Grounded: Community Engagement Matters Most When Things Go Wrong

Over the past few weeks, I dealt with two very different communication situations.

One was relatively small. A parent showed up for a school event only to discover it had been canceled. No one intentionally left her out of the loop. The communication simply was not as strong as it could have been, and there was a tiny gap.

But a tiny communication gap can still cost someone their time.

What made me proud was how the school leadership responded. There was no, “Well, we posted it,” or “She should have known.” The team immediately reached out to the parent directly, acknowledged what happened, and worked to make it right.

I love a caring school leader

That matters.

A parent giving up part of their Saturday to show up for your school is valuable. Their time matters. Their experience matters. And when something goes wrong, accountability is part of community engagement too.

The second situation was much bigger.

Indiana experienced devastating flooding over the weekend, including serious impacts in and around Muncie and Delaware County. More than 350 people were evacuated in Delaware County as rivers rose, and statewide flooding has been blamed for multiple deaths. The White River reached record levels in parts of Indiana, while communities began what will likely be a long recovery process.

I work with Innova Academy-INA in Muncie. The school is not open yet, so technically we could have continued with our regularly scheduled marketing.

But that would have been completely tone deaf.

The founder, Anteria Gross, immediately said, “We need to help.”

And I immediately knew our communications strategy had to change.

That is crisis communication in its simplest form. You recognize that the environment around your organization has changed, determine what your community needs from you in that moment, and adjust your messaging accordingly.

We stopped focusing on promoting the school and shifted toward resources, relief, community needs, and ways people could help. The strategy became less about “Look at us” and more about “How can we serve?”

That shift worked because it was genuine.

Muncie still has a long road ahead. Organizations across the region are raising money and collecting supplies as families begin recovering from flood damage. Heart of Indiana United Way has launched a long-term flood recovery fund for affected communities, and relief organizations have emphasized continued needs for cleanup and recovery resources.

These two situations were completely different in scale, but they reminded me of the same thing.

Community engagement is easy when everything is going well.

We love the ribbon cuttings, smiling photos, enrollment celebrations, school events, and exciting announcements.

But who are you when something goes wrong?

How do you treat the parent whose time was wasted?

How quickly do you stop promoting yourself when your community is hurting?

Do you defend the communication plan because technically you did your job, or do you look at the human being on the other side of it?

Who are you in a crisis?

That is what keeps me grounded in this work.

Schools are part of communities. They do not only exist when the doors are open or when enrollment season begins. And true community engagement means showing up even when there is nothing to market.

Sometimes the strongest communication strategy is simply asking:

What does our community need from us right now?