Five Tips on Effective Project Coordination for Successful Resident Engagement

Making a lasting impact in a community takes time and effort, especially for those who take leadership roles in the process. Planning meetings, tracking outcomes, and ensuring all voices are brought into the conversation can be challenging without the right guidance. Thankfully, Community Heart & Soul Coaches are trained to help Project Coordinators manage logistics and core team collaboration. 

Through their work in small cities and towns across the country, Project Coordinators have gained a wealth of knowledge that can be applied to other communities planning Heart & Soul efforts. We’ve gathered our complete Project Coordinator Insights video series in one place, with each video highlighting resources and tips based on the successes of Heart & Soul Project Coordinators. Whether you’re volunteering on a Community Heart & Soul team or want to engage in a local leadership role with confidence, each of the five clips offers essential advice on which strategies work best and how to navigate unexpected obstacles.

1. The Power of Teamwork: Capitalizing on Volunteer Strengths for Community Success

When coordinating a Community Heart & Soul effort, you don’t have to carry the load alone. Crystal Duffy, the Project Coordinator for Community Heart & Soul in Postville, Iowa, describes how a diverse team helped involve everyone in the process by bringing together people with varying backgrounds. By reaching out to a daycare director, retired teacher, local business contacts, city officials, and other residents, she gained a better understanding of how everyone contributes unique perspectives.

Welcoming people with different approaches helped balance big ideas with practical next steps and kept the Postville Heart & Soul team both imaginative and realistic. One of the most valuable lessons in volunteer management: be open to the natural ebb and flow of volunteer commitment, knowing that if you let people step away when they are busy, they will come back at the right moment, often bringing valuable skills for the next phase.

2. Tools for Meaningful Community Engagement

Project Coordinators agree that when you ask for resident input, you should make it fun, but focused. Mika Fields, the Heart & Soul Project Coordinator in Willingboro, New Jersey, considers story gathering events a vital step in building connections. Casual get-togethers that bring the entire town together, like her own “Fresh Fridays” pop-ups, create a positive environment where residents can share their perspectives, often for the first time.

Community Heart & Soul provides specific tools to translate those stories into action. In Carbondale, Pennsylvania, Project Coordinator Todd Pousley used the Change Over Time tool to help residents craft realistic ideas for action based on their Heart & Soul Statements. Similarly, the Impact Versus Feasibility tool helps teams move forward with exciting and realistic projects, guaranteeing early wins and more momentum for longer-term planning.

3. Tips for Keeping the Community Informed and Involved

Keeping residents informed and involved in a Community Heart & Soul effort means communication can’t be siloed in one place. Keeping people up to date on work in progress is essential to helping everyone understand the context for upcoming events or decisions.

In Mendota, Illinois, Amy Brewer used a variety of methods to maintain communication, including the city website, interest-based email lists, and regular public appearances at community meals. Accessibility goes hand in hand with sharing updates, and translating communications into other languages can also help ensure that all voices are heard. Building a powerful communication toolkit—from social media pages and digital newsletters to physical mailers—helps ensure no one is left out of the conversation about their town’s future.

4. Reaching Hidden and Missing Voices

Community Heart & Soul’s impact hinges on involving everyone, especially in light of language barriers and socioeconomic differences. One of the Carbondale, Pennsylvania Heat & Soul team’s biggest challenges was reaching unheard voices in the community, but they found success by meeting people where they are. For low-income families, they recruited a volunteer from an affordable housing community who used existing relationships to gather stories in a trusted, familiar way. For younger residents, the team partnered with a high school teacher to collect stories as a class activity, and for children, they used drawing sheets and asked them to sketch their favorite things about the town.

Translating was a significant part of the Postville, Iowa team’s focus, with phase updates and promotional materials published in multiple languages. Even after overcoming linguistic hurdles, Project Coordinators still need to earn the trust of residents, so they feel comfortable sharing information. Intentional, relationship-based outreach is often what ensures a crucial segment of the population isn’t left out of the process.

5. Community Outcomes and Achievements

Many communities create achievements aligned directly with resident input early on, like Wyoming County, Pennsylvania’s new outdoor trails and revitalized recreation spaces. Local leadership opportunities arise as well, and Community Heart & Soul helps anyone jump into civic engagement without prior experience. 

Community Heart & Soul serves as a bridge for cross-cultural connections that support local commerce and encourage new leaders determined to build a brighter future for their communities. Todd Pousley’s work in Carbondale is a clear case study: 18 residents applied for an open city council seat, whereas officials had to frequently ask for interest in such roles prior to undertaking the practice of Community Heart & Soul.

Discover How to Get Started with Community Heart & Soul

These five tips are a clear sign that organized and committed project coordination is the best path forward for towns looking to write the next chapter of their story. If you’re inspired by our Project Coordinators’ successes and are ready to learn more, our team would be happy to hear from you. To get started, simply fill out this brief questionnaire and tell us a little more about your community!