In It Together!

What is it?

Related pages

More on in it together

Community Engagement Working Group

in it together blog - coming soon!

‘In It Together’ is a name which embraces a range of activities which Dudley Community Partnership is undertaking around community engagement. Dudley Community Partnership is promoting an empowering approach to engagement, and recognising that we’re in it together helps us to remember that we all have a role to play in authentic community engagement.

What in it together work is taking place in Dudley Borough?

in it together work is led and developed by a multi-agency Community Engagement Working Group which Dosti convenes. Lorna Prescott is working closely with Jody Pritchard from Dudley PCT and Leighton Pendry from Dudley MBC to progress a range of actions with the group which include:

Writing a Compact Code of Practice for Community Engagement - to guide good engagement

practice across Dudley Borough

Identifying skills and support gaps and developing a programme of community development and community

engagement training and support suitable for all partner agencies and organisations

Establishing and supporting cross-agency peer support and networking of community engagement practioners

Providing clear guidance to Theme Partnerships and partner agencies to relate their existing and developing

community engagement strategies to in it together and the Compact Code of Practice for Community Engagement

Promoting and supporting the use of echo

Publishing online and printed information about the Dudley Community Partnership structure, contact details for

sub-groups and boards and their current work and clear routes to engage for communities.

This will include details of community networks and organisations already engaged.

Piloting a community engagement toolkit and database in Dudley MBC, with plans to roll it out

across other agencies.

This work builds on things people told us about community engagement when we talked to them in 2008. In particular we are trying to address the disempowering aspects of existing engagement. For example people from community groups told us that some of the worst aspects of engagement were:

"Lack of feedback"
"A feeling that we had no influence from the outset"
"Hidden motives of people ‘consulting’ us"

Officers from public and voluntary agencies asked to carry out community engagement activities told us about their feelings when they were planning engagement, and these feelings included being:

"anxious, nervous, stressed, apprehensive, worried"