What are the best ways to identify goals and objectives for community outreach meetings?

1 Understand your purpose

The first step to identify your goals and objectives is to understand why you are holding a community outreach meeting in the first place. What is the main problem or challenge you want to address? Who are the stakeholders and beneficiaries of your project or initiative? How can you communicate your value proposition and solicit input from them? Your purpose should guide your decisions on the format, agenda, participants, and outcomes of your meeting.

2 Define SMART goals

Once you have a clear purpose, you can define your specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. SMART goals help you to focus on what you want to accomplish and how you will know if you have succeeded. For example, a SMART goal for a community outreach meeting could be: "To increase awareness and support for our new recycling program among 50 local residents by the end of the month."

3 Break down objectives

After setting your SMART goals, you can break them down into smaller and more manageable objectives. Objectives are the steps or actions you need to take to reach your goals. They should be aligned with your purpose and goals, and clearly describe what you will do, how you will do it, and when you will do it. For example, an objective for the SMART goal above could be: "To invite 100 local residents to attend a virtual presentation on our new recycling program by next week."

4 Choose indicators

To measure your progress and impact, you need to choose indicators that will help you to evaluate your objectives and goals. Indicators are the data or evidence that show whether you have achieved what you set out to do. They should be relevant, reliable, valid, and verifiable. For example, an indicator for the objective above could be: "The number of local residents who RSVP to the virtual presentation invitation."

5 Collect feedback

One of the most important ways to identify your goals and objectives is to collect feedback from your target audience and stakeholders. Feedback can help you to understand their needs, expectations, preferences, and opinions. It can also help you to assess your strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas for improvement. You can collect feedback through various methods, such as surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups, or testimonials.

6 Review and adjust

Finally, you should review and adjust your goals and objectives based on your feedback and indicators. Reviewing and adjusting can help you to learn from your experience, celebrate your achievements, and address any gaps or challenges. You should ask yourself questions such as: Did you meet your goals and objectives? Why or why not? What worked well and what didn't? What can you do differently or better next time? How can you sustain or scale up your impact?

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?