The Australian Department of Sustainability and Environment effectively identifies the six C’s of successful community engagement.
These include ensuring:
- Capability: The members are capable of dialogue.
- Commitment: Mutual benefit beyond self-interest.
- Contribution: Members volunteer and there is an environment that encourages members to 'have a go' or take responsibility / risks.
- Continuity: Members share or rotate roles and, as members move on, there is a transition process that sustains and maintains the community's corporate memory.
- Collaboration: Reliable interdependence. A clear vision with members operating in an environment of sharing and trust.
- Conscience: Embody or invoke guiding principles / ethics of service, trust and respect that are expressed in the actions of the community.
The six-Cs can be seen as either targets, or as filters to measure the functioning of the community or the engagement process in general.
