BCSC Releases Community Engagement Report
December was something of a busy month, but hopefully you’re breathing a little easier now. While you’re planning your upcoming year, there’s a piece of reading material that might have slipped your attention last month: the BCSC Shopping Centres: At the Heart of the Community report for 2012.
It’s a best practices guide for community initiatives, pulled from some of the best case studies from the organizations member centers. It covers the whys and hows of community engagement, asking about the benefits, costs, and basics of getting involved.
The initiatives the report looks at cover all manner of topics—green programs, school fundraisers, work placement, crime reduction, tourism and a lot more. There are also detailed stats. For instance, of the reported benefits of community initiatives, you’d think fundraising would top the chart. Instead, community members largely reported things like increased confidence and self-esteem, improvements to health and well-being, and a lessening of anti-social behavior. Hard to put a dollar value on benefits like that.
Give it a read—it’s a hefty report, but it’s chock-full of good ideas.
