 A guide on how to become more inclusive in community engagement is now available for the New Forest.
The Community Engagement Good Practice Guide has been produced by the New Forest Local Strategic Partnership.
Demonstrating just how much interest there is in the guide over 70 people attended the launch of this valuable resource, hosted by Community First New Forest.
The event was held at the newly refurbished Lyndhurst Community Centre with representatives from both the voluntary and statutory sector in attendance.
Michael Clowes, chief executive of Community First New Forest opened the event, and provided an overview of the guide saying,
“It’s not always easy to effectively engage with diverse groups and communities and we are really delighted to have been one of the partners driving forward the development of the guide.”
He explained that the launch was designed to help people working and engaging with local groups and communities, giving them an opportunity to listen to examples of engagement during the presentations and then to be able to use the guide first hand, during the demonstration workshops which followed.
He continued with a quote from the guide itself;
“At the heart of community engagement is the development of relationships, open and clear communication, networking, listening and learning to understand the diverse people and places that we are working with.”
Presentations were given by Candy Huxham from the Handy Trust, Stephanie Bell, PRIME coordinator at Community First New Forest and Sharon Davies from Hampshire Youth Service who talked about the Youth Opportunities Fund and the benefits and challenges of different types of engagement.
The New Forest Community Engagement Guide is available for everyone to view and make full use of via the following website: https://www.newforest.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=10610 as well as on the CFNF website .
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