by Heather J. Aslin and Valerie A. Brown

Towards Whole of Community Engagement is a toolkit for anyone who wants to develop, design or conduct community engagement processes, or be part of them.

Although the toolkit was designed with a particular focus on engaging communities in natural resource management issues in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin, much of the material is applicable to almost any kind of community engagement anywhere. In short, it has the potential to help a range of stakeholders – in fact, all those who have an interest in a more sustainable future.

Towards Whole of Community Engagement is a useful resource whether you are a staff member of, or volunteer for, a government, non-government, industry or private-sector organisation. It will be particularly valuable for members of catchment management organisations,and other regional groups involved in natural resource management.

Part 1: Starting Up: what makes for good community engagement outlines the approach and framework of the toolkit and provides some definitions.

Part 2: Choosing: which tools and technique should I use? describes the tools and their strengths and weaknesses; and rates each according to how likely it is to foster engagement, involve different numbers of people, and how difficult it is to apply. It also contains checklists, so a user can quickly scan the range of tools and help identify the most useful ones for their particular purposes.

Part 3: Resourcing: where can I find out more? provides further information about community engagement and relevant websites, and an annotated bibliography.