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New South Wales events

IAP2 Australasia would like to invite you to come along to a very special opportunity to have breakfast with Bliss Browne in Sydney.

Barbara Lewis is an inspirational community engagement practitioner and licensed IAP2 Master Trainer with a passionate commitment to the Appreciative Inquiry approach.

A peak experience of Barbara’s career was the Focus on Longmont project, which used appreciative inquiry and deliberative dialogue in developing a citywide strategic plan. Longmont is located near Denver in Colorado (USA). Barbara’s outstanding work in leading the Focus on Longmont project was recognized with the IAP2 Core Values Award for Project of the Year in 2006. 

Barbara shared the compelling Longmont story and anecdotes about the Appreciative Inquiry process at this one-off opportunity in Sydney.

April 2008
Engaging the community in public sector projects

Collaborating with the community to achieve improved service delivery and sustained development.

Nowadays the importance of community engagement is widely recognised by politicians and management in the public sector. The majority of local, state and federal agencies are involved in community engagement with the purpose to improve public service delivery and develop communities in a more sustainable way.

However, a lot of organisations are still unaware of how exactly to go about embedding community engagement in their policies and projects, effectively planning the community engagement process and achieving high levels of democratic governance. Besides that organisations are left with many challenges related to engaging with different target groups, utilising and tailoring consultation protocols and techniques, and managing conflict and crisis and situations. Therefore, the potential mutual benefits of community engagement are often not reached.

This conference allowed you to hear practical case studies from people who share the experience of working with community engagement within the public sector and armed you with techniques to:

• Effectively incorporate community engagement in policies and programs
• Build partnerships with and empower the community in the decision making process
• Engage with different audiences
• Choose the appropriate consultation tools and techniques
• Respond adequately to feedback and build consensus
• Plan and collaborate in and between agencies

Practitioners have been noting a change in the behaviour of communities in recent engagement processes. They are finding that in some cases there has been a marked change in courtesy and an increase in dirty tricks.

At this informal Sydney event we discussed whether polite and respectful community engagement is a reality or whether it is a thing of the past.. Had it become a one sided game where some communities are now found to be less courteous than in the past.
How do we as practitioners lift the game and how do we manage the dirty tricks?

With Council elections scheduled for September this year this discussion was a timely one for us all as well as those in Local Government

Lucy Cole- Edelstein led this discussion. Lucy is an experienced facilitator and community engagement practitioner.

This event was fully booked.

February 2008
The Power of Engaging Stakeholders

Better Policy 
                          Improved Services
                                                            Stronger Community

IAP2 Sydney 2007 in review

In 2007 IAP2 in Sydney had four key events. Two events in the first half of the year were more ‘formal and  involved guest speakers who shared their ideas and experiencesof community engagement . The first of these explored  the experience of  community engagement in the Kings Cross Community and the second the Parramatta City Council’s approach to enagaging with its community.

In the second half of the year the events were more casual and involved a group discussion about two topics of interest . These topics were Consultation Fatigue and the Agony and the Ecstasy of Community Liaison Groups.

A brief outline of these four ‘events’ is outlined below

November 2007
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Community Advisory Groups:
As community advisory groups are one of the most frequently used (and abused) methods of consultation, diligent practitioners have to ask what place do they have in the consultation toolbox and where do they sit in the IAP2 spectrum?

This event explored the efficacy of community advisory groups, also known as community liaison groups and community reference groups then joined other IAP2 members and friends for an informal conversation on this somewhat vexed issue.

We reflected on why they are used, when they are used, who participates in them, how they operate, how they provide input to project outcomes and shape decisions and the support they receive from their initiating organisation.

A mix of experienced and inexperienced practitioners met to pick up a few pointers that helped to establish and work with constructive groups rather than dysfunctional groups.

July 2007
Consultation fatigue
In July 07 IAP2 in Sydney held a discussion at the Rag and Famish Hotel in North Sdydney to discuss consultation fatigue.

The group recognised that fatigue exists for practitioners, communities and proponents particularly those with large programs that include a community engagement component. The challenge is to devise ways to keep all those who participate ‘fresh’ so that the very best is achieved from the engagement process. However it was agreed that fatigue is understandable, should be recognised and supported. 

May 2007
Engaging Communities - The Parramatta City Council Experience and Approach
At this event Parramatta Council hosted an evening for IAP2, where Councils General Manager and staff from the community engagement groups discussed a number of areas where council is engaging with the community to deliver better services to the Parramatta community. The following key areas were discussed

1. an overview of Parramatta 2025 and the importance of consultation in engaging communities in a planning process such as this. Parramatta has an important regional role within the Sydney Region and there are inevitably tensions between local needs and aspirations and regional responsibilities. Consultation ensured all parties better understood positions and responsibilities

2. Council’s Strategic planning process with a focus on the triple bottom line approach and how community feedback gained through consultation is incorporated into operational areas within Council. That is how does council use its community feedback to assist it in defining its work program.

3. The Residents Panel – Council advised that it has almost 2000 citizens involved in its panels which provide feedback on a wide variety of issues and proposals.

4. The Community Capacity Building initiative. Council gave examples of work it is doing to engage hard to reach groups. The city has a large and diverse multi cultural population and Council is keen to encourage their involvement. One if its initiatives has involved a ‘civics program’ which focuses on increasing community understanding about how council works and how to use the council.

February 2007
Engaging with the Kings Cross Community
For our first event of the year and in this series, we heard  from the Sydney City Council, the Wayside Chapel, the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre and the local Police command. All of them work with multiple groups and organisation sand individuals who make up this community. Here is a sample of what they told us about community  enagagement.

Linda Mearing who is the Kings Cross Place Manager for the City Council described the dynamic nature of the community over many years, from a bohemian community, the Cross during and after the Vietnam War and the Cross as it is today.  

In 2007 Kings Cross is a vibrant multi dimensional community where there is a strong and growing interest in new business and in the Cross as a sought after place to live. The area has one of the highest population densities in Australia. 

As the land manager for the area, the City Council takes a consultative approach. It works with the communities and the organisations that are Kings Cross. These include business, agencies, Government agencies and departments  and groups focussing on particular  groups within the community such as the sex workers cooperative.

The Wayside Chapel is well known as a place to care for all comers and to provide practical and emotional support that is free of judgment. The Wayside works with many communities including its strong community of volunteers.  Pastor Graham Long summed up his approach to engagement as one where “people are to be met rather than problems to be solved”.

Dr Ingrid Van Beek, from the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC), provided an insight into the way the organisations she has been involved with have worked and continue to work with communities to address the issues that come with injecting drug use. Interestingly the establishment of the first needle exchange centre occurred without community involvement or discussion. It was a response to the urgent issue of HIV.

Dr Van Beek acknowledged that to do her work she has needed more than her medical skills.  The need to be an effective communicator to individuals, groups and the media as well as to government and agencies have become a necessary part of her skill set. 
She believes that:
- working with the local community is the least you can do;
-respect views you don’t agree with
-working with the Kings Cross community is a privilege
-the drug using community has rights and obligations 

Kings Cross Local Command

‘Some  years ago consultation was when you went to the doctor but now it means something quite different’ so began the presentation from the Kings Cross Local Command.
Today the Local Command engages with the community through various forums.  The idea that policing is about crime, investigating crime and arresting people is far from the reality.
Police deal with many disenfranchised groups and they find that the key to turning things around is to engage with them, find out about their lifestyle and try to encourage the focus of other external agencies.    The Police at Kings Cross have adopted this approach with prostitutes and homeless people in Woolloomooloo.

While the Police know they need to enagage with the community ,they  told us that they need to think laterally about how they can do this. .One example given involves midnight basketball. In order to get kids off the streets on Saturday nights the Police in the area have introduced midnight basketball and it works.

• Click here for the Sydney Workshop 9-11 April 2008 brochure (654Kb)