Manager, Community Engagement

Community Engagement Manager

The Community Engagement Manager is responsible for leading Liliʻuokalani Trust's community engagement strategy across all islands by building authentic relationships with Native Hawaiian communities, partners, participants, and ʻohana. This position ensures that the voices, experiences, and aspirations of the communities served are intentionally gathered, synthesized, and integrated into organizational planning, program design, evaluation, and continuous improvement. The Manager supervises Community Engagement Specialists and works collaboratively across the organization to strengthen trust, partnerships, and community-informed decision making.

Essential Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and continuously refine an organization-wide community engagement strategy that advances Liliʻuokalani Trust's mission, strategic priorities, and commitment to Native Hawaiian communities.
• Lead the planning, coordination, and execution of community engagement initiatives that strengthen relationships with participants, ʻohana, community leaders, Native Hawaiian organizations, schools, cultural practitioners, nonprofits, government agencies, and other strategic partners.
• Identify opportunities to expand community partnerships that increase access to Trust programs, services, and resources while fostering long-term collaborative relationships.
• Ensure community engagement efforts are culturally grounded, trauma-informed, strengths-based, and reflective of Native Hawaiian values, traditions, and community priorities.
• Develop annual engagement plans, priorities, and performance goals that align with departmental and organizational objectives.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to leadership regarding community engagement opportunities, emerging issues, and partnership development.

Community Voice & Relationship Management

• Develop and oversee comprehensive community listening strategies that intentionally gather the voices, experiences, aspirations, and concerns of Native Hawaiian communities, partners, and stakeholders.
• Lead the design and facilitation of listening sessions, community forums, focus groups, interviews, surveys, advisory groups, and other engagement activities.
• Build and sustain trusted relationships with community organizations, Native Hawaiian leaders, educational institutions, service providers, and public agencies.
• Ensure that community relationships are nurtured through regular communication, transparency, responsiveness, and meaningful collaboration.
• Identify emerging community needs, opportunities, trends, and challenges that may influence organizational strategy and program development.
• Serve as an ambassador for Liliʻuokalani Trust by representing the organization at community meetings, conferences, networking events, and collaborative initiatives.

Organizational Insight & Strategic Decision Support

• Translate qualitative community feedback into meaningful organizational insights that support strategic planning, program development, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with the Director of Impact & Insights to identify recurring themes, emerging issues, and opportunities across communities.
• Collaborate with the Research & Evaluation team to analyze community engagement findings and integrate qualitative data into broader organizational reporting.
• Prepare executive summaries, reports, presentations, and recommendations that communicate community perspectives to organizational leadership.
• Ensure community voice is consistently incorporated into organizational decision-making processes and strategic initiatives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Program teams to support participant recruitment, engagement, retention, and community outreach efforts.
• Collaborate with the Research & Evaluation team to design community-informed evaluation activities, qualitative research, and data collection strategies.
• Work alongside the Quality Assurance team to identify opportunities to improve participant experiences based on community feedback.
• Coordinate with the Communications team to ensure messaging accurately reflects community priorities and strengthens organizational…