Time to learn something new or develop your existing skills?

The Learning Centre is aimed to not only help first-time engagers, but to also provide a space for continuous improvement and capability building for seasoned engagers from our Community Engagement Community of Practice (“CECoP”).

Community Engagement at Our Council

WATCH RECORDED TRAINING.

It's a very exciting time in the community engagement space at our Council

With legislative changes, a new Policy, and Framework including new templates and processes to follow, there's a lot of new information out there. The community engagement team would love to see you at our NEW training session Community Engagement at Our Council.

Resources for this training:

Community Engagement Policy

Community Engagement Framework

Community Engagement Evaluation & Reporting Framework

Community Engagement in Action

This training will break down the community engagement process step by step using your real project. The community engagement team will support you, end to end throughout your project to:

  • Find your purpose for consultation
  • Design your key question for the community
  • Find your stakeholders
  • Decide on the best methods to use for your consultation and how to promote or communicate your engagement
  • Help you understand best methods to collect data
  • Write a findings report
  • Close the loop with your stakeholders
  • Evaluate your project

If you have an upcoming project that you would like support with, please contact the engagement team.

Email engagement@ourcouncil.com.au

COMING SOON

Events including:

  • guest speakers from a range of departments,
  • Q&A sessions,
  • case studies of recent consultation projects,
  • external speakers,
  • links to events provided by IAP2 and leading community engagement consultant

The People Team have a full program for staff learning and development. Why not check out some of the upcoming opportunities to build your skills in areas that can compliment the community engagement process.

These sessions can be booked via our internal learning platform, or via the Staff Events Calendar.

Upcoming training:

  • TBC

Our Council runs amazing events throughout the year for the community. Many of these events also provide the perfect opportunity for community consultation.

Next time you have an engagement project, why not check out the events calendar and see if you can link into one of the upcoming events?

Our major events include:

  • Pet Expo - Sunday 12th September
  • Council Picnic - Sunday 24th October
  • Rose & Garden Show - Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th November

Learn all about our council communities

Head to the Engaging Our Communities page to find information on how to reach groups that we've identified as potentially having more barriers to engagement such as language, physical ability, digital comprehension, lack of time and social isolation.

There's also a list of key internal contacts who work regularly within these communities and are a treasure trove of information and resources to help you.

The engagers graphic

The Engagers

Our Community Engagement Community of Practice

The Engagers provides the opportunity for you to build your expertise and deepen your knowledge in the practice of community engagement at our council.

Our objectives are to:

  • support better practice community engagement,
  • build capability,
  • share knowledge, tools and experiences,
  • help reduce duplication of work (i.e. over consultation),
  • connect with other business units,
  • provide the opportunity to interact with a larger community in a safe environment,
  • hold meaningful engagement events in a range of formats to meet the needs of the community.

Who can participate?

Membership is voluntary. If you would like to join The Engagers please email engagement@ourcouncil.com.au and you will be added to our mailing list.

How can I participate?

The Community Engagement Team will email invites to our monthly events and training sessions.

Calendar of events

The Engagers will hold monthly stand-up meetings at 11am on a Wednesday to talk through anything community engagement related or specific project questions.

Monthly events and training sessions will also be held. You can view the calendar of events below.

Date Topic Facilitator(s)
OctoberMonthly stand-up: TBC

Training: Engaging Our Communities
CE Team

CE Team

NovemberMonthly stand-up: TBC

Training/ Event: TBC

CE Team

Guess speakers:
TBC
DecemberMonthly stand-up: TBC

Event: End of year celebration – let’s take a look at 2021 and the consultations that were.

CE Team

Newsfeed

Stay up to date with new training opportunities and events happening in the community engagement space, as well as sharing interesting news articles or blogs.

  • Community Engagement training coming soon!

    We are very excited to announce new engagement training for all teams. To help with the legislative changes of the Local Government Act 2020, the Community Engagement Team are offering personalised team training across the organisation.

    This is a must for all teams across Council to gain an understanding on expectations for your community engagement projects moving forward.

    Book now!

  • Understand our community at a truly local level

    We explore the recent changes to the Local Government Act in including a key feature being to ensure affected community groups are represented in community engagements.

    We'll be running an upcoming session with the Research Team as part of your community engagement background research.

    Read more here

  • Face-to-face engagement - where to from here?

    Uncertainty is the name of the game when it comes to face to face facilitation in Australia.

    We are returning to face-to-face facilitation. Or are we? In these uncertain times, how do we decide and plan in what continues to be surprising and changing circumstances?

    Our community partner shares some of their surprising finds from the past 12 months.

    Read more here