Elements and Performance Criteria
- Scope need for community engagement
- Develop a community engagement framework to assist in analysing and responding to issues that require community engagement.
- Identify organisational issues requiring community engagement and evaluate benefits of engaging community in consultation processes.
- Define target community groups in line with identified issues and purpose of engagement.
- Evaluate a range of community engagement strategies in line with identified issues and characteristics of target groups.
- Develop community engagement plan
- Establish purpose and objectives of community engagement in consultation with key stakeholders.
- Design community engagement strategies that are relevant, achievable, measurable and flexible to allow for emergence of new ideas and options.
- Identify barriers to community involvement, recognising community diversity, and develop strategies to address them.
- Embed processes for communication, monitoring, reporting, feedback and evaluation in the plan.
- Obtain relevant organisational commitment to and approval of community engagement plan.
- Implement community engagement plan
- Determine resource requirements and implementation timelines.
- Communicate objectives and constraints of engagement to appropriate personnel and allocate resources, roles and responsibilities.
- Identify and manage expectations of participants, provide information throughout engagement process and maintain community engagement.
- Provide opportunities for individuals and communities to develop their capacity to engage with the organisation.
- Implement mechanisms for communities to raise their own issues with the organisation.
- Identify barriers to community engagement and formulate and implement solutions in line with the community context.
- Implement feedback methods in line with plan and respond to maximise community participation.
- Evaluate community engagement plan
- Analyse feedback on quality and effectiveness of engagement strategies from appropriate personnel and community stakeholders.
- Evaluate engagement outcomes against purpose and objectives.
- Document and share outcomes with community stakeholders and key organisational personnel.
- Provide feedback to participants on how the outcomes have informed organisational planning or decision making.
- Prepare recommendations for future programs based on consultation and analysis.