An Evaluation of the City of Brooklyn Park's Community Engagement Initiative

Abstract

This project was completed as part of the 2016-2017 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Brooklyn Park. In 2009, Brooklyn Park began a five-year Community Engagement Initiative. The initiative’s goal was to facilitate greater levels of engagement between members of the community and city staff, and to instill a feeling of local pride in Brooklyn Park residents. To assess the program’s success, Aldona Martinka evaluated the program as part of her Culminating Experience for the master of public health degree in the Community Health Promotion program at the School of Public Health. Martinka found that the initiative increased communication among members of the community, and between community members and City staff. The majority of residents surveyed reported feeling proud to live in Brooklyn Park (91%), felt it to be a thriving community (92%), and felt that they have the opportunity to succeed (91%). Results were used to make recommendations on next steps. The final report and poster are available.