Real community engagement is better for them, and better for us

Real community engagement makes all the difference.

It’s better for them, and better for us.

I went to my first community ideas creation hackathon a couple of weeks ago.

Start Something Good and Tempo Time Credits organised it to come up with ways to encourage more people in Neath Port Talbot to get involved with heritage.

The hackathon looked at ideas to encourage volunteering projects around protecting ‘heritage’ and everything that ‘heritage’ suggests.

It was a lot of fun.

It was also a great reminder that when partners work together to come up with different views and ideas, good things happen.

Honestly, it makes me wonder why more organisations don’t do it more often.

Communities know best

Surely the people who know the area and its assets – the people who actually live in the community – know best what the issues and likely solutions are?

Why on earth wouldn’t you want to involve the community in solving its own problems?

Building community engagement

Powerful community engagement needs to be built from the bottom up. It’s about understanding different perspectives, and creating one big team who are all working on the same side.

If you impose decisions and solutions on a community, and then tell them what you’ve done, that’s NOT community engagement.

If you call that community engagement, you’re mistaken, or have no intention of involving the community.

What is good community engagement?

Community engagement involves collaboration. It means working with community members to build relationships and address local issues.

It’s an intentional two-way dialogue between organisations or public bodies and the community.

It’s a conscious effort to understand needs, empower residents in the decision-making process, and set out to make decisions that benefit everyone involved.

That’s not the same as saying that all the work will be done together, or that all issues will be solved in a way that suits every individual, or even every group.

But it does involve listening, and communicating, and understanding different views, and then taking those views into consideration.

How should community engagement work?

Most importantly, you have to take positive actions to engage with the community. There’s nothing passive about community engagement.

You have to get out and about.

Come out from behind your keyboard.

Go to local meetings.

Spend time speaking to the community, the influencers, and the local leaders.

Involve them in the discussions and decisions that affect their lives.

Build relationships.

Look for solutions which solve shared problems.

Bottom-up collaboration, not top-down information

Creating ideas can be stressful, particularly when you don’t have all the information.

So bring on board the people who have extra information.

Encourage them to share their knowledge and wisdom.

It’s a win-win.

Work together.

Create exciting solutions together.

Build a rich landscape full of different ideas which solve problems in a holistic way, from all points of view.

That will create a much more positive framework where everyone feels free to speak up.

Everyone’s voice is heard and valued.

If you just tell someone what you’re going to do to them, that’s top-town information-giving.

That’s not community engagement.

Who likes being controlled and ignored?

Instead, communities and residents who have a say in the decisions taken to solve issues in their communities are much more likely to take ownership of their own neighbourhoods and resources.

What are the best ways to involve the community in decision-making?

Working with the community is a great way to gather ideas, but online surveys or town hall meetings can be uninspiring. Sometimes the ‘them on one side, us on the other’ format encourages combative interactions.

A more collaborative approach, like a community hackathon, can offer an opportunity to be curious, to have some wild ideas: a safe space to think, and experience, where no-one’s ideas are shut down.

Trust is non-negotiable

Trust is one of the vital factors for community engagement to be successful.

If you don’t establish trust, no-one will feel able to open their imagination. There won’t be any of the shift in consciousness that activates problem-solving techniques. There won’t be any creativity, or any co-creation.

Bring knowledge and expertise into the room, and then build trust, and ignite shared purpose – and watch the ideas grow.

The five teams at the Neath Port Talbot hackathon came up with some brilliant ideas which hopefully can be brought to life – and you can too.

Need support with community engagement?

Get in touch if you’d like to talk about the best ways to bring the community along as part of your journey. No-one likes being told what’s happening after the event, and some simple, expert communication can make all the difference.