Shara Marie-France
Shara Marie-France
Turning community insight into responsive action.
I help community-serving organizations understand the people they serve and improve the systems, policies, governance, communications, and practices that shape community experience.
Community experience is often absent from organizational decision-making.
Communities lack clear pathways to navigate and influence organizations.
Engagement processes don't consistently translate into meaningful outcomes.
Policies and processes can be difficult for communities to access and understand.
This can lead to a weak connection between the organization and the community and creates long-term risks to organizational trust and legitimacy.
What's visible. Symptoms, events, outcomes, behaviors.
What's underneath. Systems, policies, processes, structures, decisions, assumptions, incentives, norms, and culture.
What is happening?
I gather information, perspectives and context to understand the problem beyond its surface.
Why is it happening?
I connect patterns across systems, policies, structures, decisions, communications and behavior to determine the root causes.
What needs to be different?
I translate the diagnosis into changes to systems, policies, governance, communications, processes or practices.
A comprehensive assessment of how organizational policies, governance, services, and engagement practices align with community experience. The review identifies barriers, opportunities, and practical recommendations to strengthen decisionmaking, accessibility, accountability, and public trust.
Learn about the Alignment ReviewWhat is the community experience?
What organization systems, policies, processes, decisions, or assumptions affect the community experience?
Where is organizational intention differing from community reality?
What needs to change?
What does better look like for both the organization and the community?
I'm Shara Marie-France, an independent organizational advisor with a background in law, policy, governance, and community advocacy. I help organizations identify where their intentions and community experience diverge and develop practical ways to close that gap. My experience navigating institutions across seven countries, combined with working within public systems, gives me both an inside and outside perspective on how organizations operate and how communities experience them.
More About Me