What we do
Community engagement that delivers.
Every project is different. Sometimes you need a clear strategy, sometimes an experienced pair of hands, and sometimes an independent facilitator who can help people work through an issue together.
With almost 20 years’ experience across local government and community engagement, we understand what good engagement looks like and the practical realities of delivering it.
We can help you plan and deliver community consultation, facilitate productive conversations, and build your team’s skills and confidence through practical training. Whatever the brief, our focus is on making the process useful, enjoyable and achievable and delivering work you can confidently share with your community and decision-makers.
Engagement strategy & planning
Good engagement starts with a clear and practical plan.
We help you understand what needs to be decided, who needs to be involved and how their input can make a genuine difference.
We can develop your engagement strategy and stakeholder mapping, build consultation plans and timelines, and create tailored engagement tools to suit your project.
The result is an approach that fits your community, your resources and your project — and a clear path forward your team can confidently put into action.
Deliberative engagement
A good deliberative process needs careful design and independent facilitation.
We have designed and facilitated community panels on a range of topics, and we understand what it takes to make them work — from developing the remit and promise through to recruiting participants, preparing information and working with leaders and subject matter experts.
We’ve also been the client for deliberative engagement, so we understand the internal challenges, competing priorities and workload involved.
We can provide the independent expertise and trusted external perspective your organisation needs to design a process that works for your particular challenge.
Community engagement
One of the biggest challenges in community engagement is reaching beyond the usual participants. We help you capture the attention of a broad cross-section of the community, create accessible ways for people to take part and gather feedback that is meaningful and useful.
We can step in to deliver the whole consultation or provide additional capacity where your team needs it most, from developing surveys and engagement materials to running workshops and other activities. We can also analyse the feedback, identify clear themes and prepare reports for your community and decision-makers.
Sometimes you don’t need another big project team. You just need someone who understands the work, can hit the ground running and keep it moving.
Facilitation
Sometimes you can’t — or shouldn’t — facilitate your own meeting.
We know. We’ve tried!
An independent facilitator can ask the questions that might otherwise go unasked, bring a different perspective to the room and help people get to the heart of the matter.
We design and facilitate workshops, meetings, information sessions and events around the needs of your organisation and the people involved.
Whether you need to share information, work through a complex issue, generate ideas or reach a tangible outcome, we’ll create a process that is purposeful, practical and enjoyable to be part of.
Training & capability building
Not everyone has had the opportunity to learn about community engagement or facilitation — and even experienced practitioners can get rusty when they don’t have regular opportunities to put those skills into practice.
We provide tailored training in engagement and facilitation, designed around your organisation’s needs.
We can also provide coaching and mentoring for you, your colleagues, leaders and decision-makers, helping build the confidence and capability to design better engagement, facilitate meaningful conversations and make better use of what you hear.
Let's have a conversation
Whether you’re planning a new project, working through an engagement challenge or simply want to talk through an idea, we’d love to hear from you.