True engagement requires partnership-building and working with those most affected by your project, not just seeking their opinions.
Too often though, engagement is treated as a box-ticking exercise. When done right, however, it's one of the most powerful tools for creating lasting, community-driven change.
The more deeply you involve people from the beginning, the more likely your project is to succeed - building trust, shared ownership and a sense of collective purpose.
Here are a few key questions to guide your approach:
Which stakeholders needs to be involved?
Think beyond the obvious stakeholders. Include community members, service users, frontline staff or anyone with lived experience. Don’t just invite decision-makers - invite the people who will live with the outcomes.
What are their priorities or concerns?
People engage when they feel heard and understood. Take time to learn what matters to them. What are they worried about? What do they want to see changed? Their insights can shape your thinking in ways you might not anticipate.
How can you engage them meaningfully?
Engagement doesn’t have to be formal. It could be through conversations, community workshops, digital tools or creative approaches like storytelling. Make it accessible, inclusive and ongoing - not just a one-off interaction.
Done well, stakeholder engagement creates a project that isn’t just built for the community, but with it, and that makes all the difference.
Take action
Here are some helpful tools to engage stakeholders and communities:
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