24 May 2023: Scottish Community Development Council (SCDC) Event:
Meeting National Standards for Community Engagement.
At some point, your Community Council may become involved in something ‘big’ – community regeneration, placemaking, asset transfers, participatory budgeting, local health and social care support – and dealing with a number of counterparties. In such circumstances, two issues stand to be addressed at the outset:
1. You are going to be ‘fully engaged’, with local residents and businesses and with other bodies and agencies, both public and private;
2. Your ‘project’ is going to need very careful ‘management’.
This SCDC event was a very useful refresher on good-practice principles designed to help you get the best out of the work you’ll be putting in and the best out of the all-round ‘engagement’ you’ll find yourself in the midst of. It showcased how SCDC can help in these situations.
Here is the core ‘checklist’:
Inclusion: Identify the key people and organisations you need to work with.
Support: Identify and overcome any barriers to engagement and participation.
Planning: What exactly are the community’s needs and ambitions here?
Working together: The networks to full engagement and project success.
Methods: Plan the project to win.
Communication: Be clear on who you need to talk to and how you can best work with them.
Impact: Review regularly how you are getting on and what could be done better.
You can get much more on all of this at SCDC.
National Standards for Community Engagement | SCDC - We believe communities matter
SCDC will also offer training and support on a wide range of topics, including the Community Empowerment Act (2015), running participative events and ‘getting your message across’.
One interesting feature of the webinar was the profiling of VOiCE, an online software tool that allows ‘shared’ project planning and management of community engagement programmes.
VOiCE in essence ‘project manages’ the deep detail of the core checklist above. This facility is free-to-use for community organisations such as CCs.
There is more here: VOiCE (voicescotland.org.uk)
All of this is well worth looking over. Speak to Dawn Brown, SCDC Development Manager;
End/KR