Developing your strategy
Defining the strategy: strategic direction
Key strategy connections for Community Engagement
Community engagement activity can easily fail if it is not seen as integral to the work of the organisation. Organisations that successfully engage see CE as a "must do" activity, and commit to it from the top. It is important to identify your organisation's role and objectives, and to assess how community engagement sits within them.In the same way, try to link initiatives to your organisation's culture, business plan, objectives for working in partnership and so on.
Expected impact
Thinking about the expected impact of community engagement upon your organisation can help you to plan appropriate activities. You might begin by using your knowledge of the way that your organisation is run and managed, to think about what scope there is to change the following as a result of community involvement, and why?
. organisational strategy/priorities
. organisational policies and practice
. service delivery on the ground
In which areas might community involvement change practice and policy more than others? Where there is little scope, how can this be changed in the future?
Participants/ members of the wider community might have their own expectations about the impact of the views/ suggestions they made on organisational practice. It is helpful actively to manage expectations prior to and throughout the process. It is also worth remembering that pragmatism is often necessary in considering a response to community involvement.
For example, if residents responding to a "blank sheet" consultation exercise feel that the number of police on the beat ought to be doubled, it may be unlikely that this will be possible in the short term.
There are several possible reactions to this:
- whether such an open question should have been asked of the public in the first place about resourcing issues, and whether community input could be more usefully targeted in the future
- whether honesty is required from your organisation in saying that this cannot be done, but other public suggestions can be considered
- whether the feelings/ concerns lying behind the public's response can be addressed (i.e. concerns about police visibility and no clear presence at crime hot spots (geographic locations and times))
Organisational commitment
The influence of community involvement will depend on the level of organisational commitment to listening and responding to communities, and changing practice as a result.
It may be that certain departments or individuals within the organisation are more inclined to focus on communities than others, and that influence from these elements can change the direction of an organisation.In order to nurture and sustain organisational commitment, you might want to think about the following:
- Whether community involvement projects have been successful in the past in your organisation or others. Why has this been? What success factors can be capitalised on?
- Where support can be elicited from elsewhere - for example, "champions" for community engagement in the form of senior or influential staff, police authority members, people from outside the organisation? Can they attend your planning meetings for the project? Can they talk about your work elsewhere or make connections between it and other projects?
- Can you form a network of individuals interested in and committed to community involvement?
 |
 |