Effective Change in Communities

How on Earth (let alone in your community) do you consult with people, take on board all of their views and opinions, their hopes and desires, and then deliver a project that meets all of those needs; plus the needs of your funders and other stakeholders? Sounds impossible, yet that is how effective change in communities is expected to work! We take a simpler approach to local projects, delivering community consultation that structures expectations and really works.

We facilitate (or train you and your team to facilitate) community consultation programmes by helping you to look for the specific, observable, measurable and interactional differences that would be noticed by participants if the project you were to deliver was a great success. By translating non-specific hopes and dreams into tangible outcomes, we can focus the project to deliver the real differences sought by the community.

This process removes argument and debate about the "how", about the "things" that people want.

For example, a new social housing development included space for the young people. The residents proposed a complex and expensive set of play and sports facilities. When the young people were consulted, all they wanted was a space that was not overlooked by all the nearby new houses. The solution was the installation of some large boulders where they could hang out. Significantly cheaper, and meeting the needs of the young people.

We can facilitate one workshop, or we can train your team in how to do it. If you are trying to deliver effective change in your communities or localism projects, talk to us about methods of community consultation that really work.