It’s absolutely wonderful to be actively involved and engaged with the community. If it wasn’t for people taking time out of their day to help in their communities most would go completely unchanged. There would be no positive influences or advances to make the community better. When people are able to rally behind a community and keep everyone engaged with what is going on in the area, it makes it a more safe place to live. However, for those people who are heavily involved there can be a few mistakes made that is not for the best.
One of the biggest mistakes that people who are involved in the community make, is that they expect far too much time from others to help. It can be disappointing when others are nowhere near as enthusiastic about dedicating their time and efforts to the community as they are. When asking for local community members to dedicate their time, it’s best that it be requested in short amounts of time. If requesting for longer amounts of time to help out, it can cause negative feelings about the project.
Expecting too much empathy from members of the local community is just another mistake that can possibly be made. When these people are nowhere near as involved or engaged with the project, it’s going to be difficult to gain any kind of empathy from them. They have no idea the purpose of the project, or any of the mandates and regulations that are required of it to make it successful. The fact of the matter is the public just doesn’t have as much invested into the work, or care enough about it as someone who has exerted all of their work and efforts into it has.
Even for those who have dedicated countless hours to community engagement, they must realize that there is always more to learn. Expecting too much planning knowledge is something they will quickly see is a reality. While planning these efforts ahead of time is important, there can be such a thing as over-planning as well. When every small detailed piece of the planning is being presented to people it can quickly turn them off. They may quickly feel that it is all too much for them to be involved with.