Practice · Tool or method
The Community Engagement Toolkit
- Community Development
- Any issue
68 field-tested tools for planning, running and evaluating community and stakeholder engagement, matched to the internationally recognised IAP2 participation spectrum.
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- Free to licenseCreative Commons
- Field Guidechapters and guidance
- 5 resourcestemplates and tools
About this practice
What it is
A practical reference toolkit of 68 community engagement tools including an interactive selection App to help you choose the best fit - from Backcasting to Workshops - each described the same way: objectives, outcomes, strengths, weaknesses, resourcing and a step-by-step method. Drawn from Effective Engagement: building relationships with community and other stakeholders, Book 3: the engagement toolkit, published by the Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) in 2005, developed with the Coastal Co-operative Research Centre and DSE's own facilitators and practitioners.
Why licence it
- Matches every tool to the IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum (Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate, Empower), so practitioners know exactly what level of influence they are offering stakeholders.
- Every tool follows the same template (objectives, outcomes, strengths, weaknesses, resourcing, method, references), so two tools can be compared like for like in minutes.
- Covers audience size, time, skill level and cost for each tool, making it easy to match a method to a real project's budget and timeline.
- Built for government and community-sector practitioners running consultations on land use, natural resource management, planning and policy decisions - but the tools generalise to any sector needing structured community input.
Who owns the IP? State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment. No official connection with the Victorian Government is claimed; this Field Guide is adapted for learning purposes under the terms of the original 2005 publication's copyright notice.
Who it’s for
Any government, council or community-sector team that needs to plan and run a community or stakeholder consultation, and wants a structured way to choose the right method.
Target population
Two audiences: (1) government, local council and community-sector practitioners who plan and run engagement processes - project officers, policy staff, planners, environmental and community engagement managers; and (2) the communities and stakeholders they engage on a given decision, which varies by project (residents and ratepayers, landholders and farmers, industry and advocacy groups, or the general public). Best suited to teams engaging on land use, natural resource management, planning or policy decisions, though the tools generalise to any social-sector consultation.
How it’s delivered
- Group work
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