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Community Engagement Understanding the expectations of community members and groups involves building relationships grounded on trust, openness and honesty. We realize this means more than talking with people about what concerns them. First and foremost, we use a range of 'social technologies' (such as open space, world cafe, circle and other art of hosting practices) to bring stakeholders together to agree on solutions for the common good. We do this by facilitating processes which enable every voice to be heard with intent and respect. We then harvest the wisdom and views of all participants, including the wisdom of the minority, and build this into a deeply democratic set of agreed options and actions. Our approach to community engagement involves listening to people, and helping people to listen to each other. We attend not only to people's language, but also their feelings and behaviours. What distinguishes us is that we provide an ethical ‘honest broker’ service. We build productive relationships and host conversations that enable us to hear and convey all sides of an issue to all parties in a spirit of respect and goodwill. We use these relationships and understandings to mediate grievances and develop collective wisdom and strategies about policies and programs. |
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