People-centred processes & decision making
Between-the-lines
Involve me, I understand
Gloucester Citizen article, October 1999
Back in 1999 a young graduate embarked on her first role in community work. The role was Community Involvement Officer for a Neighbourhood Centre in an area of high deprivation, dense housing, poor access to services and so on. Nothing learned at university would prepare this youngster for the challenges she was to face in the coming years. That young enthusiastic graduate was me and the lessons I learned in that first job have never left me.
One of the first pieces of work I jumped in to was working with a colleague to plan and coordinate the transformation of a grey, often covered in graffiti, wall on the side of the local library. It was decide that the local children in the area would be involved in designing a colourful mural reflecting nature. Local schools and youth clubs jumped on board and before we knew it a design had been created. I remember many cold, windy and wet Autumn days spent working with the children to create the mural on the side of the building and it was a proud moment when the children witnessed the mural be officially launched by the local MP. I remember a true sense of ownership being present.
As the years went by I would walk or drive past the mural and it was always there – immaculate and colourful – retaining that sense of community pride and ownership. I always used this piece of work as a great example of community development, in that by involving the children and young people in designing and painting the mural, the mural would hold a certain respect within the community and would remain untouched for many years. I particularly remember some of the children who participated in the mural lived directly opposite it and I sensed they would keep a 24/7 watch on it!
Revisiting the Matson Library mural 11 years later in 2010
Having moved away, I was fortunate to be back in the UK last month and dared to go off route and take a drive past the mural. Would it still be there 11 years later? Would it be covered in grafitti? As I turned the corner and saw the dazzling mural still there 11 years on, I couldn’t help but feel a hint of job satisfaction!
So the lesson to be learned? Involving people in a process and ensuring ownership of community activity, development and assets creates community pride. The value of community pride off the scale.
One big happy community?
I recently spent a couple of days in Port Pirie, a small town about 3 hours north of Adelaide with a population of around 13,000. The aim of my visit was to help my client identify ways to work with the Aboriginal community to promote healthy eating.
One of the easiest traps we can fall in to in our work is popping people in to neat little categories that support our strategic targets and goals. Frequently used categories include the Aboriginal community, the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse community, low income families and people with disabilities.
Whilst people do have commonalities and specific needs that should be considered, we must not think that an entire community can be worked with in the same way.
The biggest lesson for me on my trip to Port Pirie was how despite the Aboriginal population in the area being a relatively small one, it was very clearly fractionalised into smaller groups within the community. It was blatantly clear that by providing a service that would attract one section of the community, another section of the community would be put off.
I certainly don’t think this is limited to the Aboriginal community in Port Pirie. I think it is reflective of everywhere and we need to remember to try not to categorise people just for the sake of our strategic plans!
Capturing the attention of a thirty-something
How do we best invite the general public to get involved with decision making that affects them? Over the last month I decided to take my ‘community engagement practitioner’ hat off and to put on my ‘young-ish woman living in South Australia’ hat on and monitor how many times I came across requests for my input into decision making!
In the car park – Adelaide City Council
After a recent trip to the hairdressers in Adelaide, I was returning to my car which was park in one of those big multistory car parks. I remember observing some big Adelaide City Council posters next to the lifts. As I waited, I read that Adelaide City Council was in the process of conducting a community consultation on their Draft 2009-10 Business Plan and Budget and they wanted my feedback.
What a great initiative of Adelaide City Council to put information where the general public could see it!
I didn’t take action on the poster and provide any feedback but providing ways that the public can easily ‘get involved’ is a whole other article. However, my awareness of the consultation was raised and that, in my opinion, is an achievement that Adelaide City Council should be proud of.
In the laundrette – City of Charles Sturt
One rainy Sunday afternoon, I took my pile of wet washing to the local laundrette and whilst my undies were tumbling, I browsed through the magazines. Curiosity made me pick up the City of Charles Sturt newsletter, Kaleidoscope. 
In the newsletter was an article about the Council budget laid out like a shopping list. Having worked with the City of Charles Sturt in the past, I remember conversations about how the community just aren’t (in general) interested in reading through hefty budget documents, let alone providing feedback. This was a great way to lay out the information and immediately grabbed my attention.
Again, I didn’t take action and provide any feedback but I was made aware of the local Council seeking my feedback.
Well done to the City of Charles Sturt!
In the mail – City of Onkaparinga
As a rate payer for the City of Onkaparinga I was interested to receive information on a current consultation on their Draft Annual Business Plan 2009/10. I had every good intention of reading the summary document they’d sent and perhaps dropping them an email with some feedback. This never eventuated though and I’m guessing the document ended up in the recycle bin!
Whilst I didn’t act on the request for feedback, I think that the City of Onkaparinga should still receive some recognition that they reached out to me and grabbed my attention. Good work!
Via twitter – Sydney Metro & Bang The Table
Now with this one, I let my ‘community engagement practitioner’ hat accidentally slip on. I follow Bang The Table on Twitter and was interested to read that they were conducting an online consultation with Sydney Metro. As a former Sydney commuter, I was instantly interested and clicked through straight away.
Despite my quick response to the request for input into decision making, I actually didn’t end up making any comments because I didn’t really find anything relevant to my short time as a Sydney commuter but Bang The Table and Sydney Metro certainly win the prize for getting me closest to providing feedback!
So what have I learnt?
I’ve been impressed that local Governemt in particular seems to be really picking up on innovative ways to inform the community of current opportunities to get involved with decision making. This is a very position step in the right direction.
However, the one consultation that got me closest to providing feedback was the one at the touch of a button.
So as a young(ish) woman, it would appear that I’m too busy going to the hairdressers, doing my laundry and generally living life to deal with paperwork!
However, if you capture my attention (preferably online) and make it relevant to my world… I’m all yours.
This thing called community engagement
Community Engagement. We all keep harping on about it. A lot of us are supposed to be doing it. But what exactly is it?
My definition of what I call ‘pure’ community engagement is that it is the process of involving the general public in decision-making that effects them. For example, a local Council might request feedback from residents about their plans for a new skate park in the local area, or a Government department might set up a committee with members of the public on it to provide advice on reducing road traffic accidents at a particular black-spot.
The people who will be most affected by the decision to be made can often be the real experts on that particular topic! This is the beauty of community engagement.
Believe it or not, there are right and wrong ways to go about involving the public in decision-making and this is where specialist community engagement practitioners can help!
However, it is important to remember that community engagement is not just about being consulted on something. Community engagement embraces varying levels of involvement – from simply informing the general public about a decision that has been made, through to the community being empowered to make the final decision themselves. For more detail, check out the International Association of Public Participation’s Public Participation Spectrum.
I get approached to do various work that gets called ‘community engagement’ and the term is sometimes used more loosely than the above definition. Sometimes the term community engagement is used to talk more about the community simply taking an interest or becoming more active in a particular community or activity.
Glitz and glamour in the world of community engagement?
Over the last year of establishing my own consultancy I have been giving a lot of thought to my values, my objectives, and more importantly my mission. What is it that I want to achieve? What is my overall goal? What is the mission of Becky Hirst Consulting?
I’m still debating this in my mind but as time goes on I am becoming more and more aware that I have a real passion for finding ways to promote opportunities for the community to be involved in decision making – not just the actively involved community members – but the typically ‘silent majority’, the people in the street who aren’t perhaps actively ‘involved’ in decision making but who actually might have some really valuable contributions to make.
Part of my realization of this mission was driving through Unley, just south of Adelaide yesterday and seeing a fabulously huge banner across 4 lanes of traffic promoting their online community panel. Fab. A far cry from a tiny advert in the back of a newspaper inviting people to a public meeting on a cold dark night in the middle of nowhere…
I’d like to see this more and more. I’d like to think that in 5-10 years time members of the ‘general public’ will be well aware of easy, accessible ways for them to have their say in decision making or problem solving. I’d like to think that in 5-10 years decision makers are receptive and willing to provide transparent, easily accessible ways for the public to get involved.
Academics may disagree with me and would prefer me to take a more conservative, theoretical model of work but in my opinion I think the world of community engagement needs some glitz, glamour and razzmatazz! We need to be thinking big, bold, courageous, exciting, motivating, enticing… We need to make people WANT to be involved!
Better get to work.
My sentiments entirely!
I often feel frustrated at so called ‘community consultations’ that are advertised in the smallest print possible at the back of the newspaper (where I wonder if anyone actually reads?).
Not only am I generally frustrated at the size, style and location of the advertisement but in general they are advertising something that is unappealing to the majority of the population… a public meeting! Yuk.
We need to be thinking creatively about involving the community in decision making and a public meeting is certainly not that! We need to be putting ourselves in the shoes of the community we are targeting and questioning whether we would want to attend a meeting in a community hall on a Friday evening, to sit in rows and be talked at? I certainly wouldn’t.
Mr Collins of Lobethal wrote into the local paper yesterday echoing my thoughts entirely. Reflecting on a recent ‘consultation’ he had been involved with as a member of the public he wrote “That sort of activity certainly does not constitute consultation. [Consultation] requires acknowledgement and considered response by government to legitimate public concerns and/or suggestions in a forum held in a time and place that do not restrict attendance”. Nicely put Mr Collins.
And of course we must not forget that consultation is just one level of public participation. Part of me wonders whether there is any hope of collaborating with the community on decision making if we can’t get the straight forward consultation bit right?
Rant over.