A guest contribution by Clare Babbage, CEO of Quartz Consulting.

As COVID-19 made its way across the world it pulled back the curtain on a truth that we have struggled to accept: everything is connected. Childcare, transport, pollution, food, well-being, politics, community - the list goes on. For those working to shape our cities and neighbourhoods things look very different than they did six months ago. The map has changed and still continues to change.

As we all work through the impacts of the virus on all aspects of our lives, there is a discussion happening at every level of our community about the ‘new normal’. We are re-evaluating what was and looking to the future. Small steps are being taken to consider these questions in a more joined-up way than ever before. The term ’community’ feels different – what we want from community is shifting.

Digital engagement during COVID-19 has also risen significantly. We are online more than ever, and more people are making this part of their everyday lives. All these connected changes bring an opportunity for those who have a role in community engagement and participation, not just to maintain it but to improve and diversify it to gather better human data and make more connected human decisions.

This is also an opportunity to engage regional and rural communities in decisions that affect them in a way that does more than survey them, but builds and strengthens the community. And if this works for more rural areas why can’t it work for other communities where disadvantage impacts their voice and minimises their inputs? Many human services are struggling to provide appropriate levels of provision in rural, remote and diverse communities – how can digital community engagement and participation be designed to help fix that?

The most important lesson I have learnt in my journey is the importance of building something fit for purpose. This means having the tools and skills that are agile and flexible enough to meet the different and changing needs of your community: rural, indigenous, metropolitan, LGBTIQ, young, old, CALD, struggling or thriving.

Traditional community engagement has often created spaces where the loudest and the most organised (you could say privileged) voices prevail. Even surveys that reach out to a wider community rely on majority democracy which can be impacted by factors relating to power and authority. Even the design is tricky. Yes/No questions do not elicit wisdom and open questions are often limited in scope, designed to manage complexity and cost. They are reductionist, breaking things down into smaller and smaller points. They represent the opposite of building bigger and better, of creating positive lasting change.

To really listen and learn from the diverse thoughts and opinions in your community means making the time for deep consideration of the purpose, the process, the complexity, and the interdependence of the issues being faced. Because of this, an emerging element of the job of community engagement and participation is ensuring that the opportunity to learn how to participate is included. If you are leading community participation you need to enable and empower community participation.

A great example of this is DRIVE Consumer Direction Counties Manukau in New Zealand, a network that represents the interests of people in the Counties Manukau region who experience mental health and/or addiction challenges. They take the approach that the personal development of their community is a central part of how they contribute their voices to the services and systemic changes in their area.

They work with the connections between health, recovery, education, employment, lived experience, culture, community and well-being to create opportunities to engage in the conversations about and participate in the delivery of services. Their engagement and participation strategy is long term, spanning both face to face and digital spaces and includes art, training, video, social media, events, surveys, employment and blogs. They gather stories and narratives and manage the diverse thinking that emerges.

It is not always simple and easy, but it has depth and breadth. It works because it is based on valuing inclusion and participation, not just one-off engagement. They have built a fit for purpose community engagement and participation network with heart.

Another example of how digital engagement is enabling participation in community as well as reflecting the interconnected nature of the world we live in is Shifting Victoria to a Circular Economy where projects are shared through posts and a map. This allows community members and businesses to share their work and invite others to be part of projects that seek to reduce environmental impacts of consumption and enable economic growth by increasing productive use of our natural resources in their local area. It both gathers data and shares it in a way that increases knowledge and the opportunity for more people to get involved.

Right now we have a window to create a more effective, layered approach to community engagement that provides the opportunity to explore what is happening that will inform the following discussion or data gathering. The possibility of creating spaces for this exploration without the restrictions of agenda’s and outcomes, for people to consider the relationships between different aspects of their community, will create actions that weave positive intentional consequences rather than create unintended negative ones.

An emerging digital space where this is being piloted is People Need People Online where mutual learning, interdependence and healing is being explored by tending to community interactions. Places of deep listening that build connections rather than identifying differences.

Then there is the challenge of gathering data, of valuing diverse views and avoiding the creation of polarities; the task of building consensus to bring people on the journey. There are some great methods for achieving this which can be built into well-enabled digital platforms and strategies.

I personally use the methodology of Lewis Deep Democracy as I believe it has the ability to resolve conflict as well as increase innovation and creativity, both outcomes that I feel contribute to the building of community and place. The theory behind this method can be used in a digital space to go beyond traditional methods of engagement, deepen the experience for the community and increase the value of the information being gathered.

Better information = better decisions. It is problem solving 101.

These opportunities for a shift in community engagement and participation are emerging now through the changes in increased digital engagement, a feeling of community, new digitally-enabled spaces and platforms, new methods of interacting and learning together, and the understanding of the interconnectedness of our world.

It is time to improve what we do in society by recognising that all things are connected. What can we do differently? How can we approach the design of our community spaces and services with this as a design principle?

Without this shift in our approach we may lose some of the most important lessons from this time of social distancing and working together for the common good.