Community Engagement

The Labour Government, and the Department for Communities and Local Government in particular, have actively promoted the importance of community engagement and public involvement, culminating in the recent 'Duty to Involve' (April 2009), which places an obligation on organisations to involve local people in decision making. Other organisations, like the Heritage Lottery Fund, require applicants for their grants to produce community engagement plans.  As a result, a huge variety of resources have been developed to help organisations develop effective community engagement strategies. We have selected a few sites that offer guidance that you could tailor to your own situation.

Talking Together; Working Together - Consultation and Engagement Toolbox

An excellent and comprehensive toolkit from Birmingham City Council that draws together best practice from a range of sources.  Although aimed at those with an engagement and consultation role in the public sector, this toolkit can be applied to a range of situations.  It will help you plan your activities to ensure you choose the most appropriate activities to meet your needs.

First steps in Participation

Heritage Lottery Fund guidance (2009) about involving local communities in heritage projects, through active participation, volunteering and developing new audiences.  See also First Steps in Learning, Thinking about Audience Development, Thinking about Community Participation.  A useful set of documents full of ideas for participation activities and lists of questions to help you think through the issues in relation to your own project.

Passport to Community Engagement

Produced by the Home Office Crime Reduction Centre, this is a "beginners' guide" to community engagement covering the whole process from planning through to design and evaluation.  The interactive structure combines case studies with clear and simple explanations of engagement in the context of crime reduction and drug prevention.

The Manchester Community Engagement Toolkit

Manchester City Council's toolkit provides practical help for anyone involved in public engagement activities.  The three sections cover: 1.the core skills of community engagement; 2. key ways of engaging with different interest groups and audiences, and 3. the different types of engagement along with the tools to achieve them.  The tools are supported by case studies of good practice from across Manchester and further afield.  The Toolkit is designed for you to dip in and out as required, not necessarily read it from cover to cover.  Halton Strategic Partnership's Community Engagement Toolkit is a shortened version of this toolkit.

Community engagement to improve health

An in depth review of community engagement in health, published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2008).  Their definition of community engagement refers to the process of getting communities involved in decisions that affect them.  This includes the planning, development and management of services, as well as activities which aim to improve health or reduce health inequalities.  This guidance aims to support those working in the NHS and other sectors who are involved in community engagement, including those working in local authorities and the community, voluntary and private sectors  It may also be of interest to members of the public.

URP Toolbox - Evaluating community engagement

Produced by the Urban Research Program (URP) of Griffith University, Australia, this Toolbox provides valuable questions to consider relating to evaluation of public engagement activities.  One of the key elements of using the Toolbox is that strategies need to be tailored to fit unique issues and stakeholders, and often a combination of different tools is required.  The Toolbox includes: over 60 community involvement tools, from public meetings to consensus conferences; case studies of the uses of various tools and the reflections of stakeholders who participated and theoretical discussions of citizen science issues.  While the Toolbox has a focus on coastal and catchment environments, the principles and tools can be used in many other areas for a wide range of issues.  The Search the Toolbox facility enables you to pick the most appropriate tool for your needs

Inspiring Learning: Improvement Toolkit for Museums, Libraries and Archives.  Guidelines on involving users

A useful 2-page checklist for involving users in the development and improvement of public learning opportunities in the museum and library sector.