Speaking Out in Community Engagement: A Review of Fifteen Years of Refinement of the SpeakOut Model

Sarkissian W¹*, Cook A²*

1. Sarkissian Associates Planners Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2. Red Road Consulting, Melbourne, Australia

In December 1990, community planners Wendy Sarkissian and Andrea Cook developed a new model of community engagement, the Speak Out, as part of consultation for the redevelopment of the Salisbury Town Centre, South Australia. Since then, they have conducted a large number of SpeakOuts in widely varying Australian contexts, the model has become a mainstay of the work of their two consulting firms (and is now used overseas), and they have published a suite of award-winning advisory materials to assist practitioners and others.

This colourful, illustrated presentation focuses on a the development of the model and variety of innovative ways of using the SpeakOut model in Australian urban and rural contexts over fifteen years, ranging from projects in the Gold Coast, Redfern in Sydney to Footscray in Melbourne.

The cornerstone of the presentation is the 2004 Footscray SpeakOut for the revisioning of central Footscray.

Practical and theoretical issues are discussed in this exploration of a flexible and creative community engagement model.

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