Apply an intersectional approach
Many people can experience discrimination related to their identity or a personal attribute.
Intersectionality is a way of analysing interconnected and overlapping forms of discrimination. It helps us understand the effect this has on individuals and communities. It can also help you understand the barriers to engaging that organisations can create.
Organisations can create barriers in their engagement when we:
- limit time and funding
- use only one or two communication channels for promotion
- write in a way that is hard to understand
- use inaccessible or culturally unsafe physical and digital spaces
- use only one language to engage
- engage the community without allowing them to influence change
- engage the same community members every time
- do not address power imbalances between organisations and communities
- do not consider power imbalances between and within communities.
Organisations must remove these barriers for the community to engage with us. If we focus on the most marginalised and excluded people, it can help us create solutions that work for everyone.
People have busy lives and are often time poor. Many take part in engagement activities on top of work and caring responsibilities. You will need to give them enough time to:
- understand the context of the engagement (e.g. read a strategy, report or legislation)
- gather their thoughts and opinions on the matter
- share all their feedback.
Applying an intersectional approach to your engagement process will help you consider someone’s unique experiences. This will help your engagement be more inclusive, accessible and equitable.
Be an inclusive organisation
If you work with community often, you or your organisation should invest in your skills. This can give you and your team the confidence to engage when there is an opportunity.
Before you begin, organise training or reflective sessions. You can organise training in:
- cultural competency
- trauma-informed engagement and responses
- inclusion and intersectionality
- facilitation
- embedding self-determination
- subconscious bias.
You can learn more about training opportunities at The Engagement Institute and place-based approaches.
To learn about creating culturally safe services and workplaces for First Nations people, consult the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Safety Framework.
Overcome common challenges
Doing ‘best practice’ engagement may not always be possible. But engaging the community should always be part of your work.
When you don’t engage, you can risk:
- significant time and budget spent on work that does not meet community needs and aspirations
- relationships with stakeholders who are not supportive of the output
- declining trust from community.
This table gives you ways to include engagement depending on the challenges you face.
| Challenge | Response |
|---|---|
| We don’t have time to engage | What time can you dedicate to engagement? Even some limited engagement is better than none if it is genuine, inclusive and accessible. You can host at least one focus group or roundtable with key stakeholders or community representatives. |
| We don’t have budget to engage | Identify opportunities for the community that do not require a lot of their time. This could be a short survey or online focus groups. People can be recognised for their time in a focus group with a gift card. You can also join or use existing engagement. |
| We want to engage but we don’t want to change any of our plans or outcomes | See Identify what can be influenced. Remember, best practice engagement means the community can influence something. Otherwise, you’re sharing information. |
| The community gives us feedback that we think is not relevant | Feedback from community and people with lived experience is always important to hear and consider. People who do not know the boundaries or technical language of policies, programs and funding are often overlooked. You may want to support training for community in how your institution works. This can also help build trust. |
Be aware of tokenism
If we do not establish why we are engaging communities, it can feel like a ‘box ticking exercise’.
This is when you engage communities to create the appearance of inclusivity. Often this is without providing opportunities for genuine power or influence. This is referred to as tokenism.
To avoid tokenism:
- consider whether the community will benefit from engagement – the project may not impact them
- involve the community early and consider them a key stakeholder
- engage people who experience multiple forms of discrimination and inequality. For example, young people with disability
- engage people from the community who you would not normally consult
- be clear about the scope for influence or change
- keep the community updated as the project progresses
- provide a final report, or a summary of how their insights were used
- consider opportunities for ongoing engagement, like in evaluation processes.
Building trust
Less than half the Australian population has trust in business, government, media, and non-government organisations.
There are many ways you can build trust with community. You can:
- attend community gatherings, meetings and events
- collaborate with local council
- acknowledge past engagement attempts
- use facilitators with relevant lived experience
- share your own connection to the issue
- listen with curiosity, empathy and compassion
- be sensitive to the cultural load of leaders – they might feel they have to represent their whole community
- respect significant cultural or religious dates.
Maintaining trust
- Develop a culture of engagement in your organisation which values community.
- Create clear and open lines of communication.
- If previous engagement has been done, address known tension, fears and grievances.
- If your main project contact changes, do a handover with community.
- For big organisations, maintain a central database of community engagement. This can prevent duplication and consultation fatigue.
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