Supporting the American Alliance of Museums and the National Park Service in Development of the Community Engagement Program
Client: American Alliance of Museums | Location: Washington,DC
We supported the American Alliance of Museums (AAM)’s partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) Community Engagement Program (CEP) through a needs assessment and strategy.
OVERVIEW
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) is working with the National Park Service (NPS) to support their Community Engagement Program (CEP). The CEP is a service-wide program with Congressional appropriated funding to facilitate the hiring of 10 Community Engagement Specialists to build strategic community relationships, increase engagement with historically excluded communities and organizations, and build more inclusive park connections with diverse communities.
APPROACH
Our work included:
Logic Model Development: Through discussions with NPS staff managing the CEP, we developed a logic model that outlines short- and long-term outcomes for internal (CES and other NPS staff not specifically charged with community engagement) and external audiences (individuals in communities across the US who are currently underserved by NPS).
Needs Assessment: To aid AAM in the development of Professional Development for Community Engagement Specialists (CES’s) hired as part of the CEP and other NPS staff, we conducted interviews and surveys with constituents who have community engagement expertise within NPS and individuals who will receive professional development.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Logic model development helped NPS clarify the complexity of the CEP. As a service-wide program with appropriated funding, the CEP has visions for a scalable program that grows capacity across NPS to positively benefit public audiences. The logic model outlines short- and long-term outcomes for internal and external audiences. It also connects the CEP to NPS’s mission and recognizes the many CEP inputs, which include resources, infrastructure, and knowledge, some of which were begun years prior to the development of the CEP.
The needs assessment helped clarify the logic model but also informed professional development to advance the CEP’s goals. The needs assessment revealed that, at large, NPS staff think community engagement is mission essential. However, there are palpable concerns about the capacity for community engagement within NPS at large, particularly given the time, effort, and practices they perceived as required for successful community engagement. NPS staff feel they need support in general ways regarding community engagement, such as conflict resolution and identifying barriers to community engagement and developing strategies to minimize them, but also in many NPS-specific contexts, such as identifying internal barriers to community engagement and fostering NPS buyin. AAM are using these results to customize professional development for NPS.
Together, the work demonstrated that AAM and NPS CEP leadership must continue to acknowledge and reconcile systemic opportunities and challenges. For better or worse, NPS has a government relationship and organizational structure that can present complications to community engagement, as NPS staff are well aware. To foster support for the CEP, it is critical for NPS to continue connecting community engagement to NPS’s mission, which NPS staff at large are passionate about even if they interpret the mission with different emphasis on preservation versus enjoyment, education, and inspiration.
