A Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund resource
Learning from and with residents

Resident Engagement Toolkit

A resource for city and county teams to learn from residents and build emergency financial preparedness offerings they will actually use.

Why this matters

What is resident engagement, and what is it good for?

To create offerings that help residents prepare financially for emergencies, there are countless decisions about what to create, where to offer it, and how to package it in a way that drives action. Engaging residents to help answer those questions not only simplifies the job, it leads to better solutions.

It also helps de-risk your investment: instead of building something and then finding out whether it works, you build it in a way that makes it more likely to succeed. Engaging with residents helps us figure out what to build in the first place, how to get the details right, and how to keep it connected to the people it serves.

Table of contents

Two forms of engagement

"Engagement" gets used to describe two different things. Sometimes it means getting residents to use what you offer. Sometimes it means learning from residents about what to offer and how. The two are closely connected, and this toolkit provides guidance on both.

1 Engagement as uptake

What will residents actually use?

Why well-intended services go unused, and a framework for what you offer.

2 Engagement as learning

How do you find out?

Where to start, choosing an approach, getting good input, and using what you hear.

Additional resources Working with a consultant · Sample interview guide · Sample consent form · Sample recruitment flyer