Community Engagement Toolkit

n a Big Society, communities are central to making things happen. And fortunately, there are communities of various sizes and shapes all over Britain. From the Boy Scouts to the Evangelical Christians or the Sikhs and the Yoga School, these communities every day bring people together and inspire them to lead a better, healthier and more ethical life. They are volunteer run and managed, but the loyalty they create, and the trust they build is so vital to society – in fact employers often struggle to build the same levels of loyalty and trust among their staff. So these communities are resources of learning, representing contact points, networks, strong relationships and commitment and charity. It is vital for businesses and organisations to interact with their local communities and draw from their huge strengths.

However, this happens very rarely. There are several reasons for this.

• Too few employers understand these communities and their power.
• Each community is different and has different strengths and wisdoms.
• There is very little mapping and awareness of the existence and diversity of these groups
• The method of approach is unknown
• Ways of building win-win results are not known
• Savings in costs such as recruitment costs, building a loyal workforce, improving employee motivation are all lost as a result.

At Diverse Ethics, we can help employers engage positively with their communities in several ways:

1. We can develop a bespoke toolkit for community engagement for each client
2. We can help with mapping communities and social networks
3. We can give a large number of win-win propositions which would help both employers and communities at the same time
4. We can help improve recruitment, retention and employee morale through this
5. We can demonstrate the cost savings and the financial benefits of doing so