Community EngagementDiscussion Group

15th March 2018

What forms of engagement have worked for community groups / schools / volunteers?

  • Young farmers – taking a live animal ( eg a hedgehog) in as an icebreaker generates immediate engagement.
  • A community grants scheme – offering local groups small amounts of funding
  • Offering £50 - £200 to put on an event as part of a wider festival.
  • Offerign ongoing training opportunities for volunteers
  • Regular events / activities for volunteers (not just sporadic)
  • Respond to the needs and interest of local groups
  • Visit local groups for informal chats at their space
  • Run a local groups forum, inviting groups to come meet and engage with each other as well as you.
  • Word of mouth from successfully engaged groups.
  • Engage with families.
  • Make sure you are accessible – people can drop into your office with any enquiries they might have.
  • Work well with your partners as relations pass back and forward
  • Offer money to help groups overcome transport costs
  • Bring schemes to people

What forms of engagement have not worked for community groups / schools / volunteers?

  • Community grants
  • Difficult to ensure they meet your proposed targets
  • Smaller community groups are not organised enough to apply
  • Many groups will not have experience of applying for grants.
  • Judging panel needs to be carefully selected

Hard to reach groups and individuals

  • Carefully assess why groups aren’t engaging with you and work on those issues
  • Ensure to work with both genders and all ages, separately if necessary
  • Make sure people of all ages and ethnicities are represented in literature
  • Use the arts eg music, sculpture, film, theatre
  • Arts events / commissions are a good way to engage people who may not otherwise attend as it brings in those with differing interests
  • Arts events can also generate useful press and social media coverage
  • Diversity calendar – use this to find out about upcoming holy days for different culture and engage with ethnic groups through these.

By What means do we judge how successfully we are engaging with people

  • People approach you / your partners because of what they’ve heard about you from others
  • People know about your projects
  • People assume you are responsible for sites (even if you’re not)
  • People return to sites and bring others also
  • Repeat volunteering
  • Demand for you services
  • People continue talking about your projects even after completion
  • Projects become self-sufficient post-completion
  • Re-engagement of groups and individuals

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