Councils are constantly looking for new ways to engage their residents, from citizens assemblies to listening sofas. When councils don’t hear residents or don’t act on their views consistently and reliably the costs are very high; you lose trust, community coherence and money.
Its really difficult to do. Conversations with residents are often related to one off projects or plans, and still leave the question ‘how do we continually engage with residents’ unanswered.
The right approach to building an open and continual relationship with residents can mobilise people and give you real time insights and understanding of what residents want, alongside the opportunities to work together to shape solutions to the many challenges communities are facing.
There are amazing examples from councils across the country, come and find out from others how they have done it and hear what is possible elsewhere.
Join us to find out how to:
- Make the case for this approach that sees community engagement as everyone’s role
- Develop to develop skills and confidence with good engagement practices
- Create meaningful relationships with residents that exist beyond one off engagement projects