What Are the 3 P's of Engagement in Community Outreach?

When you’re trying to build something lasting in your neighborhood-whether it’s a food bank, a youth mentorship program, or a clean-up initiative-you quickly learn that handing out flyers and hosting one-off events won’t cut it. Real change doesn’t happen because you announced it. It happens because people feel connected, valued, and invested. That’s where the 3 P's of engagement come in: Public, Participation, and Partnership. These aren’t buzzwords. They’re the working parts of every successful community effort you’ve ever seen-and the missing pieces in the ones that failed.

Public: Reach Beyond the Choir

Too many outreach efforts start by talking to the same ten people who always show up. The church group. The PTA moms. The retired teachers who’ve been volunteering for twenty years. That’s not engagement. That’s preaching to the converted.

True public engagement means going where people already are-not where you think they should be. If you’re trying to reduce food waste in a low-income neighborhood, don’t just set up a booth at the community center. Go to the laundromat. Stand outside the bus stop at 5 p.m. Talk to the people waiting for the 72 bus. Ask them what’s stopping them from composting. Maybe they don’t have space. Maybe they don’t trust the system. Maybe they’ve been burned before.

In Edinburgh, a group trying to get more seniors to use digital health services didn’t run ads or send emails. They partnered with the local chip shop. Every customer who picked up a takeaway got a free phone charger and a sticker that said, “Ask me how to book a GP appointment online.” Within three months, over 400 older residents had signed up for telehealth. Why? Because they trusted the chip shop owner. He was part of their daily life.

The public isn’t a demographic to target. It’s a network of real people with real routines. Find them where they are, not where you want them to be.

Participation: Let Them Lead, Not Just Show Up

Participation isn’t about getting people to attend your meeting. It’s about letting them design the meeting.

I’ve seen too many “community forums” where residents sit in a circle while a council worker reads off a list of pre-approved ideas. “We’re thinking of adding benches here. What do you think?” No one’s asking what else they need. What if they want shade trees? A safe path for kids? A place to leave warm coats for homeless neighbors?

In a housing estate in Leith, a group of young people were tired of the park being used for drug deals after dark. Instead of asking the council to increase patrols, they started a “Park Watch” program-but they ran it themselves. They made shift rosters. They printed maps. They trained volunteers to talk to people, not just report them. They didn’t wait for permission. They didn’t ask for approval. They just did it.

The council noticed. Then they funded it. But the program survived because it belonged to the kids who started it. Not because someone in an office told them to.

Engagement fails when people feel like spectators. It works when they feel like owners.

Partnership: Build Bridges, Not Bureaucracy

You can’t do everything alone. And you shouldn’t try. But partnerships aren’t about signing memorandums of understanding with five different charities and calling it a day.

Real partnership means sharing power. Sharing resources. Sharing credit. And sometimes, sharing failure.

In Glasgow, three organizations-一个 food bank, a housing charity, and a mental health service-used to operate in silos. People would come to the food bank hungry, then be told to see the housing office, then get redirected to counseling. No one connected the dots.

They started meeting weekly-not to report numbers, but to talk about people. One woman came in needing food, but she was also avoiding her GP because she couldn’t afford transport. The housing group had a van. The mental health team had a counselor who made house calls. They pooled their resources. Now, when someone walks in, they get a single intake form. One person walks them through it. No more bouncing between offices.

That’s partnership. Not logos on a poster. Not a joint press release. It’s people showing up for each other when no one’s watching.

Why the 3 P's Work Together

These three pieces aren’t steps. They’re layers.

You can’t have real participation without reaching the public first. You can’t build lasting partnership without people who are already engaged. And you can’t sustain public interest without seeing real results from their participation.

A food drive that just collects cans? That’s charity. A food drive where neighbors plant gardens together, teach each other how to preserve food, and run a weekly cooking class using the harvest? That’s engagement.

The difference is in who’s driving it. And who’s staying.

What Happens When You Skip One of the P’s

Let’s say you focus only on Public. You run a social media campaign. You get 500 likes. You feel good. But no one shows up to the event. Why? Because you didn’t invite them into the process. You just broadcasted.

Or you focus only on Participation. You host a workshop. Ten people come. They have great ideas. You take notes. Then nothing happens. No one follows up. The ideas die. People feel used.

Or you focus only on Partnership. You team up with the local council, the university, and three NGOs. You have a fancy launch event. You get a grant. But no one from the community knows what’s going on. The program feels foreign. It collapses in six months.

Each P needs the others. Skip one, and you’re not building community. You’re building a project.

Start Small. Start Now.

You don’t need a big budget or a team of five to start using the 3 P's.

- Public: Next time you’re at the local shop, ask the owner if you can leave a note about your project on their counter. Or walk the block and talk to three people. What do they care about?

- Participation: Don’t ask for feedback. Ask for leadership. “Who wants to run the next clean-up? I’ll help you plan it.”

- Partnership: Find one person in another group who’s doing something similar. Have coffee. Don’t talk about your program. Talk about the person they helped last week.

Engagement isn’t a strategy. It’s a habit. It’s showing up. Listening. Sharing the mic. And staying even when it’s messy.

What Comes Next?

If you’ve tried traditional outreach and it didn’t stick, it’s not because people don’t care. It’s because they weren’t invited in the right way. The 3 P's aren’t a checklist. They’re a mindset. And once you start living them, you’ll see change-not because you told people to care, but because you made it impossible for them not to.