7 - Community engagement

Summary

‘Thinking back to when I first came up to Grampian [a region of Scotland] in the mid-80s, it was about understanding what was going on within the different villages in the Mearns [local area of Grampian]. It was about speaking to people, so a lot of it was just soaking it up, you know? And I guess reacting to some of the interests that were beginning to emerge from those discussions and that began to create the agenda. So, the stuff that I was involved in was just picked up through the village hall committee. So, it was just getting to know the community and meeting people that were interested in their community. I wasn't going in with any particular agenda, but it was about trying to understand what people were interested or concerned about.

‘You were engaged with people in communities, because you wanted to help and that created a relationship that created trust. So that when somebody else needed help there was some somebody to go back to. So, you went in with a few tools, whether it was your grants for the youth club or the capital grant scheme for the village hall or whatever, but it gave you a starting point for an ongoing conversation, but I think it was just around helping them.’ (Ken Milroy, 2022, Focus Group)

Introduction

The quotation that opens this chapter describes an approach to community engagement as a starting point for other activities. Community engagement is important to any community work. It is only by knowing what the community wants and needs that we can work to achieve this engagement. Engagement can create ways and spaces which address inequalities in decision making and which tackle social injustice. By recognising the value of everyone's contribution it builds on community assets. It can also generate social capital which can drive further change, which is more likely to be sustainable. Describing a process, this chapter is more practical in its focus than previous chapters but is also built on theory and ideas about the way the world is.