Gathering the views of your community or group

Whether you are representing 15 people or a community of 15,000 you will want to gather their views and opinions in a manageable and appropriate way. Take a look at some of the guidelines for community engagement we have collected.

• An Australian website with resources about engaging with people online: Community Engagement Best Practice – Bang the Table
• Guidelines on running public forums from the Community Tool Box, covers why conduct a public forum and how to organise and run them: Conducting Public Forums and Listening Sessions
• Information on focus groups from the Community Tool Box. Covers why they are different to normal groups, when should you use one and how to run one: Conducting Focus Groups
• A 30-page booklet on running focus groups including research basics, how-to guide, checklists and sample forms: Focus Group Toolkit
• Community capacity building toolkit prepared by Jim Cavaye for the Queensland Government, with a focus on regional and rural communities: Community Capacity Building Toolkit for Rural and Regional Communities

We have gathered a suite of resources to help health services engage better with consumers and community and these may be useful to you also.

Next: Practical resources