Examples of Community Voice Partner engagement

The below examples describe how Community Voice Partners could engage in different ways. These are hypothetical examples which have been written drawing on many examples of good practice from Tasmania and Australia.

I’m learning to judge less. To take a step back and consider my choice of words. I’ve become really aware of people’s more subtle emotions, so I feel like my self-awareness is increasing. I’ve realised that I like to tell family and friends what I’m doing and am speaking about the project with pride and conviction.

— TasCOSS Community Voice Partner

CONSULT:

Government Lived Experience Advisory Panel

A department of the State Government is developing a new policy which will affect many Tasmanians. To bring the voice of lived experience into the policy development process to make sure the policy works for the people it affects, the State Government department creates a Lived Experience Advisory Panel. This panel is made up of people with diverse lived experiences. Because the policy will affect Tasmanians living on low incomes, the State Government department requests that TasCOSS connect them with two Community Voice Partners—May and Rodrigo—who will sit on the panel alongside other advocates.

May and Rodrigo receive an introductory session with the State Government department providing background on the policy. They then attend six panel meetings— once every two months for the year that the policy development process runs. For each meeting, May and Rodrigo are provided with information and questions to review beforehand. They discuss these in the panel session, providing feedback and ideas on ways to improve, based on their experiences of living on low incomes. The State Government department then decides how to integrate this feedback and ideas into the policy being developed, and report back to the panel on the outcome from each panel meeting.

This is a consultative style of engagement where the State Government department asks for feedback or input but has decision-making power about the outcomes of the process. For each meeting, the May and Rodrigo receive support from the TasCOSS Community Voices Program coordinator by checking in prior to the meeting and debriefing after. Community Voice Partners are paid for the three-hour introductory session, two hours preparation per panel meeting, two hours for each panel meeting, and half an hour debriefing for each of the six panel meetings across the year. The State Government department pays for their engagement and TasCOSS administers those payments.

INVOLVE:

Organisational hiring process

A community services organisation is hiring a new social worker. Because most clients of the organisation live on low incomes, the organisation decides it would be good practice to have someone with relevant lived experience on the interview panel. This will help to ensure the social worker hired is someone who treats clients fairly and with empathy.

The organisation requests that TasCOSS connect them with a Community Voice Partner—Akiko—who will sit on the interview panel. To do this, Akiko meets for an hour with the community services organisation to be briefed on what they are looking for. She then sits on the interview panel for five interviews for a duration of six hours (including breaks between interviews). Akiko then partakes in two hours of discussions with the organisation to come to a final decision about who is hired, providing her recommendations based on her experiences of being someone who might access their services.

This is an involvement style of engagement because Akiko is involved in the process of interviewing and contributes to the decision about who is hired. Akiko receives support from the TasCOSS program coordinator by checking in prior to the interview process and debriefing after. Akiko is paid for the nine hours of the interview process plus two hours of preparation and half an hour of debriefing.

COLLABORATE:

Project working group

A new cross-sector collaboration is starting up to provide wrap-around perspectives on complex social problems in Tasmania. In addition to a range of businesses and organisations, the collaboration team include community members with lived experience to contribute to the project. This is to ensure that any solutions or outcomes are designed with community and are fit for purpose.

The collaboration team requests that TasCOSS connect them four Community Voice Partners—Amar, Grace, Sekani, and Jorge—to work with them as partners on the project working group which will run for six months. They have funding to pay Amar, Grace, Sekani, and Jorge to each contribute three hours a week for six months. These hours include preparing for and attending meetings, providing input and feedback on documents and processes, and contributing to the creation of resources like ‘how to guides for community’. In addition to these three hours a week, Amar, Grace, Sekani, and Jorge also meet with the TasCOSS program coordinator for an hour a month to check in on how they are going and provide support as needed.

This is a collaborative style of engagement because Amar, Grace, Sekani, and Jorge are actively partnering on the project in the same way as other collaborators. They have an equal seat at the table, they share in decisions, and they co-produce the outputs of the collaboration.

EMPOWER/LEAD:

Business service delivery revision

A large business delivers a financial support program for their customers who can’t always pay their bills on time. They have had feedback from customers that this program is confusing and inaccessible. They decide that they would like to work with people who have engaged with their program in the past to develop a ‘how to’ guide to future customers to help them navigate the program.

The business requests that TasCOSS connect them two Community Voice Partners—Yihan and Gabriel—both of whom have taken part in the business’s financial support program in the past. Yihan and Gabriel have lots of ideas about how to make the financial hardship program simpler and easier to access because they have been through it themselves. Yihan and Gabriel develop the ‘how to’ guide by drawing on their own experiences and talking to other customers who have taken part in the program in the past. The business support Yihan and Gabriel by providing information or resources and answering questions—enabling them to complete the guide—but they don’t really intervene with the process other than to help when asked. The resulting guide is then shared with future customers as a resource developed by customers, for customers.

This is an empowerment/leadership style of engagement because Yihan and Gabriel are taking the lead on developing and delivering the ‘how to’ guide, with enabling support from the business. Yihan and Gabriel are supported by TasCOSS with regular check ins and are paid for the time they spend checking in with TasCOSS, planning the process, meeting with the business, talking to other customers, and developing the ‘how to’ guide.

The Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS) is the peak body for Tasmania’s community services industry. Our Mission is to challenge and change the systems, behaviours and attitudes that create poverty, inequality and exclusion. Our Vision is of one Tasmania, free of poverty and inequality where everyone has the same opportunity. TasCOSS’s 2022 Federal Election – Tasmania Package is informed by our research and analysis and reflects the expertise of our members, advocates, and the lived experiences of Tasmanians.