Community Engagement | Cross Cultural Consultants

Community & Stakeholder Engagement

What is it?

Community and Stakeholder engagement is the processes used to actively involve communities and stakholders in decision-making. Healthy communities are those that participate in the decisions that directly impact on people’s lives – their work, housing, health, education, services, recreation, and business. Community engagement works best when long-term relationships have been established between the practitioner, relevant stakeholders and the community.

Our team of hands-on practitioners have experience in:

Remote field work,

Community Development,

Participatory Planning, Learning and Development,

Service Design, Delivery and Evaluation,

International Association For Public Participation (IAP2) principals and

long term relationships with many communities in the Northern Territory and Nationally

This practical, field based experience informs the approaches and solutions we facilitate for communities and stakeholders.

Action learning underpins Cross Cultural Consultants’ training. Our field work feeds our own understanding of learning, development needs and helps us design effective approaches and activities that enable reflection and knowledge sharing.

Where has Cross Cultural Consultants been involved in community engagement?

Cross Cultural Consultants has nearly three decades of experience in the management of community engagement and stakeholder consultation projects throughout the Northern Territory in urban and non-urban locations. We take a collaborative and integrated approach and consider skills, gender, culture and context factors in managing stakeholder consultation for a project. We design and deliver a range of community engagement and stakeholder management programs and tools focused on the specific needs of the project scope and the setting in which it is based; we call this a place-based approach. We believe in the importance of working with communities, alongside key stakeholders, in the delivery of policy and services.

Resonse to Homelessness & Rough Sleepers in Darwin and Katherine

Review of NT Town Camps

Housing Project Design

NT Middle Schools Implementation

Strategic Planning for NT Aids and Hepatitis Council

Employment Strategies

Advocacy for Healing, Truth & Justice – Stolen Generation Alliance

Aquaculture Enterprise Development

Developing Service Delivery Partnerships

Evaluation of Programs

Designing Conflict Management Interventions

How does Cross Cultural Consultants undertake community engagement?

By drawing on widespread networks, Cross Cultural Consultants’ flexibly applies the following strategies to suit the unique context:

Building relationships

Liaising with community members

Stakeholder analysis

Identifying stakeholders goals and aspirations

Assisting communities to understand the roles of the systems

Supporting people to identify ways they can engage with Government, non-Government and private sector systems and programs in a culturally appropriate manner

Sharing knowledge with clients and partners

Reporting and Evaluation to ensure lessons learnt are identified and integrated into current and future work

Cross Cultural Consultants’ Key Principles of Community Engagement

Building Relationships is Vital For Both Good Process And Good Outcomes
A Social Justice Framework Is Essential To Address The Inequities In Information Sharing, And To Develop The Community’s Decision Making Capacity
Supporting Communities To Run Things Themselves Will Deliver Sustainable Outcomes
Maintaining A Clear Role As Facilitators And Advocates Ensures Ethical And Professional Work

By maintaining these and identifying clear objectives and strategies, we can successfully engage communities. Cross Cultural Consultants’ teams learn through reflection and regularly evaluate the approaches used. We welcome feedback and knowledge sharing with other stakeholders.