The I Forum, A New Approach to Community Engagement

Rogers C¹*

1. Evolve Facilitation and Coaching, Narooma, NSW, Australia

This interactive session will examine the practical application of values in the design and delivery of community engagement programs and how engagement is facilitated. Values for community engagement are drawn from the International Association of Public Participation and values for facilitation from the International Association of Facilitators. The author, through the presentation of case studies, will explore the benefits and challenges associated with a values based framework and the evolution of this framework through her own practice. There will also be opportunity for participants to consider and discuss the values that guide their own community engagement practice. The case studies presented are large, complex engagement programs one of which has received an award from the International Association of Public Participation Practitioners.

The author will also illustrate how the values of transparency, accountability, influence and equity has assisted in the development of a new approach to sharing information (the ‘I Forum’). The ‘I Forum’ (Information, Ideas and Issues) has been developed following research by the author of best practice in community engagement in the United States and Canada. The emphasis of the ‘I Forum’ is on catering for diversity in participants in terms of communication and learning styles, language and literacy. The ‘I Forum’; has captured the imagination of local communities, practitioners and media with forums conducted to date being both well attended and received.

Facilitation is a critical part of engagement programs and the importance of value based facilitation to the success of a program will also examined.