Practice

my involvement in the program, It showed me two primary things. I think that one is that this type of approach that is centered around relationship building can work and not having to put STEM first. And number two, how to move forward with this type of approach. Not only thinking about this, even just in my head, but also knowing that others are doing this type of thinking and how to move forward with improving it. I feel I've made just a ton of revelations from all the way back when we started until now. And I think continuing to ruminate on it, trying stuff out and not being afraid to not put metrics first is going to be hugely important in the way that I move forward thinking about outreaching and practicing.

I can't help but point out that Rick's approach has been amorphous from the beginning. And I think that's something I really appreciated. And I remember reading his ... We had a competitive application process to decide on sites. Rick's proposals was like, "We have no idea what we're going to do, but we're going to go to this many meetings one at a time." And I was like, "That sounds really interesting to me. That's process over product." I mean, you really did come at this without a predetermined sense of like, "Well, we're going to have to have this event on that." I remember having conversations with you and this is, I'm now influencing the conversation a little bit, but nothing's objective anyways. So you received funding to participate for doing the project. And it was just a set amount for every site. And you were like, "Well, I'm having trouble spending this money." I remember having a conversation with you where I was like, "Well, you can buy pizza." And you're like, "Really?" I'm like, "Yeah, you can buy food. Or if somebody needs something, bring pizza to the next community meeting you go to or whatever people are eating." And I don't know. There's something that I've found. It's funny to me that you're still struggling with the fact that it's amorphous, but to me in a weird way, maybe that is actually a great strength.

This certainly didn't happen overnight. So I've been working with Dwight for the last couple of years and I've actually seen specifically my relationship with Dottie become stronger and stronger as I've been more and more consistent. As like, she's seen me around these events, she actually knows that I actually care about the community because I live here and because I have an interest as well with science, and I think that's right. If I came in wanting to be an insider trying to be buddy, buddy, always trying to bring science activities to every single thing that Dwight was doing, then it would have felt a little forced, it would have been very clear to someone as sharp as Dottie that it's more some sort of ulterior motives as opposed to me being willing to just come and pick up trash and come to the meetings regularly and listen to the neighborhood's upcoming events and issues and initiatives to where Dottie was actually, the woman who asked me during the summer, she said, "Hey, I've got a bunch of kids that are run around the neighborhood, and I think it'd be really cool to invite you guys over for a barbecue and just have some science activities have some hot dogs and stuff like that." She was the one that pitched that to me out of nowhere, and so this sort of relationship building, seeing me as an insider in at least some way, but not because I asked for it, or invited or told my neighbors like, "Hey, what if I came to your backyard with some science, what you think about that?" I think that that's something that I hadn't actually consciously thought through, but just tried to be intentional about not being overbearing, or having some sort of savior mindset and just showing up to meetings and saying, "Hey, we're here if you guys want us to come bring some events, and if not, I also just happen to live here, and I want to be involved in some way."

I mean that to say that you come into a setting with your own sort of perceptions with your own background, how you think about certain things, you come in with a ton, a ton, a ton of assumptions. So I think as an ethnographer, as a sociologist, it's about being mindful, as you're stepping in about turning off those assumptions and listening, and truly just listening to what people are saying, to what people are saying that are similar, to what people are saying that are different. So I think oftentimes it becomes rendering exactly what you're hearing from the people that are there, and I think the important thing to know is, it is not always going to be what you think you should hear or what you even want to hear it, it's usually going to be something that's just organic to that community.

if there's an outcome or recommendation that we can glean from those experience is, if you want to do genuine community engagement, ditch STEM altogether and just find ways to participate in the process of the community itself.

I would probably go and figure out what are the times and places of any kind of community organization that meets like at a community center, if it's group of elders in the neighborhood, if it's some bingo players, if it's a church that has something recreational for kids to do, I'd figure out, "Okay, what institutions are within the neighborhood first?" And then just go visit and show up. So for example, doing research in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, it was really about going to churches and meeting people in church. And then from there snowballing it to, "Okay, now I met you at church. So now I'm going to get an invitation over to your home for dinner or something or a barbecue." And it just rolls into that. That's how we do our work. It's network-based, but you create a purposive sample of this. That means, you're trying to go to a particular place trying to find 10 people. And then from there, it becomes a snowball sample of, "Do you know someone who you think would be good to bring into this program or talk to about the particular topic."

I think part of the approach, particularly from anthropology and cultural anthro, and so it's always... I know that for science and big science, the idea is to scale up. How do you scale this up. I think for us, we like to scale down a bit and think about, "Okay, on the level of the neighborhood, on the level of the community, I didn't think about institutions that are meaningful to a wide variety of people that live in these neighborhoods. So I think for example, you have to figure out what your approach will be to understanding what the community is and what the politics are in the neighborhood. I think if you go to churches, for example, you'll get one perspective from going to different churches. If you go to different public schools, for example, the different perspectives on what the neighborhood is and what it means, what the limits are of that neighborhood. But I think generally it's just the way to tap into a neighborhood or community is a slow process and it only happens with the same engagement. There's no checklist on best practices, there's no real easy way to do it. But I will say that by putting in that time with particular neighborhoods and institutions within neighborhoods that I trusted within those neighborhoods, it pays [inaudible] dividends for you when it's time for a big event like this, because people will want to come out and want to support. Because they know that you've been there for more than just a particular event. From my perspective, and do a research in neighborhoods events similar to this and being from this neighborhood, I think going through some of the key churches, maybe on Sunday and when they have the announcements part of church, just being there and talking to the congregation and saying, "I'm from this organization, they're doing X, Y, and Z, we'd love some input from the community. If you want to talk to us [inaudible] and that can help keep the ball rolling. In that cliff neighborhood churches will be central to doing that. But I think, figure out what the solutions are trusted and valued by the people who lived there. And then sourcing those to figure out, who are your key people, people who be like " Center people for you to do your work into... We've got the other folks and bring people in together to the particular event.

Well, two things I would say that I've learned along the way through some fits and starts is always when chatting with people, and if they're open and interested as you're wrapping up the conversation and setting up a time to talk more, it's always ask, "Who else should be a part of the conversation?" And let them think a little bit about what other entity or group just like Justin was doing, who would be interested. And then see if they're willing to make that introduction. Because a lot of times I'm not the right person to go into a community and start trying to reach out, but finding people who are willing to be a part of it is great. And then the other thing that the whole term of "reaching out" is loaded. Like I noticed, and I fall guilty of this. When I say I talked to someone, I'm mind typing with my fingers, which means I emailed them. And did I email them? Did I show up? Did I find a time that was convenient for them? And again, you probably did all this, but I think it's important to think about, and to document that building those relationships, there's a lot of shiny objects that get dropped into different places and then they disappear and go away. So sometimes thinking about how much you can actually show up and show up in person, which I think the currency of in-person has gone up as much as the currency of digital and perhaps even more so. So I think getting into the right meetings and thinking about the different neighborhoods, communities, community leaders, stakeholders, organizations, non-traditional beyond the cultural institutions, like informal learning places, but certainly your churches and community centers are big. So thinking through some of those places and finding those connectors, is really key. And I'm probably not saying that anything you don't know, it's just who goes to bandwidth? Because you try it with one and then get pulled away on 17 other projects and initiatives. So being really intentional and committing to it, is key.