Local networks update August 2018
Upcoming Local Network Events
We invite everyone to become involved in the following upcoming local network activities. Save the date now, and watch out for further information coming your way very shortly:
- Sydney – Friday 24 AugustWhere : Aurecon Level 5, 116 Military Road Neutral Bay (near the Coles)
Time : 7.30-9am
More details coming soon! - Brisbane – Thursday 27 September
- Melbourne – Wednesday 21 November
Disclaimer: The local network events are correct at the time of publication. Please be advised that changes to these events may be required without notice.
Past Event Snapshot
Newcastle Cocktail Catch Up – Tuesday 17 July 2018
IAP2 Australasia and Social Pinpoint held a Cocktail Catch-Up event at the Novotel at Newcastle beach after an IAP2A training event. The event was a casual networking event for community engagement professionals in the area. Tegan Hughes with Keolis Downer spoke about her experience engaging the community with the revamp of the Newcastle Bus system. Tegan emphasized that although she used digital engagement, it was essential to use traditional offline engagement strategies as well. She also found that when she received a push back from residents on certain decisions, it was extremely helpful to be able to use data from her online engagement strategies to explain why decisions were made.
We will be hosting another catch-up event in the next few months, so watch for updates and make sure to RSVP to reserve your spot. We look forward to seeing you there!
Engagement Evaluation – Thursday 19 July 2018
More than 50 community engagement professionals attended the recent Measurement and Evaluation session in Wodonga, organised by the Border North East Community Engagement Practitioners’ Network.
Both speakers said practitioners needed to start by defining what it is they are trying to find out by setting up an evaluation. Understanding the purpose of the evaluation improves the design of the engagement and the quality of the materials you prepare.
IAP2 trainer, Alice Sherring revealed her three enemies of evaluation. Alice covered outcome, process and principles-based criteria for evaluation. Practitioners can use IAP2’s core values to assist with the principles-based evaluation.
She challenged practitioners to set themselves personal benchmarks for their engagement projects and their role in the projects, to ensure they monitor their development and are open to new opportunities to learn.
The second speaker, Dr Alana Hulme from the Centre for Rural Sexual Health also reflected on her role in the evaluation of Gateway Health’s Gender Service – the first to be established in regional Victoria.
Given the relatively small community, the sensitive nature of people’s experience and the Centre’s use of the practical participatory approach, Alana focused on the wellbeing of the participants and involved them in the design, to ensure their anonymity and confidentiality of information they provided.
The evaluation was designed to capture how the Gender Service model was developed and rolled out, so that others in regional communities had a model to use as a guide.
Interested people can find out more about Gateway Health’s Gender Service on their website – there is a link to the evaluation on this page.
Christmas in July, Engagement all year round – Thursday 26 July 2018
It was a warm and friendly evening in the atmospheric, comfortable setting of the Prohibition Library at Miss Kay’s burger bar in Brisbane. Guest speaker, Dr Anne Lane from QUT’s School of Business steered us along a winding path to consider some of the fundamental questions about why we engage, what we personally get from it, and who we want to benefit.
Our path was illuminated by the contributions of almost everybody in the room, Anne skilfully prompting, prodding and interrogating us. A rewarding process with insights that sometimes surprised us and delighted Anne, who is undertaking research into authenticity and giving communities a voice. One of our number suggested that community engagement needs to take the decision makers like politicians on the journey that we are on with the community. Another likened our work to that of a translator between the project or policy team and the average community member.
We were also treated to some thought provoking ideas by Kylie Cochrane, our Australasian board member and the international chair of IAP2, who gave us a glimpse of the world setting and also dangled questions in front of us about the overlap between community engagement and other communication practices.