Engaging the Large and Diverse Community of Parramatta – How to Establish a Residents’ Panel

Bishop P¹*, Coggan R¹* and Clark W¹*

1. Parramatta City Council, Parramatta, NSW, Australia

This paper will discuss practical methods and relevant academic research on how to establish a Residents’ Panel and involve diverse and expanding ethnic communities in local government. The case study will present the design challenges faced in establishing Parramatta City Council Resident’s Panel. It will cover the formation of policy to support engagement, volunteer management, the application of statistical analysis and the processes of feedback to Councillors and the community. In order to establish the Panel research has been conducted into Local Government best practice and deliberative democratic procedures. The key questions that will be addressed during the presentation are informed by this research.

The key questions to be addressed are:

• Why a Residents’ Panel complements other forms of community participation and decision making.
• How to make the participation process accessible and realistic to all ethnic groups.
• Methods of engagement to produce outcomes.
• What to evaluate to demonstrate a return on investment to key stakeholders.

Most importantly the impact that the Residents’ Panel has on ongoing planning and service provision in comparison to other more embedded processes of influence will be described. Finally the challenges and opportunities for the future will be discussed.
Parramatta City Council is the 7th largest and fastest growing Local Government Area in NSW, with a population of144,490. More than 35 per cent of the population was born over seas and the amount of people from non-English speaking backgrounds has doubled in the past fifteen years.

The case study will draw on the experiences of Parramatta City Council and research conducted into Local Government best practice and research on deliberative democratic procedures.

Click here to view the full paper