Summary Overview of the Engagement Tool/Innovation:
The Resilient Melbourne tool invites interested parties to submit development projects which could be then linked to Resilient Melbourne Action (RMA). RMA then selected five projects they believed could be most effective when implemented. These five are then used in small scale projects to analyse how their approaches, and whether they could be scaled up and repeated in the future.
Role in decision-making:
This tool would be used prior to a project, as its aim is to find effective ways of carrying out projects or finding new projects which could potentially be beneficial.
The community’s role in this process would be submitting proposals, which could be tested by UGN, however, the way they are ultimately chosen would be evidence based, with UGN having the final say on what is implemented.
Consulting: public invitation to submit a project allows for UGN to consult with a wide range of groups
Empowering: gives communities the chance to have their projects implemented
Hard to reach groups: the submission is public, therefore hard to reach groups could be more accessible
Reporting back to communities: chance for UGN to present the findings of how effective each project was and their choice for using some of these in the future
Suitable for:
This tool is suitable for finding which projects would be best implemented and carried out for UGN. It would also allow for greater community engagement, due to the submissions being open to all stakeholders. Initially this is a small-scale tool, however, once the effectiveness is evaluated it could be applied to projects of varying sizes.
HOW TO DO IT:
The project would begin with UGN inviting stakeholders to submit their projects for evaluation. Five of these would then be chosen by UGN, who will then implement them on a small scale to see the benefits of them, or if they can learn anything from the project. Once the projects have finished, UGN would analyse the findings from each project and present the results back to the stakeholders.
After this, UGN will decide on which of the projects could be scaled up for a larger scale implementation. Similarly, UGN could also take parts of these projects and adapt them to fit their needs, if it is found that none of the projects were completely effective.
Format:
Online – Submissions will be carried out online
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In person – UGN can hold a meeting at the end of the tool to present findings and inform interested parties which tools they will be developing further.
This would be dependent on the five chosen submissions and the projects they are used for.
Time is also dependent on how long UGN would want to carry out the tests to gather the necessary information they need.
Staff will be needed to deal with submissions, choose which ones to test and oversee their implementation. Following this, they will be needed to gather information on the process and inform on the outcomes.
ADVANTAGES
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Community engagement
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Chance of gaining a wealth of ideas for future projects
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Testing it will mean that there is less risks involved with the implementation
CHALLENGES
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Chance that there are few submissions
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Potential that the submissions lack quality
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Projects that work may not do so when scaled up
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Some may criticise this as not being effective community engagement as UGN are responsible for the evaluating of the submissions.
