Community Engagement Strategy proposed at the Road to Paris (R2P) meeting held 16/04/15. It is one that is utilised by a similar transition town group in NZ. They use a 6-step process which keeps things simple and on-track.
- Find a team – identify a common vision and gain agreement on how we want to work. We need to define the vision, purpose, measurable target and duration of the project. It helps for people to know where their skills and qualities are best suited.
- Communicate to as many people as possible. We need to tell the story and elaborate on the vision. Back casting can be really effective – from a future perspective looking back – can be really effective in describing our vision/goals. We can reach people through a variety of avenues – meetings, casual conversations, radio, newspaper articles, posters, blogs, websites (including other orgs’ sites), social media, film (others or our own) etc.
- Listen and engage in dialogue, record responses, prepare to be offended and misunderstood, gather data, ideas, seek to understand others. Open Space and holding a circle can be an effective way to do this, or hold a presence at the local markets, attend other org’s meetings etc.
- Commitment from others – from listening effectively, this is where we have the opportunity to gain agreement from other people and orgs and gain involvement and commitment to progress and evolve the project. Sometimes it can be helpful to record agreements, detailing who, what, when, and how much is being committed to, but we also don’t want to scare people off – holding people accountable has it’s pros and cons.
- Work – once we’ve communicated and gained commitment, we then ACT on the plan. we’ll need schedules, roles will be taken on, sometimes it needs a hierarchy or reporting chain – this is where we deliver the target set in the beginning. What does it look like? How do we deliver it? This also lays the foundation for the next cycle – perhaps SLA can continue to carry out community engagement and consultation?
- Deliver – this is where we deliver the target set in the beginning. What does it look like? How do we deliver it? This also lays the foundation for the next cycle – perhaps SLA can continue to carry out community engagement and consultation?
