• Community engagement in context
  • Community engagement - an overview
  • Community engagement in a representative democracy
  • Key challenges for the public sector
  • Implications for public sector managers
  • The context for engagement
  • Clues to good community engagement
• Planning CE
  • Community engagement and the policy/planning cycle
  • Project goals
  • When is engagement necessary?
  • Community engagement objectives
  • Community research
    • Media research
    • Community profiling
    • Community segmentation
    • Community and issues analysis
  • Key communication messages
  • Selection of engagement techniques
  • Managing risk
  • Evaluation planning
  • Planning transition and exit strategies
• Implementing CE
  • Working with communities
  • Organisational culture
  • Resourcing
  • Structures and processes
  • Continuity and follow up
  • Representation and control
  • Coordination
  • Other issues
  • Embedding good practice
• Methods
  • Overview of methods
  • Methods of information-sharing
  • Methods for consultation and deliberation
  • Methods for active participation
  • Advanced participative methodologies
  • Choosing an engagement method
• Event management
  • Event engagement processes
  • Choosing a facilitator
  • Structuring the event
• Evaluating CE
  • Introduction to evaluation
  • Principles of evaluation
  • Identifying outputs and outcomes
  • Purpose and approach to evaluation
  • Evaluation criteria and indicators
  • Methods of measuring community engagement
  • Steps in evaluating community engagement
• Risk management
  • Identifying risks
  • Assessing risk
  • Managing external risks
  • Managing internal risks
  • Risk assessment and management plan
• Skills
  • Community engagement skills profile
  • Options for skills development
  • Building the skills of your team

Key challenges for the public sector

Agencies are already improving their engagement practices, increasing public access to information and providing greater opportunities for community participation. However, a commitment to better engagement also requires more coordinated practices by agencies, including aligning engagement effort and pooling information.

Improvements to community engagement present a range of challenges for government and the public sector, which include:

• Developing a supportive culture in which managers support staff to implement appropriate community engagement
• Developing skills, knowledge and capability in community engagement
• Developing robust systems and processes, including accountability frameworks for engagement
• Improving coordination across government
• Managing engagement in the context of government commitment, priorities and cycles
• Clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the public sector, elected representatives, executive government and parliament
• Finding ways to reduce barriers to involvement and reach out to those not currently engaged with government.

Queensland government initiatives

The Managing community engagement program is one of many initiatives aimed at developing high-level skills in community engagement and improving community engagement outcomes across the Queensland Public Service.

Initiatives include:

• Implementation of the Community Engagement Improvement Strategy, which established a series of activities to support the development of community engagement skills and practice within Queensland Government agencies
• Community engagement competencies included within the Public Services Training Package
• A guide to community engagement in the business of government
• A guide to community engagement methods and techniques (in development)
• A guide to community engagement showcasing events
• An introduction to community engagement
• Guides to engaging with indigenous communities and working with diversity (in development)
• A guide for evaluating community engagement activities (in development).