“Community engagement is playing an increasingly important role in decision making”. This was one of the key reasons participants gave for attending Nicole Halsey’s training in community engagement in Adelaide recently.
The full day session provided plenty of hands on activities about how to prepare an engagement plan, as well as lots of tips about engaging in diverse contexts.
Modelling good engagement practice, participants started by designing a process to evaluate the training. We are pleased to say that feedback gathered at the end of the session declared the training a success. The participants particularly valued how relevant the training was to their everyday roles and the engaging way in which it was delivered:
I learnt some great tips to improve my engagement skills. The atmosphere was really supportive and I liked how the training activities themselves used engagement techniques as a way of demonstrating them in practice.
I have done some IAP2 training but never really put it into practice so yesterday gave me a good concise refresher, as well as teaching me new things. I also found the templates and examples really practical and useful.
[Facilitator was] very knowledgeable and engaging.
URPS has also been working closely with the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure developing the ‘Guide to the Community Engagement Charter’ and the supporting toolkit.
Stay tuned for a new and exciting engagement training program to be delivered by URPS focussed on how to put the new Community Engagement Charter into practice as the new planning system rolls out.
