During the workshops, the participants were divided into three community needs: relationship with law enforcement, health, and welcomeness. Each group developed three ideas and three action plans to implement in their strategies for Red Wing. 

We identified the following considerations and recommendations for future implementations: 

Limitation Recruiting Resources – Recruiting participants is an activity that requires significant time, which might be challenging for an organization with limited staff. We recommend using a collaborative approach for recruiting participants to mitigate this burden on a small organization. We recommend creating a “steering committee” formed by active community leaders to create a recruitment plan to gather other community members as participants. Also, we suggest using active methods such as direct calls and door-to-door canvassing. 

Adept Participant – Further criteria other than the willingness to work for the betterment of the community is needed to identify community members that would nourish the most from the training. To identify those ideal participants, we recommend considering some of the characteristics of community leaders in the recruiting and application stages. Such characteristics include active participation in volunteering activities, awareness of community challenges and strong interpersonal skills. 

Incentives – Some leaders in the community are adept candidates for participating in the CreAndo Lab. However, many of them pull back. We recommend considering using monetary and non-monetary incentives such as gift cards, competitions, certificates, celebrations or networking events. Also, past participants could motivate potential community leaders to join the workshops. 

Retention – In total, eleven community leaders participated in the workshops. Only six finished the sessions, and only three participants attended all four workshops. We recommend to evaluate the location accessibility, consider offering transportation and flexible dates/times. Also, texting or emailing reminders and attendance incentives can increase participants’ retention. 

Literacy – Some participants in the community might have low literacy preventing them from comprehend the material of the workshop. We recommend using pictures and drawings, incorporating interactive activities with simple and clear instructions, and leaving some time at the end of each session to address individual doubts.