Community engagement
Tools and templates
Quick questions on embedding community engagement in organisations
Organisational cultures and mainstreaming
- Are staff aware of the organisation's commitment to community engagement?
- Do staff understand how community engagement relates to their own area of work?
- How is community engagement promoted across the organisation?
- How is community engagement policy stitched into the core business of the organisation e.g. is it reflected in the main strategic documents?
- What does the organisation hope to achieve through mainstreaming community engagement?
From evidence base to policy development
- Is community engagement being carried out at the right time to feed into decision-making cycles?
- Are key decision-makers informed about community engagement initiatives and being kept on board at all stages of process?
- Are community engagement approaches collecting the type of information that is useful to policy-makers?
- If the community has differing views/ needs, how are these going to be weighed in the balance?
Resourcing and timing
- What financial and human resources are available for community engagement activities?
- Can community engagement be built into existing budget allocations?
- What other resources (from partners etc) can we draw on?
- Has sufficient time been made to undertake meaningful community engagement?
Interaction with other activities
- Where is community engagement activity currently situated?
- Are there any problems with the way it feeds into policy?
- Does community engagement have links to staff involved in current user and public focused activity e.g. service delivery? Are these links sufficient and is communication effective between the different parts of the organisation?
- Is there a community engagement champion?
- Is there sufficient support from senior management to develop and sustain community engagement work?
Staff development
- What organisational support is there for building internal community engagement expertise?
- What training needs can be identified, and how will these be met? For example, what kind of basic community engagement training will be given to all staff?
- What community focused research capacity is needed by your organisation?
- Should there be a central pool of in-house community engagement expertise or should it be spread amongst staff across the organisation?
- Does community engagement feature in the personal development plans of officers and staff?
Partnership working
- How are potential partners currently undertaking community engagement?
- Are there opportunities to work together and avoid duplication and engagement fatigue?
- Is there a possibility of pooling resources to deliver community engagement?
