What is Engagement?
In our opinion...
Engagement isn't:
- Needing to queue in the rain outside a council office to have your voice heard
- Leafing through endless paper files in a dark & dank room to find out about proposals that will affect you
- Giving your opinion and never finding out what happened to it
- Giving your opinion and then finding out that it was ignored
- Being interrupted at the dinner table by a man with a clipboard at the door asking about local refuse collections (unless this was your topic of dinner conversation)
- Having an analysed report of your & others' opinions sit on a shelf and rarely looked at
- Having your say on numerous, often complex, national issues with just a couple of votes, every five years
- Needing to understand the intricate workings of local & national government to have any impact
- Having to contribute hours and days, instead of seconds and minutes, to be involved
Engagement is:
- Being asked about key issues and proposals that will affect your life
- Having the opportunity to put your own views & ideas to the relevant decision-makers even if you're not asked for them, and getting a response
- Giving your opinion and even if it's not agreed with, having the reasons made really clear
- Having your views taken seriously
- Seeing the results of your opinions
- Being able to contribute in a way which fits in with your busy schedule - at work, on a train, at home, at a cafe...
- Being able to meaningfully contribute 30 seconds, or two hours if you have it
- Having your say on issues you care about; not necessarily on things you don't
- Having easily accessible information on the issues up for discussion
- Being responded to by real people
- Enjoyable & rewarding when it works well
2 comments
It's simply about having your say and been heard by the right people, not ignored.
05/10/10
The best engagement, I'd suggest, comes from being recognised by decision-makers as having something important to offer - whether it's something intrinsic (our values), something learned (our experience), or something creative (our ideas).
26/05/10
Most recent comments
What is Engagement?
by Gail It's simply about having your say and been heard by the right people, not ignored.
05/10/10
What is Engagement?
by mark The best engagement, I'd suggest, comes from being recognised by decision-makers as having something important to offer - whether it's something...
26/05/10