Just 3.0 Program Manual

Clarifications

COMMUNITY

For the purposes of Just, the term “community” is defined as a) the local area surrounding an organization’s office location(s) (if applicable) as well as b) the general groups of people served through the organization’s products, projects, and services. Fully remote organizations will identify their communities through the latter lens. The interpretation and definition of community is intentionally left to the discretion of the organization in order to promote contextualization. As part of its policy submission, an organization must clearly define its community within the context of this Indicator and describe how it came to identify its community as such.

COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT

A community assessment enables an organization to learn about its community’s composition/demographics, history, current context, characteristics, strengths, needs, and opportunities. For the purposes of Just, a community assessment includes the following components:

  • Community demographic profile
  • Community history
  • Analysis of community characteristics such as culture and values, health and well-being, environmental quality, and/or other relevant factors
  • Analysis of land use and key industries
  • Analysis of the capacity and accessibility of infrastructure, facilities and services, including education, health, and emergency services
  • Analysis of existing housing and accommodation market, including availability, capacity, and affordability
  • Analysis of the local and regional labor market
  • Industry impact

For the purposes of Just, a community assessment involves looking at all groups in the community, current and past, and the impact of the organization’s industry locally and broadly. Living Future encourages organizations to include learning about Indigenous host nations and the harms committed toward Indigenous people and communities in relation to the organization’s current location and industry. Living Future also encourages organizations to further consider applying this learning approach to other people, groups, and communities that have been (and continue to be) negatively impacted by the organization’s broader industry and history, such as people of color, immigrants, and fenceline communities.

See Resources for further resources on this topic.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PLAN

For the purposes of Just, a community engagement plan includes the following components:85

  • Purpose and objectives;
  • Community profile/assessment findings;
  • Potential community partners and interested parties;
  • Engagement priorities;
  • Mechanisms or methods for engagement;
  • Participant appreciation/compensation approach;86
  • Outcome and performance measures;
  • Implementation plan;
  • Evaluation plan; and
  • Reporting plan.

This engagement plan should be directly informed by the findings of the community assessment and seek to not just engage community members, but also to give community members agency to direct engagement priorities. As part of the evaluation, organizations should reassess alignment of the engagement plan with evolving community needs. Living Future challenges organizations to include efforts toward building, strengthening, or renewing relationships with groups in the community that have experienced past and present rights violations or other oppression as a result of colonization, gentrification, and displacement. Examples could include, but are not limited to, efforts toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and reparative measures with those affected by racial, ethnic, and gender injustice.

See Resources for further resources on this topic.

PARTICIPATION IN ADVOCACY EFFORTS

For the purposes of Just, the issues an organization chooses to address through advocacy should be identified by members of the community who are part of underrecognized or underserved groups. Organizations could use a number of approaches to learn about community-identified priorities, such as through an existing community partnership, conducting a community survey, or connecting with community-based organizations, but efforts to identify and act upon advocacy issues must be done in coordination with community members.

PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY

For the purposes of Just, an engagement and partnership strategy is indicative of an ongoing long-term relationship between an organization and its community partner(s) and includes documentation of how the parties will work together to engage community members.

Organizations can engage with communities through a variety of methods. Some examples of engagement methods include:

  • Convening stakeholder groups for input on the design of projects in the community or that will affect the community;
  • Conducting a social impact assessment to identify, monitor, and manage the social consequences of planned interventions (e.g., policies, programs, plans, or projects);87
  • Co-designing approaches for protecting the community from risk factors stemming from the organization’s work;
  • Developing community consultation committees to provide input on the organization’s project priorities and design approaches;
  • Co-developing local hire provisions to facilitate local job creation;
  • Formalizing a community development plan based on local community needs;
  • Appointing local community members to the organization’s board of directors; and
  • Negotiating a community benefits agreement that stipulates benefits funded by an organization in exchange for community support of a project.88

Provision of pro bono services and volunteer work could also be components of the partnership strategy, but given these areas are addressed in other Just 3.0 Indicators (i.e., Charitable Giving and Volunteering, respectively), they cannot be the only two components of this strategy. Engagement methods should be directly informed by the findings of the community assessment and input from community partners.

The strategy should include a component of gauging how well the organization’s efforts are serving community needs. This could be facilitated through a variety of methods, such as conducting a periodic community survey. Organizations should work with their community partners to determine the best means of evaluation.

See Resources for further resources on this topic.

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85 Futurewise, Interim CDA, OneAmerica, & El Centro de la Raza. (2014, December). Community Engagement Toolkit: Guidance and Resources for Engaging Community in Planning and Policy Development. Futurewise. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://www.wshfc.org/mhcf/4percent/2023Application/CET_Futurewise.pdf.

86 Living Future encourages organizations to plan for meaningful participant compensation where possible; however, we recognize that meaningful compensation is not always monetary and that monetary compensation is not always feasible.

87 International Association for Impact Assessment. (n.d.). Social Impact Assessment. Retrieved December 5, 2023, from https://www.iaia.org/wiki-details.php?ID=23.

88 Office of Energy Justice and Equity. (n.d.). Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) Toolkit. U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved December 5, 2023, from https://www.energy.gov/justice/community-benefit-agreement-cba-toolkit.