When developing a language revitalization plan, many planning activities can include community engagement. The language team will determine how and when to involve community members based on factors such as the size of the community, the capacity of the planning team and the community’s preferences and values around planning and engagement. Choose an approach that fits the preferences of the community and planning team. Some examples of approaches include the following:
Ongoing Community-wide Consultation
How it works:
- Community-wide sessions are held for multiple stages of the planning process.
- All community members may participate and provide input on the components of the plan.
- The planning team drafts the input from the community into a plan and presents it at subsequent meetings for further review and approval.
- This cycle continues until the plan is complete.
This approach could be used when:
- Planning and engagement is typically conducted together as a community with a collaborative approach.
- There is a lot of interest in language planning within the community.
- Multiple engagement sessions are welcomed by the community and the planning team.
Language Planning Advisory Committee
How it works:
- An advisory committee is formed of 5–10 people who are respected community members with relevant expertise (language speakers, teachers, administrators, youth, etc.).
- The planning team meets with the advisory committee on a regular basis to seek input on the components of the plan.
- The planning team drafts the plan based on input from the advisory committee and presents the draft to the committee for further review and approval.
- This cycle continues until the plan is complete.
This approach could be used when:
- Community planning approaches and protocols involve specific people who could form an advisory committee (Elders, Knowledge Keepers, family representatives, educators, etc.).
- There is interest among community members to form an advisory committee.
- It is valuable for the planning team to work with a smaller group of community members when gathering information for the plan.
Combination of Approaches
These methods can be used in combination. For example, you could have community-wide consultation and an advisory committee. You could start some sections of the plan with community engagement and build a draft based on community input. Other sections could be drafted by the planning team and then shared with the community for review.