Community engagement has emerged as a crucial component for organizations and enterprises trying to establish relationships, nurture loyalty, and drive growth in today’s digitally connected world.
Platforms for community engagement are useful resources that help companies engage with their customers, encourage user interaction and collaboration, and foster a feeling of community among its members.
A community platform acts as an online meeting place where people with similar objectives, passions, and driving forces can meet and build bonds. The best community platforms now enable users to combine diverse components, such as content, community interactions, educational courses, and commercial activities, in a single, unified area, obviating the need to combine various software solutions.
Community platforms are specifically designed to promote engagement and collaboration among individuals who share common interests. These platforms provide a convenient and comprehensive solution for building communities by bringing together various functionalities and features. The primary goal of community platforms is to facilitate seamless communication, knowledge sharing, and networking opportunities.
One of the main advantages of community platforms is their ability to offer a holistic experience to users. They allow individuals to interact with one another, access relevant content, participate in courses, and even engage in commercial transactions, all within a single platform. This integrated approach streamlines the user experience, enhances convenience, and fosters a sense of belonging within the community.
Overall, a community platform serves as a dedicated virtual space where like-minded individuals can connect and build relationships. The best community platforms go beyond mere interaction and provide a unified environment that combines community interactions, courses, content, and commerce. This eliminates the need for users to utilize separate software solutions, ensuring an optimal user experience.
Why do you need a community engagement platform?
Online community engagement platforms are utilized to establish robust and enduring connections within communities. The primary objective of these platforms is to enhance customer awareness and cultivate trust. Engaging the community plays a crucial role in effectively involving residents, businesses, visitors, and other stakeholders, enabling active collaboration.
Community engagement facilitates gathering valuable feedback, comprehending the community’s ideas, and conducting in-depth explorations of various topics. This process unveils essential insights that aid in making inclusive, data-driven decisions, thereby propelling further progress.
Traditional forms of community engagement, such as in-person town halls and meetings, have been the cornerstone of fostering community involvement. However, relying solely on in-person options limits participation and tends to amplify the perspectives of the most vocal individuals present. By incorporating digital engagement methods, a wider range of people can be reached. In fact, utilizing CitizenLab’s platform has shown an average 12-fold increase in resident engagement for governments, including traditionally marginalized groups.
Unlike reactive online tools like social media, community engagement platforms are specifically designed to encourage meaningful, productive, and efficient interactions. CitizenLab’s comprehensive platform is tailored to empower government initiatives in community engagement. It provides comprehensive support from a dedicated team of community engagement experts, guiding you through the entire process from onboarding to project launch and closure. This support aims to instill confidence in your approach and ensure successful outcomes. The reasons to connect with community engagement platforms are as follows:
- An opportunity to engage with traditionally overlooked or marginalized groups
- Connect with a broader range of community members that promotes inclusivity and ensures a more equitable decision making process.
- Overcome barriers that prevent individuals from participating like leaving from work early, navigating different transport mediums to attend the meeting, finding childcare or missing out on academic support. Online platforms allow everyone to meet people from wherever they are and it improves participation and accessibility.
- A digital community engagement platform serves as a centralized and secure space for your community to convene. Additionally, the platform enables different departments to run community engagement initiatives in one unified place, breaking down silos and promoting coordination of efforts.
- More responsive and transparent communication that builds trust.
- Use real time data and simplify making decisions.
- Community engagement is driven by factual information supported by relevant documents. By debunking myths and misconceptions, equitable access to the knowledge base is ensured, allowing community members to make informed decisions based on accurate information.
- Auto tagging to cluster ideas
- Utilizing user-friendly dashboards powered by Natural Language Processing and built-in AI, you can effortlessly obtain actionable insights at a glance.
- Flexible to meet the changing needs of your community and team.
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Benefits of Online engagement Platforms:
There are many benefits of online community engagement. It improves brand loyalty, drives more leads and increases customer retention. It is also a cost effective way to promote your business where you get the benefit of communication with an active and engaged community instead of advertising on Facebook and Google Adwords.
Creating an online community means that the company provides a platform for communication and experience sharing. So the brand gets benefitted when the users stay on a community page for a longer time than staying on other pages so it leads to more engagement. So, here are the benefits of an online community and why it is vital for your organization.
1. Speak to you customers directly:
You may encourage good brand sentiment and increase brand loyalty by engaging with customers personally, creating content that meets their requirements, and providing real-time help. With this strategy, you can better serve your clients and improve their experience as a whole.
Additionally, you may grow and increase your brand’s advocates by creating a special brand community for your most ardent consumers and brand supporters. By including them in the consumer journey and giving them a platform to offer their knowledge and skills, you can strengthen their loyalty to your business.
2. Make new contacts, upselling and decreased support costs:
The majority of online communities’ main goals, as described by The 2021 Community Industry Report, are customer support-related activities. Traditionally, customer support entails a company helping specific clients. Brand communities, on the other hand, encourage members to help and support one another. Members of effective customer communities are encouraged to connect with one another and respond to questions from other members.
These communities can produce new contacts and chances for upselling in addition to saving money on customer support. Customers who can help, mentor, and inspire one another lighten the pressure on your team. Additionally, buyers can make better use of your items and perhaps find creative applications for them that they may not have previously thought about. As a result, there is a reduction in the requirement for staff and an improvement in loyalty and customer satisfaction.
3. Promotes Greater Engagement
Online methods of engagement offer beneficial prospects for both communities and organizations. Members can access a variety of exciting and participative features by utilizing online communities. These comprise, among other things, tasks, exercises, polls, and surveys.
Higher levels of engagement emerge from organizations’ ability to accommodate the different desires of their members through this wide variety of participation options. Study shows that online communities boast substantially greater engagement rates than social media, ranging from 40% to 50%, while social media engagement rates often fall between 5% and 5%.
4. Generate Leads and acquiring new clients:
Generating leads and acquiring new members can be effectively achieved through community engagement. By establishing a community, you create a discoverable space where you can immediately provide value to potential leads and members. According to Aberdeen’s findings, implementing an online community platform can enhance return on marketing investment (ROMI) by 33%.
User-generated content within your community, such as discussion forums, articles, and updates, gets indexed by search engines like Google. This means that your community will appear in search results when prospects seek solutions to their problems, thereby increasing brand awareness. As your user-generated discussions grow, your community gains search authority, relevance, and content, further enhancing lead generation and brand visibility.
5. Beat the competition:
Online communities serve multiple functions for organizations, ranging from content creation to gathering marketing intelligence. However, for users, these communities often play a crucial role in their satisfaction and overall experience. While your organization and competitors may appear similar on paper, an online community can set you apart.
Research conducted by Temkin Group reveals that companies earning $1 billion annually can anticipate an additional $775 million in revenue over three years by investing in customer experience. This trend applies even more significantly to SaaS businesses, which are projected to earn $1 billion, making them the biggest beneficiaries.
By leveraging a member community or customer community, you can differentiate yourself from the competition. This is achieved by promptly addressing user inquiries, providing real-time responses to questions, and offering delightful moments that surprise and impress your customers.
Types of Community Engagement Platforms:
There are various types of community engagement platforms available, each designed to cater to different needs and preferences.
Here are some common types:
1. Online Discussion Forums:
Online forums serve as virtual venues for community members to communicate and have conversations. Users can post messages, start discussion threads, and converse with other users in these forums, which often focus on certain subjects or areas of interest.
These platforms facilitate discussions among community members on specific topics or areas of interest. Users can create threads, post messages, and engage in conversations. By building a feeling of community, promoting active involvement, and offering chances for information sharing, networking, and cooperation within a particular interest or community, online discussion forums promote community engagement.
2. Social Media Platforms:
Popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn also serve as community engagement platforms. They allow users to connect, share content, and interact with others in their network. Users of social networking networks can establish profiles to display their passions, qualifications, and affiliations. Sending friend requests, following profiles, or joining groups/pages devoted to certain interests or communities are all ways that users can get in touch with one another.
On social networking sites, users can share a variety of material types, including text posts, photos, videos, and links. This information can inform the community, elicit feedback, or start conversations.
Users of social media sites can have discussions by leaving comments on and responding to postings. This encourages engagement and conversation within the group, enabling participants to voice their thoughts, pose inquiries, or offer criticism.
3. Collaboration Platforms:
Collaboration platforms can be effectively used as community engagement platforms by giving community members a central location to interact, collaborate, and work on shared objectives or projects.
Communication tools like instant messaging, chat rooms, and message boards dedicated to certain projects are frequently included in collaboration platforms. These tools encourage active engagement by allowing community members to communicate, share thoughts, ask questions, and provide updates in real-time.The seamless file sharing features provided by collaboration platforms enable community members to upload, share, and collaborate on documents, presentations, and other materials. This encourages community cooperation and knowledge exchange.
In order to get comments, opinions, or preferences from the community at large, collaboration platforms sometimes contain survey or polling tools. By including community members in decision-making processes, this promotes community participation.
Leveraging these platforms’ collaborative capabilities allows community members to actively participate, cooperate, and work together, which boosts engagement, information sharing, and a sense of community.
4. Knowledge Sharing Platforms:
By offering a central location for community members to exchange, access, and work together on important knowledge and skills, knowledge sharing platforms can effectively function as community engagement platforms. These platforms emphasize sharing information and knowledge within a community. They typically include features such as document repositories, wikis, and Q&A forums.
On knowledge sharing platforms, community members can produce and distribute knowledge-based content like articles, blog posts, tutorials, or how-to manuals. This information can elicit debates, offer new perspectives, and broaden the community’s body of collective knowledge.Knowledge-sharing platforms frequently contain tools like question-and-answer sections or discussion forums where community members may pose inquiries, get suggestions, and participate in debates about particular subjects or specialties.
As a result, the community is encouraged to actively participate and exchange expertise.Collaboration amongst community members can be facilitated via knowledge sharing platforms by allowing them to co-create content, add to already existing resources, or give feedback on shared knowledge. This encourages participation, teamwork, and community-wide learning. It promotes continuous learning, and facilitates engagement among members.
5. Customer Support Platforms:
Customer support systems can serve as successful community engagement tools by giving users a place to ask questions, give comments, and interact with the support staff and other users. A ticketing system is generally included in customer service platforms so that users can submit their questions, problems, or requests for help. This technology makes it possible to organize and track client inquiries effectively, assuring prompt responses and resolution.
Many customer care solutions provide a knowledge base or self-service portal where users can access useful information or find answers to frequently asked problems. Platforms for customer assistance frequently give users ways to exchange ideas, make suggestions for improvements, or leave comments. Businesses may recognize and interact with their most devoted and passionate consumers by integrating customer advocacy programs into customer support platforms.
These supporters can act as brand ambassadors by supporting others, sharing encouraging stories, and spreading the word about the community. Numerous platforms for customer assistance include real-time texting and chat options. Because of the direct interactions that are made possible, problems can be solved quickly and engagement is increased. In addition to improving the customer’s experience, this builds a vibrant and active customer community.
6. Gamification Platforms:
Platforms for gamification can be used to engage online communities. Gamification is the term used to describe the usage of game mechanics and components in non-game environments to engage and encourage users. Gamification may increase user engagement, encourage competitiveness, and develop a sense of accomplishment and fellowship when used in online community platforms.
Users can be encouraged to actively participate in group activities, debates, and contributions by using gamification components like points, badges, levels, and leaderboards. Users are driven to achieve prizes and recognition, which promotes higher engagement and community participation. It may offer community members set tasks, assignments, or challenges to perform.
By offering group tasks or competitions, gamification can encourage cooperation and teamwork throughout the community. Users collaborate to achieve common objectives, building a sense of community and increasing communication and support among peers. Knowledge sharing within the community can be encouraged and rewarded through gamification. By participating in discussions, offering insightful responses, or giving useful insights, users can earn points or badges, encouraging a culture of knowledge sharing and ongoing learning.
Platforms for gamification frequently have social elements that let users interact with, talk to, and connect with other community members. Gamification platforms may include tools for user feedback on the social interaction, gameplay, and general engagement. Businesses and organizations can give community members an engaged, rewarding experience by integrating gamification features into an online community platform. This encourages engagement, teamwork, and a sense of belonging to the community, which creates a lively and successful online community.
These are only a few examples of the various platforms for community interaction that are offered. The platform chosen will rely on the particular objectives, target market, and nature of the community being created or supported.
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Top Community Engagement Platforms
We will explore the top community engagement platforms and delve into why they rank at the top based on their unique features and functionalities.
1. Slack
Slack is widely regarded as a top community engagement platform due to its exceptional features and user-friendly interface. One of the primary reasons for its top-ranking status is its emphasis on seamless communication and collaboration. Slack provides real-time messaging, file sharing, and channel-based organization, making it effortless for individuals and teams to connect and engage with one another. Additionally, its extensive customization options and integrations with various business tools enhance productivity and streamline workflows within communities.
The platform’s intuitive design and ease of use have contributed to its widespread adoption and popularity among organizations of all sizes. Slack’s commitment to providing a seamless and efficient communication experience, coupled with its ability to foster collaboration and create a sense of belonging within communities, solidify its position as one of the leading community engagement platforms available today.
2. Discord
Discord has emerged as a top community engagement platform due to its exceptional features and ability to foster strong connections among diverse communities. One key reason for Discord’s top-ranking status is its versatility. Originally popularized within gaming communities, Discord has expanded its reach to cater to a wide range of interests and industries. Its voice and video call capabilities, chat rooms, and customizable server options make it a flexible platform for community engagement.
Another reason for Discord’s top ranking is its emphasis on community-building. With features like roles, permissions, and channel organization, Discord provides the tools needed to create and manage thriving communities. Its dedicated server infrastructure ensures reliable communication, fostering a sense of belonging and interactivity.
Discord’s continuous development and regular updates contribute to its top-ranking position. The platform actively listens to user feedback and introduces new features to enhance the community engagement experience. Discord’s versatility, community-building features, and commitment to innovation have solidified its position as one of the leading community engagement platforms in the digital landscape.
3. Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups has earned its position as a top community engagement platform due to several key factors. Firstly, its wide user base provides a massive potential audience for communities to connect with. With billions of users worldwide, Facebook offers unparalleled reach and exposure for community engagement efforts. Additionally, Facebook Groups provide a dedicated space for individuals to gather and share their interests, creating a sense of belonging and fostering meaningful interactions.
The platform’s features, such as events, polls, and group moderation tools, further enhance the community engagement experience. Furthermore, Facebook’s familiarity and ubiquity among internet users contribute to its top-ranking status. Many individuals already have a Facebook account, making it convenient for them to join and participate in groups. The combination of extensive user reach, dedicated community spaces, and user-friendly features solidifies Facebook Groups’ position as a leading community engagement platform.
4. Reddit
Reddit is considered one of the top community engagement platforms due to its unique structure and its ability to foster passionate and diverse communities. It ranks at the top because of its vast user base and democratic content curation system. With its subreddit structure, Reddit allows users to create and join communities dedicated to specific topics of interest.
This specialization ensures that users can engage with like-minded individuals who share their passions and expertise. Furthermore, Reddit’s upvote and downvote system allows the community to determine the visibility of posts, ensuring that valuable content rises to the top. This democratic approach empowers users to actively participate in shaping the discussions and content within their communities. The platform’s ability to facilitate meaningful conversations, provide a wealth of information, and create a sense of belonging among its users has solidified its position as a top community engagement platform.
5. LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups stands out as a top community engagement platform due to its focus on professionalism, networking, and industry-specific discussions. The platform’s ranking is primarily attributed to its extensive user base of professionals and businesses, making it an ideal platform for connecting with like-minded individuals in various industries.
LinkedIn Groups offers a dedicated space for individuals to share industry insights, seek advice, and build relationships within specific niches or sectors. The platform’s emphasis on fostering professional relationships, thought leadership, and business development sets it apart from other community engagement platforms. With features such as group moderation tools, event promotion, and content sharing, LinkedIn Groups provides a valuable platform for professionals to engage in meaningful discussions, establish their expertise, and expand their professional network.
6. Meetup
Meetup has established itself as a top community engagement platform due to its unique focus on facilitating in-person connections and fostering real-world interactions. Unlike many digital platforms, Meetup bridges the gap between the online and offline worlds by organizing and managing in-person events for communities with shared interests. This emphasis on face-to-face engagement sets Meetup apart and contributes to its top-ranking status.
Meetup allows users to find and join groups based on their hobbies, professional networking needs, or social causes. It provides a platform for like-minded individuals to connect, collaborate, and engage in meaningful discussions. By bringing people together in physical settings, Meetup promotes authentic connections and enables members to form deeper relationships within their communities.
The platform’s extensive event management features, such as RSVP tracking, event reminders, and group discussions, make it easy for community organizers to plan and execute successful meetups. The ability to organize and attend local events in a specific area fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie among community members. Meetup’s commitment to facilitating real-world connections and its focus on community-building activities contribute to its top ranking among community engagement platforms.
7. Discourse
Discourse is a top-ranked community engagement platform known for its modern and flexible discussion forums. It stands out among other platforms due to its emphasis on meaningful discussions and community-driven development. Discourse ranks at the top because of its user-friendly interface, robust moderation tools, and extensive customization options. The platform’s active user community actively contributes to its continuous improvement and development.
One of the key reasons Discourse ranks highly is its commitment to providing a well-moderated and engaging space for communities. It offers features such as trust levels, flagging, and post approval, ensuring that discussions remain productive and respectful. The platform also supports integration with other tools and services, allowing for seamless community management. Discourse’s focus on fostering quality conversations and empowering community members to shape the platform’s direction has earned it a prominent position among the top community engagement platforms available.
Discourse’s ranking at the top can be attributed to its active user community, which plays a crucial role in shaping the platform. The community actively participates in discussions, provides feedback, and suggests improvements, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement. This collaborative approach allows Discourse to continuously evolve and adapt to the needs of its users, making it a platform that truly caters to community engagement.
8. Slack Communities
Slack Communities stands out as a top community engagement platform due to its intuitive interface, powerful communication features, and wide range of integrations. It leverages the familiar Slack workspace environment, making it easy for users to join and participate in public communities centered around specific topics or industries.
One key reason why Slack Communities ranks at the top is its ability to foster real-time engagement and collaboration. The platform allows users to connect with like-minded individuals, share knowledge, and exchange ideas seamlessly. With features such as channels, direct messaging, file sharing, and video calls, Slack Communities provides a comprehensive communication toolkit that facilitates meaningful interactions within communities.
Slack’s extensive integration capabilities with various business tools and services make it a versatile platform for community engagement. It allows communities to seamlessly incorporate external applications and automate processes, enhancing productivity and streamlining workflows. Slack Communities’ combination of user-friendly interface, robust communication features, and integration capabilities contribute to its top-ranking status among community engagement platforms.
9. Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks stands out as a top community engagement platform due to its focus on creating and nurturing communities. The platform provides a range of features, including customizable websites, discussion boards, events, and courses, all aimed at fostering deep connections and a cohesive community experience.
Mighty Networks ranks at the top because of its comprehensive approach to community engagement. It offers tools for community leaders to create branded communities, facilitate paid memberships, and monetize their expertise. This attracts businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals looking for a platform that goes beyond basic community interactions.
Mighty Networks prioritizes user experience, offering intuitive navigation and customization options to create a tailored community space. Its robust analytics allow community leaders to gain insights into member engagement and identify areas for improvement. The platform’s emphasis on creating meaningful connections and providing valuable resources makes it a top choice for individuals and businesses seeking a comprehensive community engagement solution.
10. Instagram
Instagram is undeniably one of the top community engagement platforms available today. It ranks at the top due to its unique ability to foster connections, creativity, and visual storytelling. With over a billion active users, Instagram offers a massive and diverse audience base for individuals, brands, and communities to engage with.
Its focus on visual content, including photos, videos, and Stories, allows users to share their stories, passions, and interests in a highly engaging manner. Moreover, Instagram’s features like hashtags, comments, likes, and direct messaging enable users to interact, collaborate, and build relationships within their communities. The platform’s emphasis on visual appeal, user-friendly interface, and continuous introduction of new features like IGTV and Reels contribute to its top-ranking status as a community engagement platform.
Instagram’s algorithmic feed ensures that users are presented with content that aligns with their interests, making it easier for communities to connect and engage with like-minded individuals. The platform’s Explore page also plays a significant role in community engagement, as it showcases content from a variety of sources, allowing users to discover new communities and expand their network.
11. YouTube
YouTube stands out as a top community engagement platform due to its unparalleled reach and ability to foster connections between creators and viewers. With over 2 billion logged-in monthly users, YouTube offers a global audience for content creators to engage with. The platform’s ranking at the top is primarily attributed to its emphasis on user engagement through features like comments, likes, and subscriptions.
These features enable creators to build dedicated communities around their content, fostering a sense of belonging and interactivity. Additionally, YouTube’s live streaming functionality and community posts further enhance engagement opportunities. The platform’s video-centric approach allows for rich storytelling and visual communication, creating a unique space for creators to connect with their audience on a personal level. YouTube’s extensive user base, interactivity features, and global reach make it a powerhouse for community engagement, solidifying its position at the top of the list.
12. Hivebrite
Hivebrite is recognized as a top community engagement platform for several reasons. Firstly, its focus on organizations, associations, and alumni networks sets it apart, catering specifically to the needs of professional and organizational communities. This specialized approach allows Hivebrite to offer a comprehensive set of features tailored to facilitate meaningful connections within these communities.
Additionally, Hivebrite’s customization options play a significant role in its top-ranking status. The platform enables organizations to create branded communities that align with their unique identity and values. This level of customization fosters a sense of ownership and exclusivity among community members, enhancing engagement and loyalty.
Another reason for Hivebrite’s ranking is its robust analytics capabilities. The platform provides valuable insights into community engagement, allowing organizations to track member activities, measure participation levels, and identify trends. This data-driven approach empowers organizations to make informed decisions and optimize their community engagement strategies.
Growth of community engagement platforms:
The market for community interaction platforms has been developing significantly and is expected to do so in the years to come. The market, which was estimated to be worth about USD 526.26 million in 2021, is anticipated to expand to USD 2057.98 million by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.92% from 2022 to 2030.
By offering a variety of capabilities like social media management, customer feedback management, and online communities, community engagement platforms play a significant role in assisting businesses in efficiently engaging with their customers. The market is expected to increase as a result of a variety of factors, including the rising acceptance of digital technologies, the expansion of businesses and organizations, and the necessity for companies to forge close relationships with their clients.
Businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, and governmental agencies are just a few of the organizations that understand the importance of connecting with their communities and have adopted these platforms to promote dialogue, teamwork, and knowledge sharing.
Businesses now understand the value of involving their customers and encouraging a sense of belonging thanks to the rise of social media and other digital channels. Platforms for community engagement are online tools or programs that encourage communication and involvement between people, groups, and businesses in local communities. Community members may interact, work together, and share knowledge thanks to these tools.
The market is expanding as a result of the growing need for enterprises, organizations, and governments to connect with their clients, staff, and constituents in an efficient manner. Platforms for community involvement offer a consolidated and effective method of communicating with the local population.
They provide a variety of features like messaging, forums, polls, surveys, and events. The requirements, tastes, and opinions of their communities can be better understood by businesses and organizations by leveraging these platforms. This information can then be used to improve products and services. In general, the expansion of digital technology usage, the rising desire for effective consumer involvement, and the necessity for businesses to forge close ties with their communities are what are driving the growth of community engagement platforms.
Final words:
Community engagement platforms play a crucial role in fostering connections, collaboration, and a sense of belonging within communities. The top-ranked platforms offer unique features and functionalities that cater to different types of communities and their specific needs. Whether it’s real-time messaging and collaboration like Slack and Discord, niche-specific communities on Reddit, or professional networking on LinkedIn, these platforms excel in facilitating engagement and building strong communities.
Understanding the strengths and features of each platform can help organizations and individuals make informed decisions when it comes to selecting the most suitable community engagement platform for their specific goals and target audience. Participating in an online community strengthens social bonds and provides all members a voice. Cohorts of engagement frequently omit underrepresented populations. A small number of participants who tend to communicate regularly and where concerns can get dominated by the same voices may dominate a traditional, or face-to-face engagement activity. Alternative opinions are frequently inaccessible or, more importantly, completely absent. The same holds true for open forums and in-person gatherings where everyone might not be able to speak freely.
Online interaction offers a secure and convenient setting where participants can join the discussion without the restrictions of a public forum. Hard-to-reach and disadvantaged groups are brought together through diversity, enabling marginalized and frequently excluded groups to participate and be a part of the decision making process.
**The primary author of this article is our contractual staff writer – Sakshi John.
