Echo

What is it?

echo is a tool for public agencies to use to consider how open they are to community influence, in relation to their potential to respond to that influence. echo is still in development, and in 2009-2010 it will be tested by a range of agencies and partnerships. The initial research in the development of the echo framework was carried out in Dudley in early 2008, following the three years of work to develop voice. The research interviews with 14 public sector officers were co-ordinated by Dosti, for changes (the consultants).

What work with echo is happening in Dudley Borough?

In May 2009 Dosti hosted an event for members of Dudley Community Partnership to find out more about echo. The event was attended by 39 people from a range of agencies and partnerships. This is what some of them said about echo:

“echo lets you know where your organisation is at”
“echo highlights what you can do to change, to become more community focused”
“echo is a useful tool to start discussion about engagement, and could lead to an action plan”

Click here to download a report from the echo event held in May 2009

As a result of the event in May the following agencies and partnerships in Dudley Borough have expressed interest in testing or looking further at echo:

Dudley Children’s Trust

Safe and Sound

West Midlands Fire Service (Dudley Team)

Dudley MBC’s Directorate of Adult, Community and Housing Services

Dudley Group of Hospitals Non-Executive Directors

Why should I be interested?

If you are from a voluntary, community or faith group you are likely to find life easier when public agencies start using echo. It will prompt them to support you to influence, to work together with you, to change how they do things and potentially become more open to influence. echo prompts them to consider how communities organise, the time it takes for influence to develop, and how they can work in ways which challenge prejudice and discrimination.

Some voluntary organisations may also like to use echo to assess and improve their openness to influence from communities. Age Concern in Wolverhampton intend to do this.

If you are from a public sector agency then you will find echo helpful in considering how to meet the Duty to Involve, and some National Indicators (NIs), in particular

NI1 - percentage of people who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area

NI4 – percentage of local residents who feel they can influence decisions in their locality

NI6 – participation in regular volunteering

NI7 – environment for a thriving third sector

How can I find out more?

Dosti will post updates of their progress on an echo blog page.

You can subscribe to our e-news and/or partner e-news and have echo news and updates delivered straight to your inbox!

From changes website you can also download a 2 page information leaflet about echo, the research report (from the research undertaken in Dudley) and a ‘how to’ guide for echo.

Please email or call Lorna Prescott at Dosti if you are interested in using echo (contact details at the bottom of this page)

How does echo contribute to Dosti’s action plan?

Dosti's Aims	Ways That Using Echo Contributes
1. To create opportunities for the voluntary, community and faith sector to collectively influence strategic decision making.	echo encourages agencies and partnerships to recognise the value of community influence, actively support it and to do things in different ways.
2. To engage and enable sector representation and influence in public sector partnerships.	Position 8 in the echo framework suggests what agencies might do to improve ways that work together with others in partnerships.
3. To support and develop an empowering engagement process.	The dimensions of community empowerment are built in to the echo framework.
4. To facilitate the engagement of under-represented groups.	Position 5 in the echo framework prompts discussion about agencies knowing which communities they are talking to and why, and the implications for communities they are not talking to.