“So much of what we do in community work involves attempts to influence people — to continue healthy behaviors, to stop (or at least cut down on) unhealthy behaviors, to volunteer their time or make a financial donation, to attend our events and fundraisers, and so on. When someone has influence, he has some level of ability to sway or induce people into doing what he wants them to do. Influence is something we’re always trying to gain.

Luckily for us, we can often find people who already have this strange and wonderful quality and use their influence to our own advantage. Every community, no matter what size it is or how long it’s been around, has its influential people — elected officials, business people, religious leaders, or just ordinary citizens — who have a lot of influence when it comes to what decisions get made and how things happen.”

Involving Key Influentials in the Work includes discussion of:

• What do we mean by influential people?
• Why involve influential people?
• How do you identify and meet the influential people in a community?
• When do you involve influential people?
• How do you involve influential people?