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Encouraging People to be Involved

The first step in involving community members is to understand the community. It is important to understand local ‘sub-communities’ and who the key opinion leaders are, to appreciate the history of involvement, and to acknowledge local issues and controversies.

Consider what might be an appropriate level of involvement for people. The Queensland Government has adopted the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (www.oecd.org) engagement model:

  • Inform – sometimes it is appropriate for government just to deliver information about a project or issue to people
  • Consult – a two-way relationship between community members and government, in which people can provide feedback on options and issues
  • Active participation – a collaboration that enables community members to help actively shape government policies.

Some tips on involving people in community activities are:

  • Plan your involvement to make sure that you are inviting all relevant people and groups to be involved and that the ways of involving them are appropriate
  • Ask people from different groups how they would like to be involved
  • Identify the natural community ‘hubs’ that people gather around and contact people where they gather. These will vary for different groups such as the daycare group (for contacting parents and families), service clubs (for contacting business community) or the skate bowl (for contacting young people)
  • Ensure that activities are fun, social and held at a time of day and in locations that are convenient for people
  • Make sure that everyone has a chance to be involved — for example, cater for people who have a disability or who may not have English as a first language
  • Be clear to people about the influence that they can have over the issue you want to discuss with them
  • Provide feedback to people about how their input has been reflected in the project or idea. Follow up with them about any ideas or actions they suggested.

Extra resources

Last reviewed
17 June 2011
Last updated
20 June 2011