Engage Delaney recently launched the new Building Community Relations course with 24 participants. Participants ranged from the private sector, municipal government, not-for-profit, and health care sectors. Our participants were engaged and experienced engagement and communications professionals and it was a real treat to spend time together. Based on the course evaluations and feedback, there are three big takeaways.
- Engage Delaney’s Model for Community Relations
Participants appreciated how we related relationship management theory and the IAP2 spectrum with Community Relations. Integrating relationships and reciprocity landed for folks and we will present the guiding principles first and then the model as a minor update moving forward. Participants also appreciated clear definitions and distinctions between community relations and community engagement.
- Examples, tools and templates
Participants shared how they appreciated the outline of the Community Relations Strategy and Plan, as well as the organizational and professional competencies. They indicated they would appreciate even more templates, which we will include in the October course.
- Learning from each other and the scenarios
Participants appreciated the opportunity to learn from each other and to use scenarios to explore how to implement community relations in a real, emerging scenario. Giving practical examples, real life stories and connecting with others doing similar work really landed with participants.
For our October course, we will be refining the presentation and workbook and adding more tools that participants can use after the course to further advance community relations strategy and plan development within their own organizations.
A huge thank you to all our pilot participants for joining us. We appreciate the opportunity to learn with you and just spend time with professionals who are passionate about their work.
To celebrate our 30th anniversary, all registrants will receive 15% off the October 21-22, 2026 course.