STRIVE January 2018 | Page 40

Making Community Engagement Quick , Creative , and Collaborative

By Meredith Noble
“ What do you do ?” It ’ s the most common question asked when meeting someone new . If you ’ re like most people , you will answer with your job title . But is that who you are , you job title ? Worse yet , what if your job is less than fulfilling ?
If you ’ re nodding in agreement , you ’ re among the 85 % worldwide who feel disengaged at work . 1 So what ’ s the answer ... quit your job and follow your dreams ?
Not necessarily . The nexus between our professional skills and personal interests is where we are best suited to make a difference and find purpose . No matter whom you ask , everyone can think of something they ’ d like to improve in their community . Bicyclists and pedestrians want to feel safer . Businesses want vibrant commercial districts . Residents want attainable housing and locally sourced food . And everyone wants a creative , resilient workforce . These are all anchors of vibrant communities .
While we can all agree such community development work is important , it can quickly feel like a cumbersome process with long to-do lists and endless follow-up . Our hypothesis is that more people would engage in projects to support vibrant community development if it were easier and more fun .
To test this theory , a cohort of Alaskans have launched an initiative called AlaskaMovement . The initiative seeks to provide a more efficient way for the public to participate in community development endeavors .
The motivation for this initiative is not sheer altruism . It ’ s rooted in understanding that the average person looking to contribute to a community project has limited time and energy for a cumbersome process . AlaskaMovement streamlines this process in an accessible application .
Through word of mouth and the sharing of blog posts , the initiative has grown to include people from Haines to Anchorage to Kotzebue . As I build the application using the “ lean start up ” process , this group will provide feedback and test product development through a rapid iteration process . The goal of rigorously vetting and reiterating the application is to make sure we are building something useful , user-friendly , and affordable .
In the beginning of 2018 , the first viable product to test will be a web landing page that allows people to search for projects of interest by location , leader , or project type . Once the right project is identified , people can review the team ’ s progress , look for ways to contribute , and get involved .
For those who would like to propose their own idea , it will be simple to post a new project and discover if others want to help . Our intent is to demonstrate that anyone can be a leader – whether you ’ re using the application as a tenured resident of Alaska or as a seasonal employee wanting to be engaged while briefly living here .
After joining a project , activities can be split into more micro-tasks , empowering previously disconnected individuals to engage on their terms at their leisure . Push notifications will serve as gentle reminders to complete follow up tasks .
We live in an increasingly networked and connected world – through social media , cloud storage , texting , email , file sharing , and more – yet , collaboration can still be difficult to sustain . To cross into the final frontier of effortless collaboration , it must more rewarding to give up precious time for community betterment .
The AlaskaMovement app will make it easier to compose and dismantle diverse teams quickly and capture the energy of excited , creative individuals outside the non-profit volunteering circuit . For the first time , community projects will be able to enlist participants and move ahead without relying on
40 January 2018