Stages of Community Engagement Planning

It is important that you approach community engagement in a planned and thoughtful way.  In brief, the steps are:

1. Clarify your purpose - define the decision/issue/problem

Start by reaching in-house agreement on the decision, issue or problem on which you intend to engage the community.  Turn this into a simple scoping statement.  Work across Council to do this most effectively. Not everyone sees things from the same perspective!

2. Consider the history/values/impact and controversy

Do your homework!  Research what has gone on before.  Who are the community and what do they care about? What values (organisation/community) are important here? What is the attitude to community engagement?

3. Identify who will be involved (stakeholders)

Agree on who the relevant stakeholders will be. Systematically identify who will be impacted on by the decision/issue.  Rank in order of high, medium or low.

4. Choose the appropriate level of influence (IAP2 Spectrum)

Are you planning to inform, consult or seek active participation on this issue?  This may vary from stage to stage within the plan.

5. Develop your Community Engagement Plan (linking project objectives to community engagement goal)

Develop a written Community Engagement Plan that links to each stage of your Project Plan. List the clearly defined objectives for each stage of the plan.

6. Plan your evaluation (for each stage of project for process and outcome)

Decide how you will measure your success, both the outcome and the process.

7. Determine techniques for each stage of Plan

Decide how you will engage.  The techniques you use will depend upon the issue and the audience, as well as your budget!

8. Implement, monitor, final evaluation and future action planning

Go to it!