Explainer spotlight: Understanding community engagement
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly - 10th April 2024.
In a time of stretched budgets and difficult decisions, it’s more vital than ever that we understand community priorities.
That’s where community engagement comes into play. It’s a recognised way to developing working relationships between public bodies and communities in a way that we know can improve outcomes.
Community engagement is a method that puts community knowledge, ideas, and experience at the centre, helping communities and public services to understand and take joint action to achieve positive change.
When done well, community engagement meets the expectations of the people involved, is well informed and properly planned and makes sure people who may face additional barriers have an equal chance to take part.
Examples of good community engagement use the National Standards to measure how effective their engagement activity is and put the principles of fairness and equality, and a commitment to learning and continuous improvement at their core.
Read more: Community Engagement: Everything you need to know.
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