Practical Tools for Community Engagement

One of the most popular workshops on the Empowering Good Practice programme, was our Practical Tools for Community Engagement course, attended by over 100 people during the life of the project. People seemed to like the range and simplicity of the tools presented. “Very logical, very simple .: very effective” - in the words of one participant

All the tools we use and teach have grown out of a long tradition of participatory working that has its origins in overseas development work, and which continues to develop today. For more about the background see Have you been PA'd? or this exploration of community mapping by the Pathways through Participation project. We've often marvelled at the range of participation tools out there, and how some almost seem to be competing with each other – but in reality the ones that work best seem to share some common characteristics.

• They promote dialogue and learning by encouraging people to have conversations about the things that matter to them
• They're solution-focused – they highlight people's strengths and resources and focus on how people would like it to be
• They are simple to use and learn.

I'm always very clear that participation tools on their own aren't enough. They work best when supported by some clear underpinning principles and they need to be well facilitated. I've tried to make this one of the key messages of the workshops, and think that's one of the reasons they've been so successful.

The EGP has now finished, so we can no longer offer funded workshops for local authority staff. However, we'd like to continue to be able to offer similar training. We've talked about whether Community Organisers will have the opportunity to benefit from the depth of experience and understanding that the Practical Tools workshops have been able to draw on and will be talking to Locality to try to ensure that they do. We'd also like to continue to offer this workshop at an affordable rate now that the programme is over, and have scheduled an open course in Plymouth on 1^st June. More information available here. If successful, we'll continue to offer it throughout the region.