Community Engagement and Involvement WA Early Years Groups Forum –

1. Community • Engagement • and • Involvement • WA Early Years • Groups Forum – • Peter Kenyon, Bank of I.D.E.A.S

2. “Leadership and learning are indispensable from each other” (John F Kennedy, prepared for delivery in Dallas, the day of his assassination, Nov, 1963)

3. ‘It’s what you learn after you know it all, that counts.’ (John Wooden)

4. ‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul, than the way it treats its children.’ (Nelson Mandela)

5. ‘If you want to go faster, go alone. If you want to go further, go together.’ (African Proverb)

6. ‘It takes a whole village to raise a child.’ (African Proverb)

7. ‘It takes a child to inspire a village.’ (Bliss Browne)

8. The word 'community' is a broad term used to define groups of people; whether they are stakeholders, interest groups, citizen groups etc. A community may be a geographic location (community of place), a community of similar interest (community of practice), or a community of affiliation or identity (such as industry or sporting club). (Dept of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria)

9. ‘Engagement' is used as a generic, inclusive term to describe the broad range of interactions between people. It can include a variety of approaches, such as one-way communication or information delivery, consultation, involvement and collaboration in decision-making, and empowered action in informal groups or formal partnerships. (Dept of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria)

10. Community engagement can take many forms and covers a broad range of activities. Some examples: • Informing the community of policy and program directions. • Consulting the community as part of a process to develop policy and program, or build community awareness and understanding. • Involving the community through a range of mechanisms to ensure that issues and concerns are understood and they become part of the decision-making process. • Collaborating with the community by developing partnerships to formulate options and provide directions. • Empowering the community to make decisions and to become part of implementing and managing change.

11. DRAFT Resource Kit For Starting and Sustaining ‘Early Years’ Community Networks ‘Communities working together to improve outcomes for their children’ Produced by the Dept for Communities

12. Key learning 1 Build from the Inside Out ‘I work from the firm belief that “whatever the issue, community is the answer.”’ (Margaret Wheatley, Author)

13. ‘Strong communities are created when residents are the producers of their own future. They can not be replaced. No professional, institution, business or government can substitute for the power, creativity or relevance of productive residents’. (Mike Green)

14. ‘The more parent and resident fingerprints that can be found on a project, the more likely it is that project will be meaningful and sustainable’. (Cormac Russell)

15. ‘All the historic evidence indicates that significant community development only takes place when local community people are committed to investing themselvesand their resources in the effort. That's why you can't develop communities from the top down, or from the outside in’ (John McKnight, Jody Kretzmann)

16. ‘Most communities can often be compared to a football game where 30,000 people who need the exercise, turn up to watch 36 players who don’t.’ (Peter Kenyon)

17. ‘People support what they help to create. They want to make it happen’. (Peter Kenyon)

18. Public Participation Spectrum Move from Inform to Empower Key learning 2 Increasing level of public impact Inform Consult Involve Collaborate Empower

19. Key learning 3 Focus on relationship building ‘Relationship building is the fundamental action of community building.’ (Libby Ozinga)

20. Key learning 4 Discover what people care about ‘There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about’. (Margaret Wheatley, Author)

21. ‘People who care are a community’s greatest asset.’(Paul Born)

22. ‘When people come together in conversation about what truly matters to them, they take ownership and responsibility for moving their issues and ideas into wiser actions that last ’. (The Art of Hosting)

23. ‘Determination, energy and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply. We take risks that are unimaginative in any other context’. (Margaret Wheatley)

24. Community: a place filled with care • Care remains invisible unless you have conversations about what people care about. • People may not care about what you want them to care about. • Care must be discovered through relationships. • Learning conversations are the way to build relationships that make care visible. • (Mike Green)

25. Remember the importance of conversation Key learning 5 ‘ Creating a positive change begins simply with conversation. It is the way we human beings have always thought together and initiated action.’ (Peter Kenyon)

26. ‘The simplest and most powerful investment any member of a community or an organisation may make in terms of community building is to begin talking with other people as though the answers mattered.’ (William Greider)

27. ‘Go to the people Live among them Learn from them Love them Start with what they know Build on what they have But of the best leaders when their task is done The people will remark “We have it done it ourselves”’. (Lao Tze) Key learning 6 Start where people are at

28. Nugal Region • 40 schools visited and 16,000 students addressed; • 140 young people involved in dialogues dubbed ‘work towards your dreams’ during half time breaks in live soccer broadcast venues; • 131 young labourers consulted at four construction sites; • 300 girls involved in discussions at three Burranbur sessions; • 180 young scholars gathered in 34 tea houses near mosques engaged in conversations;

29. 125 young people within IDP’s were involved in discussions; • 48 young people from minority groups were consulted; • 510 young people were engaged in 25 khat chewer ‘bushes’; • 80 milk vendors and delivery boys, and 30 checkpoint guards contributed their opinions; and finally • 25,000 young people tuned into a range of radio awareness and talkback programmes.

30. Mudginbadi, Kakadu

31. It’s all about these guys and their futures

32. Be innovative in structuring conversation and contribution Key learning 7 ‘

33. Great Example- THE FLASH MOB at the KARRINYUP SHOPPING CENTRE http://www.youtube.com/storytellermedia

34. Key learning 8 Have fun! ‘Why hold a meeting, when you can have a party?’ (Jim Diers, former Director Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle)

35. Remember that … ‘’Food is to a community what water is to fish’

36. Key learning 9 Don’t preach concepts, tell stories ‘ ‘The world is not made up of atoms, it is made up of stories’ (Peter Kenyon)

37. ‘Story telling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today’. (Robert McKee)

38. Key learning 10 Promote, promote and promote ‘ “Without promotion, something terrible happens…nothing!” (PT Barnum)

39. Key learning 11 Recognise, reward and develop local residents ‘ ‘ ‘There are two things people want more than sex and money … recognition and praise.’ (Mary Kay Ash)

40. Key learning 12 Kick some Goals ‘ ‘Nothing breeds success, like success’(Annon)

41. Don’t just meet to meet, meet to go somewhere -Saul Allinsky

42. “Effective community engagement and involvement ai’nt rocket science stuff…it’s about attention to some basics”

43. Creative tool …Café Conversations

44. Café Conversation Ground Rules • Focus on what matters to you • Contribute your thinking and those ‘out of a box’ ideas • Speak your mind and heart • Link and connect ideas • Listen to understand • Play Doodle Draw • Have fun!

45. Discussion Question 1- Engaging local community people- share practical experiences about what you have found works.

46. Discussion 2- Share what you have found builds strong Network collaboration

47. Discussion 3- Re the future, what needs to happen to build a ‘Network of Networks’ ?

48. www.bankofideas.com.au

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