Who is it for?

The community engagement tool is aimed at practitioners working on projects, programmes or interventions which involve community engagement processes, and which in some way aim to influence either consumer behaviour in regards to sustainable development and / or organisational decisions with regards to sustainable development.

The tool is aimed most specifically at officers in Local Authorities or supporting Local Strategic Partnerships, as well as medium to large voluntary sector organisations with evaluation capacity. Whilst the tool may be useful for community level groups and organisations, we do acknowledge that the tool may be too heavy a burden on time and resources and it has not been designed with their use in mind.

So as to make the best use of the tool, users should have the following capacity:

• Understanding of the principles of project management, of establishing objectives, developing SMART indicators and the purpose of evaluation.
• Commitment from your organisation and from the community you are working with to undertake the evaluation.
• Time resources to undertake the evaluation, including gathering data, discussing the process with colleagues and community members and using the forms as the project progresses.
• Think about the skill level of those involved in the evaluation. For example, if you are using forms that need completing by community members make sure you have a good working relationship at a community level. If this is not the case then work with others who do, such as community development workers or local groups.
• Time resources to use the forms to record the progression of the project or intervention, not just at the beginning or end.
• Capacity at a community level and at an organisational level to learn from the evaluation.