really integrated with their communities.

These charities often spend most of their funds on helping people, and they therefore have a more limited marketing footprint online.

One way to find these worthy causes is to spend a lot of time researching new organisations that need your support. Although this is certainly a worthwhile way to spend your evenings, it can be quite time consuming.

The other way is Givto.

Givto’s simple donation platform makes it quick, easy and safe to find and donate to organisations that change people’s lives.

Once you’ve set up an account, you’ll be given a choice of three worthy charities each month. These will range from local to national to international organisations.

You’ll also get access to information packs about each charity to help inform your choice.

When you’ve read up about them, pick the one that you want to donate to. Your donation will be safely sent over.

Givto handles everything, and you won’t get any marketing emails asking you to donate more next time.

You can choose to give anything from £5 to £75 each month.

Givto is run entirely by volunteers and has minimal costs. For a £10 donation that’s eligible for Gift Aid, the total donation size and fees are as follows:

Givto works with tons of community engagement organisations that have had a tangible effect on local communities.

Whether you’re looking to support Global Community Engagement Day or not, it’s the perfect tool to help you give something back.

Join Givto today to make a real difference.