Engagement outcomes and decision-making must be grounded in evidence. Capire Senior Associate Denise Franciso shares her tips for building community knowledge.
Good engagement practice draws on a combination of community insights, expert knowledge and evidence to inform future decisions and actions. Bringing these sources of information together helps build community understanding, explore possibilities and identify opportunities.
Supporting evidence may include population growth projections, mapping of existing facilities and infrastructure, or assessments of service gaps and future needs. Gathering and analysing this evidence often requires specialist expertise and considerable time. Understanding these requirements matters when planning engagement, as the timing of technical investigations must align with engagement activities, including the lead time needed to effectively promote opportunities for participation.
Examples might be when a design or plan for a building or precinct is guided by what can physically happen on a site within known constraints. In this instance, design and development options might be constrained by heritage parameters, what can happen underground, or even the presence of an endangered species.
Another example is when flood modelling informs planning controls that determine what housing development can occur within a particular area. In this instance, the community might challenge or reject the modelling because it could affect the resale value of their land or property. However, the modelling is essential to inform planning decisions and help municipal authorities prepare for and respond to major flooding events, such as a ‘1 in 100-year’ flood.
The community are the experts in many situations. Through engagement, the community can also strengthen the evidence base by sharing local knowledge or lived experience. This is where the magic happens in engagement – helping community views to build on the evidence base to shape or refine an opportunity or effectively respond to an issue. In some cases, evidence is provided to help people understand why certain rules are in place.
What we are seeing increasingly – particularly in the news, politics and social media – is community sentiment playing out as though opinion alone is sufficient evidence. People may reject evidence or scrutinise it intensely, particularly when it challenges their interests or views. AI has also given people greater access to information to build their knowledge, but this is increasingly contributing to evidence being questioned and challenged.
How evidence is communicated needs careful consideration to help community members digest the information before they can discuss it or express their views in a meaningful way. Too often, this sharing is seen as optional. Information might be presented as plans, illustrations, a PowerPoint presentation, a video, a conversation, or words or images on a board. Helping the community see, touch, and feel a place, issues, or future options lets people respond in ways that set direction, choose options, or challenge ideas to improve them.
As engagement practitioners, we need to partner with experts to share and explain evidence in a way that helps the community understand a direction being taken or options under consideration. This is a collaborative exercise and sometimes requires translation into plain English, images, or graphics to build understanding.
I’m interested to know more about situations where the community has become the expert. How have you presented evidence in an impactful way? What did you do when evidence and community sentiment did not align? I’d love to hear what worked well for you in your area of expertise. Email [email protected].
