Community Engagement models

The two most common community engagement models referred to are:

• IAP2’s Spectrum of Participation and
• AIDR’s Community Engagement for Disaster Resilience

The International Association for Public Participation Australasia (IAP2) developed the Spectrum of Public Participation to define the public’s role in any public engagement process. The spectrum shows that differing levels of public participation are legitimate depending on the goals, time frames, resources and levels of impact of the decision to be made.

The five levels of public participation are: Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate and Empower.

Source:  IAP2 Australasia

For improved disaster resilience outcomes, AIDR describes the five main forms of community engagement in the emergency management sector is Inform, Consultation, Participation and collaboration, Community-led and Community-empowered.    ******Accordian******

• Inform
  • is when information is shared between communities and partners to increase understanding. This information is then considered in subsequent decisions and actions.
• Consultation
  • involves providing opportunities for opinions and ideas to be heard so that a range of perspectives influence decisions and actions.
• Participation and collaboration
  • occur when communities and partners work together to identify issues, develop solutions, discuss alternatives and support action.
• Community-led
  • is when community leads the process of working with any partner to identify issues, develop solutions, discuss alternatives and support action.
• Community-empowered
  • occurs when communities understand their risks, accept responsibility and have the resources and the capacity to design and implement initiatives.

Source: Community Engagement for Disaster Resilience Handbook

It is important to remember that one form of engagement is not necessarily better than any other, and each may be appropriate in different circumstances and at different times, depending on things like:

• The phase of emergency (planning, preparing, responding or recovery)
• the purpose and goals of the engagement
• the time and resources available and
• local community and organisational capability to engage.

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Community Engagement Phases, Approaches and Methods

Phases of engagement

The Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC’s Community Engagement Technique’s Toolkit presents five step phases for community engagement for preparedness used in Australian emergency management to motivate and sustain community preparedness. It indicates levels of community engagement planning and implementation. Following these steps will help with your decision making to undertake the best engagement approach for a specific community.

The five phases are:

• community profiling and baseline data
• relational ties and connections
• capacity building
• community programs and
• local hazard action.

Monitor, evaluate and learning is built in across all previous 5 phases. This phase includes data collection, for example analysing social media engagement, the number of households reporting that they have undertaken a preparedness action, or a local council adapting suggested preparedness plans.

Learning for improvement occurs when we step back to answer the question of what worked and what needs to be changed.

Source: Engaging communities to prepare for natural hazards: a conceptual model

Phase aims of community engagement for preparedness:

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Source: Community Engagement Techniques Toolkit

Tactics, or methods, of community engagement for preparedness:

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Source: Community Engagement Techniques Toolkit

• Community profiling – helps you to develop an understanding of the people in your community of interest. Profiles can illustrate the makeup of a community and could include information about the diversity within the community, their history, social and economic characteristics, how active people are (i.e. the groups and networks used) and what social and infrastructure services are provided.
• Relational ties – low capacity of awareness, requires building relationships with stakeholders and sharing information.
• Capacity Building – relationships are forming or pre-existing, and there are segments of this community that are motivated, and on the verge of (or at) medium levels of preparedness.
• Community Programs – communities at this level are highly knowledgeable about its risk and actively getting ready to reduce the risk. These communities seek your guidance and support.
• Local Hazard Action – this is a community preparing for locally identified risks and hazards and requires minimal support.

Source: Community Engagement Techniques Toolkit

For all types of engagement, it is essential to be guided by community engagement principles, to understand the broader context of the engagement, and have a clear purpose for engaging with the community.

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Approaches of engagement

The AIDR model of community engagement includes a range of engagement considerations in our approach for varying community outcomes.

Information

• Information is shared between communities and partners to increase understanding. This information is considered in subsequent decisions and actions.

Considerations:

• • Is information relevant, timely, accurate, targeted, credible and consistent, accessible to diverse audiences?
  • Information can be provided in one direction or two-way.
  • Key messages can be repeated as often as is necessary for the audience to be able to absorb the information.

Consultation

• Consultation involves providing opportunities for opinions to be heard so that a number of perspectives influence decisions and action.

Considerations:

• • Is sufficient time allowed for the participants to consider an issue, to ask questions and provide input and for this feedback to be considered?
  • Opportunities are created so that many diverse voices can be heard.
  • Is information received from those consulted recorded, stored and used in a way that will enable the community to continually access it?
  • Advise those consulted about how their input will be considered and how it will influence outcomes.

Participation and collaboration

• Participation and collaboration occur when communities and partners work together to identify issues, develop solutions, discuss alternatives and support action.

Considerations:

• • There are many ways to participate and participants have the opportunity to influence how they want to participate.
  • Opportunities are created for all members of the community and for partners to participate in discussions and actions.
  • Relationships are developed where partners and communities work together each contributing their expertise.
  • There is recognition and communication of the needs and interests of all participants.
  • The community is actively involved in decisions, planning and actions that potentially affect or interest them.
  • Effort is made to seek out and facilitate the involvement of all who are potentially affected by or interested in a particular issue, including people traditionally considered difficult to reach and engage.

Community-led

• The community leads the process of working with any partners to identify issues, develop solutions, discuss alternatives and support action.

Considerations:

• • Community leaders and members lead the engagement process, including the processes for making decisions, undertaking planning and taking action.
  • Partners bring their knowledge and expertise to the process to support community-led engagement.

Community-empowered

• Communities understand their risks, accept responsibility and have the resources and the capacity to design and implement initiatives.

Considerations:

• • Community leaders and members have the authority to determine, plan and implement the engagement process, inviting partners or stakeholders to join as and when needed.
  • The community has the necessary resources, skills and capacities to determine their own processes.
  • Partners bring their knowledge and expertise to the process to support the community, if asked.

Source: Community Engagement for Disaster Resilience Handbook

Methods aligning with approaches of community engagement

It is important to remember that one approach and one method is not necessarily better than any other, and each may be appropriate in different circumstances and at different times in the engagement process, depending on things like:

• the local context
• the level and previous experience of hazard risk
• the aims of the engagement
• the time and resources available and
• local community and organisational capacity and capability to act.

The table is from the Community Engagement for Disaster Resilience Handbook, it presents a list of engagement methods aligning with aims (basis) of community engagement

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