Community engagement is becoming central to a communications philosophy of involving citizens and stakeholders in the decision-making process. People have the right to mould decisions that directly affect their lives and, thus, shape the way their community develops.
From the emergence of our outline Community Strategy, a great focus was placed on putting local people at the heart of partnership working; this is reflected in the initial consultation process, where the views and expectations of local people helped fashion the Vision for the City. The developing ONE HULL Communications Strategy acknowledges how community engagement can help empower residents, as well as community and voluntary groups, by sharing the benefits of partnership working.
Furthermore, people who are encouraged to become ‘active partners’ will have a vested interest in influencing neighbourhood renewal, shape regeneration and development, as well providing a crucial grass roots link. This can range from information sharing to helping facilitate local projects and community schemes. Therefore, the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) recognises community engagement as an effective mechanism for listening, talking, sharing and working together toward shared values.
In Hull, several agencies, including the Primary Care Trust, Humberside Police and Hull City Council are developing community engagement strategies, which emphasises the growing commitment of service providers to involve local people across the City-wide community. ONE HULL will strive to make key partners aware of the ONE HULL Community Engagement Framework and Toolkit in order to provide a strategic direction to co-ordinate the various permutations across the City.
A working group, lead by the Hull Community Network, is standardising the LSP document to ensure key partners sign up to the ethos of a co-ordinated, consistent and coherent support network, as well as a ‘joined up’ approach to community engagement itself.
The PDF document, A Framework for Engaging with Communities and the Toolkit, will be available to download following a final proof and rebrand.
For more information on the Community Engagement Framework and Toolkit, please call the Hull Community Network on (01482) 611891.