What do we mean by community engagement?
From Our Toolkit
Who you work with from your community will depend the heritage focus of your organisation, where you are located and who engages with your heritage. Your definition of your community is likely to be unique to you. It could be defined by geography, interest or a common purpose, it could be with individuals or groups, or a combination of both.
The heritage sector has a history of engaging and working with communities, what has changed more recently is the depth of this engagement. With a focus on collaboration that is more participatory and extending across more aspects of the work of an organisation from policy and planning to reinterpretation of displays to shaping what is collected.
The aim is for community engagement to be mutually beneficial, for engagement to be a two-way process that over time develops relationships that help to shape the organisation.
There are many good examples from across the heritage, volunteer and sporting sectors which can inspire and inform your plans. If you are starting out we recommend the following resources:
(Please note that although the following examples are mainly focused on museums, the principles are equally applicable to other types of organisations working with heritage collections.)
Our Museum: Communities and Museums as Active Partners
This Paul Hamlyn Foundation programme aims to facilitate a process of development and organisational change within museums and galleries committed to active partnership with their communities, with the ambition of affecting the museum sector more widely.
Museums Association resources:
The Museums Change Lives campaign aims to show how museums of all sizes and collections can make a positive impact on the lives of people and communities. The campaign reports and resources can be used to support the case for this kind of work and its development.
There are also a series of nation-specific case studies too:
- Museums Association – Museums Change Lives Scotland
- Museums Association – Museums Change Lives Wales (English)
- Museums Association – Museums Change Lives Wales (Welsh)
- Museums Association – Museums Change Lives Northern Ireland
Power to the People is a framework which forms part of the Museums Change Lives campaign. It is designed to help museums understand and improve their participatory practice and community engagement. You can undertake the self-assessment using the following resources:
- Power to the People self assessment framework (English)
- Power to the People self assessment framework (Welsh)
The Measuring Socially Engaged Practice section of the Museums Change Lives campaign provides guidance on how to demonstrate the impact of community engagement activities. It takes into account how difficult it can be to show the results of this type of work and has created a toolkit to help you do this and to choose the right way to measure impact for your organisation and communities.
- Measuring Socially Engaged Practice – a toolkit for museums (English)
- Measuring Socially Engaged Practice – a toolkit for museums (Welsh)
Other resources
- SHARE Museums East – Co-creating Community Projects an introductory guide provides a good overview and introduction to working with your community.
- Open Up – Museums for everyone guidebook provides guidance on increasing the diversity of the audiences engaging with your organisation. As part of this there is a section about building community partnerships (Section 4 onwards)
Creating accessible environments and projects are key for community engagement. See the toolkit’s Access section for further advice on guidance on how to do this.
