Involving your community

“Engaging with people and communities will bring you into contact with a diversity of voices, ideas and stories, and these can help you weave a powerful narrative about how the design journey fits into the local context, and how it is connecting with local people.”

The Glass House, Community Led Design (2019): Tips for your community engagement strategy.

Read this page in Welsh

Having started to collect evidence about your place you need to involve your community, engaging with as wide a section of people as possible. Meaningful involvement of local people in the process will help you understand the needs, aspirations and ideas of local people and ensure their views are taken into account in decision making (Involvement – The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales).

Successful community engagement will encourage wider support for the plan, rather than it being seen as dominated by one person or group. There are lots of examples of imaginative approaches to engagement that could be undertaken that will generate different types of feedback, from structured data to personal interpretations.

Flags on a scale plan
Man in discussion pointing to a photo
A child drawing a map
A group around a table in discussion
A woman adding a coloured dot to a drawing
Two women and a man adding tags to a map
IMG_0981.jpeg
IMG_0998.jpeg
IMG_2697.jpeg
IMG_1652.jpeg
IMG_1655.jpeg
IMG_1486.jpeg
IMG_5124.jpeg
IMG_5146.jpeg
IMG_6913.jpeg
IMG_9419.jpeg

You could consider…

  • A householder questionnaire or survey, online or delivered to doors or at events, to get a wider view and evidence of community wants and needs 

  • Community workshops and events with a range of people 

  • Idea generator or brainstorm sessions 

  • Using the web, email and social media to spread news and ideas 

  • Workshops with schools and colleges

  • Setting up a table full of your ideas at a market or fete

  • Guided walks and tours - remember what people talk about as assets 

  • Taking over empty shops for exhibitions and events 

  • Building a ‘community wall’ notice board to display your latest information 

  • Working with local artists to explore your place through interactive workshops 

  • Running a ‘photomarathon’ - A competition for the best 6 photos on 6 themes you select in 6 hours 

  • Putting up a map at an event and asking what people love, loathe and what they would change 

  • Asking community groups to draw their area and mark on their perceptions

  • Small group workshops or focused discussions with ‘hard to reach’ groups such as young people or the elderly 

Post it note flags on a map

SHAPING GROSMONT

The challenge: How can a pop-up event help collect the stories and ideas from local people?

Find out more

Make sure you carefully record the feedback from the community at any event or activity you put on

This can provide evidence of support for your ideas, raise concerns, or suggest alternative ideas you may not have considered. A list of the names and affiliations of people present at your events is also important- but make sure people are aware you are collecting their information and give consent to be contacted. You might consider recording events through audio, video or photography or using feedback sheets to be filled in by local people or interviewers. Events could also be publicised and recorded on a Place Plan website.