Inclusivity

Inclusivity is an important factor in creating collective agreement over your plan. See the Community Engagement chapter for more detail. This is closely related to the engagement section because with good engagement, people are more willing and able to take part in decisions about identifying needs and aspirations as well as taking forward future actions to address needs and aspirations identified.

Thoughtful engagement across the community is important to create a meaningful plan, which empowers, and attracts participation from local residents.

An inclusive approach should be considerate of everyone in your community, this requires an ability to reach out to those less able to engage and to listen to the range of views and perspectives.

This will allow a wide range of input to addressing to your community’s needs and challenges, as well as identifying opportunities and working collectively to deliver any plans in a way that provides creative solutions which include everyone.

It is often the case that communities will come together when a specific challenge or opportunity presents itself.

For example – the threatened loss of an important service, or the presentation of an opportunity to generate income for community benefit through a local asset – such as renewable energy.

In this case the ‘what’ is already identified. It is important to then consider options for enterprising solutions.

Identifying needs and opportunities is an important first stage in bringing together a plan if there is not already a pre-determined focal point.

Gathering feedback can be done in a number of ways. A community survey is an effective method of gathering a range of ideas and perspectives. This provides a framework allowing the wider community to feed in their priority needs and aspirations.

With continued collective community engagement, people taking part will input on how they wish the information gathering to be carried out.

When approaching your needs and aspirations, it is important to consider how social enterprise solutions may be developed to address these.

Encouraging a focus on this aspect from an early stage can help stimulate ideas and identify assets, which may not otherwise have been recognised.

It can be of benefit to add a specific question asking for ideas for enterprise opportunities that could be developed to provide income for community benefit, to see what ideas come to light.

Digital survey tools such as ‘Survey Monkey’ can also be useful in reaching a broad range of stakeholders. However, it is also important to consider digital access and confidence – are all members of your community able to participate digitally?

If the answer is no, you should provide an alternative option for people who would not be comfortable providing their input online.

Survey Monkey and its equivalent tools also provide the opportunity to produce survey analysis in the form of graphs or tables, so can be of value to add to the information gathered in hard copy format.

Running a focus group can provide an opportunity for a more detailed discussion around particular issues or aspirations.

They are particularly good for exploring questions in more depth, and people’s ideas can build on and challenge one another’s.

A focus group can also provide an opportunity to discuss some findings that have already been gathered via a community survey or to explore specific ideas.