Getting Started

In this activity, you will consider potential barriers and obstacles to identifying community or organizational stakeholders. Finding stakeholders who can contribute to your community or organizational change effort can be challenging, especially when stakeholders have historically occupied positions of lesser power by virtue of their race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, or familial status. However, all people living or working within the community or organization have potential influence on macro-level change efforts.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

• Develop reflection and self-regulation to effectively manage the intersection of personal and professional values. (PO 1, 2)

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Resources

• Video: What Is Stakeholder Engagement?

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Background Information

Part of the dilemma in engaging stakeholders who have been marginalized is a lack of consensus about who holds that responsibility. Some would argue that engagement is the responsibility of the government, while others say that communities, organizations, and individuals have a shared responsibility to find out what is important to the people who have historically been ignored.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of governmental responsibility for community welfare, how you engage individuals who are relevant stakeholders will impact the success of your proposed social action project. In the video ;“What Is Stakeholder Engagement?” the speaker argues that stakeholders are any individuals who are affected by the community or organizational change effort. To effectively solicit feedback about our community or organizational changes, social workers must actively listen to the perspectives of stakeholders to build trust and communicate humility.

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Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. Review the following video and/or read the associated transcript file:
   1. “What Is Stakeholder Engagement?” and/or the What Is Stakeholder Engagement Transcript.pdf file
3. Navigate to the threaded discussion and respond to the following prompts. Your initial post should be between 200 and 300 words long. Discuss your experiences and struggles with identifying community stakeholders.
   1. How did you identify your community or organizational stakeholders?
   2. Whose responsibility is it to engage people who have been historically marginalized due to their race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, or familial status?
   3. As you develop your social action proposal, what do you envision you will need from your stakeholders?
   4. What skills for the social action project do stakeholders possess?