What makes good community engagement?
Authentic community engagement
Effective community engagement provides real opportunities for community groups and individuals to discuss their hopes, issues and aspirations – and be heard. Community engagement can be face-to-face, from formal workshops to informal drop-in sessions, pop-ups, and listening posts. Engagement can also be online, from surveys to online meetings with break-out options, and everywhere in between.
Whatever the process, opportunities to engage must be accessible and convenient for broad community sectors to be involved. In some circumstances, this might involve the recruitment of participants to achieve a diverse and representative community voice, rather than just the people who are passionate about the topic.
In other circumstances, engagement of multifaceted issues is necessary over extended periods of time. Jen has chaired a number of community-based committees to work through complex, ongoing issues of great concern to local people. Examples include the Brooklyn Community Representative Group, Tullamarine Landfill Community Consultation Group, Drysdale Landfill Community Consultation Group, Alcoa Anglesea Power Station Community Consultation Network and North East Truck Curfew Community Reference Group.
Jen also assisted the establishment of the Mallee Fire Advisory Group, Melbourne Regional Landfill Community Consultation Group and a revised Stawell Gold Mines Environment Review Committee format. She facilitated each of these groups for 12 months during their establishment/transition.
What our clients say
Kismet Forward (Jen Lilburn) was engaged by EPA to facilitate community consultation with companies in the Brooklyn Industrial Precinct, as well as State and Local government representatives in late 2008 for over 10 years. The community very much appreciates the very professional and independent manner in which Kismet Forward has conducted community engagement meetings. Jen’s calm and professional approach to our meetings, which have sometimes been difficult, and her work outside the meetings, has been welcomed by all
Bruce
President of Yarraville On The Nose Community GroupThe team at Kismet Forward are fantastic to work with and respond pro-actively to client needs. Jen and her team were able to provide facilitation expertise that helped us to deliver an extremely successful facilitation event. Such success is measured by the quality of discussion, accurate recording of information and the use of innovative facilitation techniques that enable all participants to become empowered throughout the process. Great work, Kismet Forward.
