Is Your Community Ready for Community Planning?

Considerable groundwork is required to prepare for community engagement and the overall planning process. Some considerations are:

• Having a “driver” for the community planning process in Council. While community planning involves the whole Council, often the Community Development Department (if there is one), or a relevant person or section, needs to provide consistent leadership and effort to facilitate the development and implementation of the plan,
• Briefing Councillors and senior managers to ensure they understand and support the process and are committed to the implementation of actions. Consider a councillor and/or executive management team member as a “champion” for the project and keep them involved as it progresses,
• Engaging other staff and departmental managers to involve them where appropriate and build broad Council ownership. All sections of Council need to at least understand the process. The risk that the plan “belongs” to community development staff is a major risk that needs to be avoided,
• Arranging for appropriate resources and time and designing a process that suits available resources,
• Reviewing existing plans or previous community engagement,
• Coordinating internally and with other agencies and organisations to ensure that engagement activities are organised and do not duplicate or clash with other engagement activities or plans,
• Briefing key community members and organisations and inviting their support and involvement in the process,
• Considering the implementation of actions early on in the process. This may mean initiating discussions with key service providers and government agencies.
• Is there enough community goodwill and trust in the community for productive engagement? Good engagement requires some maturity, goodwill, and responsibility.
• What are the sectors and geographic communities in the Council area that would be an appropriate way of describing community issues and priorities,
• What size and scope of the plan best suits the community?
• Having a process that builds the lasting capacity of Council staff,
• What is the best time to conduct the planning process such as avoiding engagement during December/January and during busy periods for the community.
• Gaining community advice about the best way to engage.