Planning transition and exit strategies
Some community engagement may go on for a long time; other activities are of finite duration. Disengagement from communities, particularly those which have been more actively involved in your engagement process, requires thought and planning.
Community engagement often includes the concept of empowerment. If an agency exits from an engagement before the community developed the capacity to sustain progress made through the engagement, then all the good work previously undertaken may be wasted. It may be necessary to have a transitional phase, where agencies provide skilling or resourcing (facilitation, planning and coordination, etc.) until the community has the capacity to run their own processes.
Community engagement can be seen as a cyclic process moving through different stages. These lifecycle phases and the accompanying activities are set out in the table below. Note that the level of engagement activity gradually increases and reaches a peak during the Acting phase and tapers off as the agency winds down or ceases the engagement. Engagement activity can however increase again in the future.
In planning your community engagement, consider any transition and exit strategies that might be appropriate. Make sure they are consistent with the cyclic nature of engagement.
| Stage of life cycle | Activities |
|---|---|
| 1. Building potential | |
| A cluster of people face similar situations without the benefit of a shared practice. | Finding each other, discovering commonalities. |
| 2. Engaging | |
| Members come together and recognise their potential. | Exploring connections defining joint enterprise, negotiating community. |
| 3. Acting | |
| Members engage in developing the group, working together and engaging others. | Engaging in joint activities, planning and doing, creating artefacts, adapting to changing circumstances, renewing interest, commitment and relationships. |
| 4. Disengaging | |
| Members no longer engage as intensely, but the group is still alive as a force and centre of knowledge. | Staying in touch, communicating, holding reunions, calling for advice. |
| 5. Remembering | |
| The group is no longer central, but people remember it as a significant part of their identity. | Telling stories, preserving artefacts, collecting memorabilia. |
You should base your selection of transition and exit strategies on an assessment of the community’s capacity to engage with government (refer to Community research). The higher the community’s capacity to engage, the more it may be possible to reduce the level of intervention from the agency.
Strategies for transition may involve:
- Reallocating engagement resources from agency to community, at a time when the community has the skills to effectively engage with government
- Building the capacity of community members through formal and informal processes to sustain/initiate engagement
- Using and building the capacity of existing community networks throughout the engagement process, rather than additional or specific community processes
- Negotiating future roles and responsibilities for engagement with community members, reducing the need for agency-initiated engagement.
Alternatively, where a community engagement activity has a natural ending or outcome, then communicate the outcome and clarify how community members may access the agency for future inquiries.
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