From the Board April with Amy Hubbard

Community Engagement and Social Impact

Hello everyone,

For those that don’t know me, I am one of your new IAP2 Australasia Directors.

IAP2 has been a fairly significant part of my life since 2003 when I first became a member. I feel like I have professionally ‘grown up’ with IAP2 and I am now excited about being a member of the IAP2 Board. The organisation has gone through significant and courageous change over the past few years, and there are guaranteed exciting times ahead!

I wanted to take this opportunity to raise the topic of social responsibility.

For anyone who has worked with me, they know my passion is community engagement leading to positive social outcomes. I acknowledge that not all engagement outcomes lead to a positive social impact for all people. However, through the engagement process I believe that we can all make a positive social impact for all people.

Reading this article, you might be thinking: “I already create social impact through my engagement.”

My question is: “Do you really?”

More and more I am observing practitioners speeding towards the finish line with a version of engagement that is transactional and with very little depth or consideration of the people who we are there to support. We’re so absorbed with delivering on the project needs, that we’re overlooking the needs of the community in the engagement process.

I would urge practitioners to slow down and reflect on why we are here in the first place.

Here are some examples of how I believe we can create a positive social impact on individuals and communities.

• Treating people with respect – looking people in the eye and valuing their participation; welcoming them to community events and remembering their name; hearing what they are really saying; closing the loop by providing feedback; respecting existing social structures and cultural behaviours.
• Building confidence – supporting people to participate; giving people a voice that is both acknowledged by the project, and heard by other members of the community; following up on commitments or actions; providing people with a positive engagement experience.
• Creating community connections – creating opportunities for people with different backgrounds and values to meet and connect; providing engagement that enables different types of people to work together to create a path forward.
• Sharing knowledge – providing information that is tailored to the audience, in a mode that is accessible to the target audience; creating opportunities where people can learn from others.
• Strengthening community resilience – providing opportunities for the community to identify their own solutions and actions; building on the existing social fabric and networks.

While most of you will think the above makes sense, some practitioners will always have what I would consider the ‘standard’ reasons why social impact can’t be part of their engagement practice, for example,time, money and resources. I would like to myth bust that. It is not about doing more, it is about doing it differently. It is about changing our behaviours in the engagement process.

I don’t think we should under value the difference a positive engagement experience can have on a person’s life. It can fundamentally change how they participate in their own community and civic life and builds social cohesion and resilience.

I’m now going to leave you with a question:

Is it our responsibility to make a positive social impact through the process of community engagement?