There are many tools and strategies that make facilitating community engagement more effective.
Effective community engagement facilitation is underpinned by core values and beliefs that set the stage for active participation of group members as they wrestle with difficult issues, identify and evaluate strategies for addressing issue, choose and implement a strategy(ies) to address the issue and finally evaluate the impact of the of the intervention outcomes and effectiveness of the engagement process.
As outlined in the graphic below, community engagement facilitators focus on three dimensions of interactions between people: content, relationships, and process.
Its critical to remember that core facilitation practices must always be reflected in the manor, style, and behaviors (including body-language) exhibited by the facilitator throughout the process.
Some of the tools that are effective include setting ground rules, determining fact, myth and value, setting effective meetings, planning agendas and developing roles that help.
