The aim is to design and plan for a type of engagement method that appropriately matches your objectives and helps you reach a variety of stakeholders, making your engagement efforts more inclusive.
<aside> 💡 Before any stakeholder engagement effort, it is important to not only establish the general aims of the campaign but also plan the events, methodologies and tools used to achieve these aims. When it comes to deciding on a methodology for engagement, it is particularly important to tailor them to be as inclusive as possible and adapt them to the needs of each group of stakeholders. For example, before doing a workshop with residents it might be necessary to provide them with some background information which may be redundant to policymakers or city planners - and an information sheet might be a good way of doing it. However, this may not be fully inclusive for people with language barriers, visual impairments or that are illiterate. Complementing this approach with either a pop-up or an exhibition that relies only on audio-visual information could address these limitations.
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Below are some examples of engagement methods, along with a short description. You can find more information about these methods here.
INFORMATION SHEETS AND NEWSLETTERS: Information sheets and Newsletters are a good way of regularly sharing information with the public or for targeting particular interest groups. They can be used to inform people about an issue, forthcoming event, changes to a service or a new programme or activity. You should think about how you will distribute the information sheet or newsletter. For example, you could post it to each household, distribute it to community centres and venues, send it out via email or place it on a website. They can be a useful tool to use when you need to let a large number of people know about something for example, a new or existing programme; changes or improvements to a service; an event or activity. They are less useful when you want to encourage discussion or collect people’s views or opinions to influence how you plan or deliver a service.
EXHIBITIONS: Exhibitions are a great way of presenting information visually - e.g., photographs, displaying art or poetry competition entries, maps, and interactive displays. One of the benefits of using exhibitions is that they can be moved from venue to venue so you can target particular areas and audiences. Citizens can contribute to the design and content of the information building ownership and developing relationships. They can be a useful method for engaging with a broad range of people and interests. The use of photographs, pictures and images can help to reduce language barriers. They can be used to target large numbers of people particularly if you think carefully about where they are displayed and the amount of footfall using or passing by the location of the exhibition. Often you can ask local people, school children or visitors to get involved in preparing the content of the exhibition enabling them to develop ownership of the process and to raise awareness.
CAMPAIGNS: Campaigns use a range of complementary techniques to provide information to people about a particular issue, event, service or change. Often campaigns are promoted through local media including television, radio, newspapers and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Campaigns are often planned to coincide with particular times of the year to deal with or raise awareness of topical or seasonal issues. They are most effective for raising the profile of a particular issue and for delivering a simple but effective message about an issue, activity or service. It is important to be clear about who your target audience is and to tailor your campaign to that audience through a variety of methods and techniques.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Social Media has become a very popular method to distribute information online to a large number of people. There are many different forms of social media including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok to name a few. It is very important to have a clear and concise message and it is useful to use images along with text to draw people’s attention and interest. Social media is often used to complement other engagement techniques; to raise the awareness of a particular issue or theme and to direct or signpost people to more detailed information. It can be used effectively as a lobbying tool and to develop networks and online or virtual communities of interest.
WORKSHOPS AND FOCUS GROUPS: Workshops and Focus Groups allow people to discuss their ideas in an open and relaxed atmosphere. Workshops can take a variety of formats. They can be designed to exchange information; to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an idea or project; to obtain ideas and innovative thinking for a way forward for a project; or they can be specifically geared towards prioritisation and the production of an action plan. Focus groups by contrast are designed to specifically concentrate on a single issue or a programme of topics. They are useful methods for encouraging discussion among those who may feel less confident in a larger group. The main benefit is that participants or certain interest groups can be targeted and therefore those often excluded from a wider engagement exercise can be identified and invited to attend this type of event.
PUBLIC MEETINGS: Public meetings provide an opportunity to consult large numbers of people. Meetings can be organised to allow for small group discussions with oral feedback. There are often opportunities for participants to set or influence the agenda and to ask questions. From our experience small groups are an essential element of public meetings to engage people effectively. As part of a series of events they can be a valuable way of sharing information and demonstrating openness and transparency.
ART AND CREATIVITY: Some forms of creative community engagement are particularly good at encouraging participation and generating interest and ideas. These include:
Art and creative methods are appropriate where you want to involve local people in expressing their views and generating ideas in a participative approach. They are a useful technique for engaging with people of all ages through education or school programmes, local community forums and resident or interest groups. They may be beneficial at the beginning of a process to generate interest and raise awareness of the process.
COMMUNITY SURVEYS: Community surveys can be undertaken to identify the needs and views of a large number of people in a standard format. The main stages involved are: defining the sample size and the type of information required; deciding on the type of survey to be used (online, postal, drop and collect, telephone or interview); survey design; piloting the survey; undertaking the survey and post-completion analysis of the results. It is often best to use a short and concise survey where people’s views on an issue are being sought. They are best used as part of a programme of other methods - by themselves they can be limited in scope and provide little meaningful community engagement. Increasingly email and SMS (text) are being used to provide a variety of ways for people to engage. These work best when a small number of questions are used and when views on a specific proposal or issue are being sought. Otherwise, there are a number of online survey tools to help you create, analyse and promote your survey for example, Surveymonkey, Mail Chimp and Citizens Space.
CITIZEN FORUMS: A forum is a regular meeting of people who represent a group or organisation and may be issue or area based. Those involved typically comprise members of civic, political, professional, economic or social groups from a local area. They can be a useful way of involving groups who are traditionally excluded from decision-making processes for example, young people. However, it is often the ‘usual suspects’ or those who are already involved in local groups who will come forward to participate.
CITIZEN PANELS: Citizen Panels involve ongoing panels of around 1,000 to 2,000 people who are representative of the local community. The panel is surveyed several times a year by post, telephone or online. A scaled down model of this consultation may be effective and attract those who traditionally avoid or cannot attend public meetings.
CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY: A Citizens’ Assembly involves a representative group of the wider population who are selected at random. The assembly meets over a set period of time, perhaps over a series of days or weekends. Participants learn about an issue or theme and then through a process of deliberation, informed discussion in decision-making, make recommendations. Often a process of sortition is used to select representatives to participate. Citizens’ Assemblies can be ‘in-room’ or ‘online’. They are effective methods for co-production in that they value the lived experience of citizens and their ability to engage with complex and often contested issues to generate recommendations.
CITIZENS’ JURIES: A group of citizens who are representative of the general public meet to consider a complex issue by gathering evidence, deliberating and then reaching a decision. Jurors can ‘cross examine’ expert ‘witnesses’ who may offer differing perspectives on the issue or topic at hand before reaching agreement or producing a short report of recommended actions. Normally an advisory panel with expertise in the area consider the jury’s findings or report and determine what, if any, actions should be taken.
STREET STALLS (POP-UPS): Street Stalls consist of outdoor displays such as idea, information or graffiti walls which can be used to capture the views and comments of large numbers of people. Maps and plans for an area, project or service can be displayed and passers-by asked to comment on particular issues and themes, generate ideas or vote for activities, facilities or services. Choosing a busy public location can help to achieve high levels of participation and generate interest in the project from those who may not otherwise get involved. The approach can be organised to coincide with other events e.g., community festival.
PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING: Participatory Budgeting (PB) can be described as ‘local people deciding how to allocate part of a public budget.’ It is a way for citizens to have a direct say in how public funds are used to address local needs. PB is much more than just deciding how resources are allocated. PB is recognised worldwide as an effective way for empowering local communities and a model of best practice in public and democratic engagement and decision-making. PB provides opportunities to engage in non-traditional ways that reach out to people who don’t often have a voice and it can become a celebration of positive action in the community. There are a number of PB models the most common of which are small grants allocation and mainstream investment.