Performance outcome 3 - Community Engagement Guidance

Purpose

This guidance builds on and complements evidential requirements for compliance set out in the Evidence Guidance (PDF , 439.2 KB) for Performance Outcome 3.

This guidance has two objectives.

• To ensure that registered community housing providers (CHPs) understand the performance requirements under Performance Outcome 3 (Community Engagement) of the National Regulatory Code, including how Registrars will evaluate performance in this area.
• To provide support to those CHPs seeking to invest in better practices in community engagement where they are able to do so.

This information is interpretative and not prescriptive. How and in what form CHPs choose to develop community engagement plans depends on their business and tenant circumstances.

The National Regulatory Code - Performance outcome 3

Performance Outcome 3 of the National Regulatory Code requires that the community housing provider works in partnership with relevant organisations to promote community housing and to contribute to socially inclusive communities.

Community housing providers demonstrate compliance by having up-to-date copies of community engagement policies and procedures as well as a community engagement strategy or similar document that details how the CHP works with other organisations to promote community housing. Registrars may also request other evidence such as newsletters, surveys and other marketing information, and details of partnership arrangements with support agencies and other service providers.

The NRSCH recognises that many Tier 3 providers deliver community engagement services as part of their core business and hence the provision of evidence against other performance outcomes may be agreed by the Registrar as sufficient to meet the evidence necessary for Performance Outcome 3. 

Definitions

For the purposes of this guidance, social inclusion is defined as those activities that assist people to fully participate in social and economic life. These activities may include access to education, training and employment services. They may also include better connecting tenants into the local community.

Place renewal is more commonly referred to as place making or neighbourhood renewal. We have defined place renewal as strengthening the connections between people and the places they share. Place renewal activities may range from working with tenants and neighbours to improve local amenities, through to consulting with neighbours and prospective tenants on new developments and facilities.

What is Community Engagement?

Whilst there are many definitions of community engagement, the following practical approach will adopted.

“Community engagement refers to the broad range of activities and strategies registered community housing provider use in order to better connect their tenants to, and involve them in, their local communities. Community engagement provides local communities and other key stakeholders, such as service providers, philanthropic trusts, local and state government, funding bodies, as well as neighbours, with the opportunity to engage with the registered community housing provider and their tenants through a variety of means.”

Essentially, community engagement can be distilled down to all those activities and processes that are undertaken with the aim of bringing people together for a number of different purposes. One such purpose may be to ensure that neighbours who might be affected by a new development are provided with information about the development and the prospective tenants in order to allay any concerns they may have. Community engagement can therefore be a valuable educational tool enabling people to make decisions based upon evidence rather than emotion. This level of engagement may also involve neighbours as well as prospective tenants in the design of the project or in the co-location of other, desired community services, thereby empowering them.

It is important to make a distinction between community engagement and Tenant Engagement. Community Engagement involves CHPs engaging with the broader community to achieve social and economic outcomes for tenants. Tenant Engagement on the other hand, involves ensuring that tenants have a voice and are able to influence  decisions made by CHPs.

Why Community Engagement?

The table below lists some of the many benefits associated with community engagement.

Table 1: Potential benefits of community engagement for tenants, the community and the registered community housing provider.

Community Engagement in action

Registered community housing providers may already be undertaking community engagement activities, even if they have not been identified as such. In fact, a significant number of registered community housing providers were themselves created as a consequence of community engagement and advocacy around issues to do with housing rights and homelessness.

This guidance may assist community housing providers to place those activities within a coherent framework in order to report against them in the self-assessment of performance against the National Regulatory Code. 

In the diagram above, informing refers to activities undertaken by community housing provider that revolve around communication, such as developing supporter newsletters, or appearing regularly in local newspapers or advertising events on websites or through Facebook. They are also actions that can be used to inform or educate the wider community. The Registrars expect smaller providers to at least operate in this domain.

Collaborating/enabling refers to activities that the community housing provider undertakes alone or in partnership with others that actively work to overcome the social exclusion of tenants and build strong linkages with the local community. The Registrars expect Tier 2 providers to be able to at least evidence activity in this domain.

Leading refers to activities the community housing provider is undertaking that are designed to influence service provision or government policy or are activities that are breaking new ground, such as research or the development of new programs.

Suggested elements of a Community Engagement plan

The development of a community engagement plan is an important tool for community housing providers as it will enable classification of all those myriad activities that agencies undertake into one coherent format. The following elements should be considered by providers when developing their community engagement activities.