Best Practice Community Engagement (1.5 days, $770 inc. GST)

Community engagement is a challenge: How do you manage community expectations? Deal with personalities? Deal with conflict? Manage risk?

With clear thinking and sound planning it is ALWAYS possible to ensure active, positive, productive and satisfying engagement with your community.

This workshop will equip you with the understandings, skills and tools to work successfully with your community, whether in planning, decision-making or on-ground management.

What you'll take away

The workshop is based on tools and concepts borrowed from Australian and international best practice, backed by inspiring case studies.

The workshop will:

1. Provide you with powerful insights into effective community engagement: through case studies, simple models and easy-to-use tools;
2. Build your skills and confidence through fun, active role plays and simple group methods;
3. Give you a rigorous step-by-step template to devise real life collaborative projects from the ground up;
4. Provide a unique suite of tools to design, implement and evaluate collaborative projects.

Participants will work in groups to design real-life collaborative projects during the workshop. There will be time to practice the tools and techniques in a friendly group atmosphere.

1. Understand the principles behind successful community engagement;
2. Know how to apply the success factors;
3. Experience a sound step-by-step process for planning engagement projects; and
4. Start planning your next real-life project.

• Framing an inclusive purpose;
• Demonstrating openness and honesty;
• Building good relationships;
• Developing a good understanding of participant perceptions;
• Ensuring skilled, neutral facilitation;
• Devising sound ground rules;
• Using a multi-disciplinary project team;
• Knowing the right personal approach.

What you'll cover

Here's what you'll cover in this intensive interactive workshop:

DAY 1

1. Core concepts:

• the spectrum of public participation;
• the psychology of risk perception.

2. Case studies of successful projects:

• collaborative forums and other methods to engage stakeholders in policy-making
• effective ways to engage the public in environmental action and management

3. Understanding the success factors:

• what makes projects successful?
• review the lessons from Australian and international experience.

4. Good facilitation: A core resource for community engagement.

5. The benefits of participation:

• risk management;
• technical competence;
• impact;
• credibility and trust.

6. Form teams to work on self-chosen ‘engagement challenges’ for the remainder of the workshop.

7. A step-by-step process to designing engagement projects

8. Formative research: ‘Starting where people are at’

9. Framing your ‘inclusive purpose’ for engagement.

10. Who to engage:

• understanding your public;
• mapping the players;
• ensuring representativeness.

DAY 2

1. Choosing the right depth of community engagement:

• using practical decision tools;
• understanding the resource implications of different approaches

2. Setting ground rules and honouring commitments.

3. Evaluation: Collecting and demonstrating evidence.

4. The persuasive invitation; how to develop your core message.