Community Engagement

The Community Engagement Project:

The Community Engagement model works to present the current standing of an organisation in inclusivity in their locality, focussing on the key equality groups and protected characteristics as referenced in Equality Act 2010. It also supports an organisation's key drivers (e.g. commercial opportunities and engaging untapped markets, risk management, brand reputation, external relations and employee relations).

The project can result in improving the organisation's day to day practices and develop business opportunities in a constantly changing demographic environment. There are five key areas of work: Communications, Policy Review, Staff Consultation, Stakeholder Consultation and Training Needs Analysis:

1. Communications - Internal communications is about buy-in from all levels within the organisation and focuses on the organisations commitment to develop its business further.  It works to promote the business case to diversity and managing diversity outcomes. 

External communications - builds initial awareness of the project and partnership to key stakeholders (including local communities and agencies) on the organisation's commitment to diversity, thus creating credibility and PR opportunities.    

2. Policy Review – carrying out a review (across race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, faith, age and socio economic factors) of selected key policies, procedures and published materials to reveal transferrable good practice, identify misunderstanding of any policies by staff in their practice and gaps in policies or supporting information 
3. Staff Survey & Staff Consultation – the staff survey and the staff consultation will support the policy review and will reveal how policies work in practice and identify gaps in communications and policies and procedures.  The survey and consultation will help an organisation to understand its employees better from their needs and aspirations and empathising with the organisation's vision and mission. 
4. Stakeholder Consultation – mapping of local stakeholders and consulting local community groups and other agencies can reveal how the organisation's services are perceived externally and help to identify ways to improve or build upon relationships and initiatives specifically marketed to target consumers, supporting commercial opportunities. 
5. Training Needs Analysis – particularly for external facing staff (e.g. customer services) – establishing level of knowledge around equality, diversity and inclusion, the appropriate training/learning methods to be planned for the future.

Finally Sporting Equals would develop a report with recommendations to support commercial, PR and engagement opportunities.