The context for engagement
Approaches to community engagement must be considered within context. The role of managers is to achieve high-quality engagement while remaining aware of the following realities:
- Government agencies and individual communities do not relate to each other exclusively. Communities engage in a complex network of interaction, including private enterprise, community groups, and individuals, as well as public agencies.
- There is also no one government or community. Communities interact with all three tiers of government. Within the Queensland Government, agencies have different roles, responsibilities, structures and cultures. Communities are also diverse, consisting of a wide range of sectors, groups and individuals with differing perceptions, interests and interactions with government. People are likely to belong to many communities at any given point in time, e.g. a geographic community, faith community and professional community.
- There is a limit to the influence of engagement. While government certainly affects communities and vice versa, there is a limit to the engagement and influence government can have with communities.
- Agencies need to achieve appropriate community engagement within constraints. There are limits on budgets and time. There are increasing demands on service delivery and there are logistical constraints to physically getting around many regions and communities.
- Engagement activities must take account of local arrangements. Communities will often have informal structures, processes and rules about how engagement occurs. Government engagement processes need to take local circumstances into account and as a general rule, seek to use and strengthen local networks and processes.
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