Reinventing the Way Local Councils & NGOs Engage with their Communities

TYPE OFENGAGEMENT

GOVERNMENT’S ROLE CITIZEN’SROLE

Customer Service

Provide services Ratepayer/Client

Citizen Participation

Engage people in government’s priorities through its processes and programs

Advisor/Volunteer

Community Empowerment

Support community to work on its own priorities through its own associations

Producer

KEYS TO GENUINECOMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Move beyond siloed thinking

to focusing on whole places

Move beyond starting with needs

to starting with strengths

Move beyond top-down

to community-driven

STEPS AGENCIES CAN TAKETO BE BETTER PARTNERS

Do No Harm:• Don’t distract the community from its own

priorities.

• Don’t force the community into the bureaucracy’s silos.

• Don’t take people’s time without showing results.

• Never do for people what they can do for themselves.

• Don’t treat NGOs as the surrogate for community.

Remove Agency Barriers:• Centralized decision making• Cookie cutter programs and

regulations• Inaccessibility (location, language,

hours, runaround)• Know-it-all attitude• Obsession with measuring• Bureaucratic red tape

Palmerston North, New Zealand

Build Community Capacity:• Offer leadership training

• Assist with outreach tools like translation

• Work with associations of all types

• Provide forums for networking

• Offer non-meeting options for engagement

• Highlight community strengths

• Share stories of successful communities

• Move beyond client services and citizen participation to community empowerment