Creative Community Engagement for a better world
What Is Community Engagement For?
Community engagement is an activity people do with their group, team, community, stakeholder, audiences. It’s about involving people in decisions, projects, or actions that affect them and their environment. Its goals can vary, but they generally include:
Building Relationships and Trust: It strengthens ties between organisations, governments, and communities, fostering a sense of belonging and mutual understanding.
Empowerment: Engaging communities allows people to have a say in issues affecting their lives, giving them a sense of ownership and agency in shaping their future.
Collaboration and Problem-Solving: By involving diverse perspectives, community engagement can generate better solutions to local issues, from urban planning to environmental sustainability.
Education and Awareness: Engagement educates the public about important issues, policies, or challenges and encourages informed decision-making.
Driving Social Change: It supports social justice, equality, and inclusivity, particularly when marginalised voices are included, helping address systemic issues.
Why Bother with Community Engagement?
Community engagement is valuable because it:
Improves Decision-Making: By incorporating local knowledge and diverse perspectives, community engagement leads to decisions that are more informed and reflective of people's needs.
Enhances Buy-In and Legitimacy: When communities are involved in shaping decisions or projects, they are more likely to support them and feel a sense of ownership.
Strengthens Social Cohesion: It builds stronger, more resilient communities by fostering dialogue, understanding, and collaboration among diverse groups.
Increases Accountability: Engagement holds decision-makers accountable to the people they serve, making policies and projects more transparent and responsive.
Fosters Sustainability: Projects that engage communities tend to be more sustainable because they consider local contexts, needs, and resources.
What Problems Does Community Engagement Solve?
Lack of Representation: Community engagement helps to ensure that diverse voices, including those from marginalised or underrepresented groups, are heard in decision-making processes.
Mistrust Between Institutions and Communities: Engaging people in open, transparent dialogues can help bridge gaps in trust, particularly in areas where past decisions have harmed communities.
Ineffective Policies or Projects: Without community input, policies or projects may not address real needs or may face resistance. Engagement ensures that plans are relevant and practical.
Disconnection from Local Needs: It can prevent top-down decisions that are disconnected from local realities by bringing local context and insights into the decision-making process.
Siloed Problem-Solving: Community engagement encourages collaboration across different sectors and groups, allowing more comprehensive and creative solutions to complex challenges like climate change or urban poverty.
What does standard community engagement look like:
Standard engagement typically refers to more traditional or structured methods of involving people in activities, decision-making, or discussions. It often includes predefined formats and goals, with less emphasis on creativity and open-ended exploration. Some common forms of standard engagement include:
Information Delivery: In this form, engagement is one-directional, where organisations or leaders present information to the audience through lectures, presentations, reports, or media campaigns. The goal is often to inform, persuade, or raise awareness.
Surveys and Polls: Standard engagement frequently uses surveys or polls to gather feedback or opinions from a target group. This method tends to limit participant involvement to answering specific questions without deeper interaction.
Consultation and Focus Groups: Organisations may hold focus groups or public consultations to collect feedback on particular issues or proposals. While these formats allow for some dialogue, they often remain guided by set agendas, with limited flexibility for participants to shape the conversation.
Town Halls and Public Meetings: In town hall meetings or public forums, participants can voice opinions or ask questions, but the structure is usually hierarchical, with limited opportunities for creative input or co-creation.
Surveys for Metrics: Quantitative measures of engagement, like attendance numbers, social media likes, or website visits, are often used as indicators of success. These metrics focus on surface-level involvement rather than deeper, sustained interaction.
Workshops and Training: Traditional workshops or training sessions are designed to teach specific skills or concepts in a controlled environment. They usually follow a structured agenda and may focus more on knowledge transfer than on interactive or imaginative exploration.
While standard engagement methods can be useful for gathering data, informing audiences, or collecting feedback, they tend to prioritise efficiency, structure, and control over flexibility, creativity, and co-creation. Creative engagement, by contrast, often breaks from these conventions to allow for more imaginative, inclusive, and transformative participation.
What are the problems with community engagement?
Time and Resource Intensive: Genuine engagement requires significant time, effort, and resources. Organisations may struggle to manage these demands, especially if there is a desire for quick outcomes.
Tokenism: Engagement can sometimes be superficial, with organisations appearing to involve communities but not truly considering their input. This can lead to mistrust and frustration if people feel they’re being used for appearances rather than genuinely listened to.
Exacerbating Inequality: If not done carefully, community engagement can unintentionally amplify existing inequalities. More privileged or vocal groups might dominate the process, while marginalised voices are sidelined.
Decision Paralysis: Engaging too many stakeholders can lead to conflicting opinions and difficulties in reaching a consensus. This can slow down decision-making and create frustration on all sides.
Expectations Management: Community engagement raises expectations, and if promises are not kept or feedback isn’t acted upon, it can lead to disappointment, resentment, or disengagement in future processes.
Conflict and Division: Engagement processes may bring out tensions or conflicts between community groups with differing interests, creating divisions that may not have surfaced otherwise.
Community engagement is a powerful tool for fostering inclusion, trust, and effective problem-solving, but it must be carefully planned and genuinely executed. When done well, it strengthens communities and ensures decisions are more sustainable and responsive. However, if mismanaged, it can lead to frustration, mistrust, and conflict. Effective community engagement requires ongoing commitment, inclusivity, and transparency to truly benefit all involved.
What is different about Creative Engagement?
Creative engagement refers to the process of involving people in activities that stimulate creativity, imagination, and participation. It can take many forms, from interactive art projects and collaborative performances to workshops, storytelling, and hands-on crafting. The goal of creative engagement is often to inspire new ways of thinking, foster community involvement, and encourage personal expression. In contexts like climate change or social issues, creative engagement can also help people process complex emotions, consider alternative futures, and take action through a more inclusive and imaginative approach.
For example, The Art and Energy Collective's projects use creative engagement to connect people with nature and the transition to a low-carbon future by inviting them to participate in art-making and explore natural energy systems in new ways.
In our recent work with Dartmoor National Park Authority using The Mossy Carpet project to support a consultation with people in and around Dartmoor about their hopes and needs for the future of the moorland, we noticed some key benefits to using creativity.
We had more people engage with the consultation than previous consultation processes
The consultation was enjoyable and fun and participants stuck around longer and interacted with each other
Potentially ‘charged’ ‘knotty’ and challenging aspects didn’t overwhelm the dialogue
People who may not have felt like their views were valid or important joined in
A greater range of people responded to the consultation
People spent more time considering the questions and offered richer feedback
Participants had the opportunity to see and reflect on other people’s perspectives
Participants enjoyed themselves, felt celebrated and valued and learned something from the experience
We use ‘Our Compass’ a project design framework to help us ensure that we are resourcing participants to face whatever challenges there are to come, and move generally in the direction of ‘A better world’, but if we look more deeply at what might constitute creative engagement it could be:
Important qualities of creative engagement include:
Participation and Collaboration: Creative engagement invites active involvement, encouraging people to co-create or contribute ideas, actions, or art. It values shared experiences and collective input, fostering a sense of ownership and community.
Imagination and Exploration: It opens up space for thinking outside the box, exploring new possibilities, and encouraging imaginative solutions to problems. This can be especially valuable in tackling complex challenges like climate change.
Inclusivity and Accessibility: Effective creative engagement is inclusive, welcoming people from diverse backgrounds, abilities, and perspectives. It provides opportunities for participation in ways that are accessible and culturally relevant.
Emotional Connection: Creative engagement often taps into emotions, creating meaningful experiences that resonate on a personal level. This emotional depth can lead to greater empathy and motivation to take action.
Flexibility and Adaptability: The process is often open-ended and adaptable, allowing for fluidity and responsiveness to participants' input or changing conditions. This flexibility is key to maintaining relevance and connection.
Dialogue and Reflection: It encourages conversation and reflection, prompting people to question assumptions, engage in deep thinking, and gain insights from the creative process and from others.
Interactivity: Hands-on or interactive elements, such as making art, performing, or contributing ideas, keep participants engaged and foster a deeper connection to the subject matter.
Sustainability and Longevity: Creative engagement that addresses important issues, like environmental sustainability, can also encourage long-term thinking and behavior change. It often provides frameworks for ongoing engagement rather than one-time participation.
These qualities ensure that creative engagement is meaningful, impactful, and relevant, whether it is used for community building, education, or social and environmental action. As a consequence, it makes the experience more memorable and socially ‘shareable’ too.
Looking more wider, creative engagement can lead to a range of unique and often transformative outcomes compared to standard engagement.
Some of the key outcomes for Creative Engagement include:
Deeper Emotional Connections - Creative engagement often fosters strong emotional connections between participants and the subject matter. By encouraging people to express themselves and engage on a personal level, it can help generate empathy, compassion, and a more profound understanding of complex issues like climate change, inequality, or mental health.
Behavioral Change - When people participate in creative processes, they often feel more invested and personally connected to the outcomes. This can lead to sustained behavior change, as participants may take actions in their daily lives inspired by their engagement. For example, environmental art projects can motivate participants to adopt more sustainable habits.
Enhanced Collaboration and Social Bonds - Creative engagement promotes collaboration, allowing participants to build stronger social bonds and a sense of community. By co-creating or problem-solving together, people may find new ways of working together, supporting one another, and staying connected even after the project ends.
Increased Sense of Agency - Through creative engagement, individuals often feel a greater sense of agency and empowerment. It gives them a platform to share their voices, ideas, and creative talents, which can increase their confidence in making a difference within their communities or even in larger societal contexts.
Innovation and New Perspectives - Creative approaches invite experimentation, leading to unexpected innovations or fresh perspectives. By challenging conventional thinking and encouraging exploration, creative engagement can help participants come up with innovative solutions to problems or see issues from entirely new angles.
Cultural Shifts - Art and creativity can influence cultural norms and values over time. Creative engagement can help shift the broader cultural narrative around important topics, making them more relatable, accessible, and understandable. This is especially relevant for issues like sustainability, where cultural change is essential for long-term impact.
Holistic Understanding of Complex Issues - Creative engagement allows for non-linear, experiential learning, enabling participants to explore the complexity of issues in a more holistic way. Instead of merely receiving information, they experience it through creative mediums, which can help them connect the dots between abstract concepts and real-world implications.
Greater Participation and Inclusivity - Creative engagement tends to be more inclusive, welcoming participation from people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. It opens up opportunities for those who may not feel comfortable or represented in more traditional forms of engagement, expanding the reach of the project or initiative.
Personal Growth and Development - The process of engaging creatively can also lead to personal development, such as improving creative skills, self-expression, and confidence. Participants may discover new talents or interests, gain insights into their own thinking, or find therapeutic value in the process.
Tangible, Lasting Artifacts or Experiences - Creative engagement often results in tangible outputs, such as artwork, performances, or community projects. These lasting artifacts can continue to inspire or influence others even after the initial engagement ends, creating a longer-lasting impact.
These outcomes show how creative engagement can lead to deeper, more meaningful interactions with both the subject matter and the people involved, often sparking change that goes beyond the immediate activity.
Designing and delivering creative engagement activities is a real opportunity for the creative industries to use their skills to support the journey towards a better world.
There are lots of groups that are working towards this better future and supporting and involving communities to get involved This is not to say that all or indeed any of these organisations are ‘the finished article’ of better world perfection, or indeed anywhere near that. All of us arrive at the ‘creating a better world’ ‘doing our bit’ place in a fairly ropey condition!
Types of organisations that engage people in making the world a better place (and might need help with creative engagement)
Nonprofit Organisations and Charities
Government Agencies and Public Bodies
Cultural and Arts Organisations
Educational Institutions
Community and Grassroots Organisations
Businesses and Corporations
Health and Social Care Providers
Environmental and Sustainability Organisations
Foundations and Philanthropic Organisations
Think Tanks and Policy Institutes
Energy and Utilities Companies
Lots of these organisations use community engagement to help them do their work effectively, efficiently and impactfully.
TOP TIP For creative organisations: If you want to get involved in this space, it’s a great idea to partner with organisations like these.
Please do share your examples of great creative engagement in the comments. It is always so much more helpful to see examples to make sense of how creative engagement could work for you.