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Engaging with communities and people
Whenever you engage with communities you're aiming for one or more of these three things:
- Recruitment of young people, Young Leaders or Leaders
- Learning opportunities for your section
- Building community relationships
Planning, delivering and reflecting upon your furthering reach
Before you dive into reaching out to a new community, review the steps below to ensure you're prepared.
It's always useful to sit down as a leadership team and consider planning out what you can all achieve.
Try community mapping to better understand your area and their needs. Consider what you want to do as a team - recruit a particular community, learn and build awareness or be welcoming and inclusive.
Focus on why you wish to engage this community. Find out more about them by chatting to a community leader or having a look at local charities. Finding someone with knowledge will help you understand what's important to the community. If you want to know, ask!
Check out our step-by-step guide to engaging with a community
Reach out to a community leader. This might not be a formal leader, it could be an approachable parent that everyone enjoys engaging with.
Think about how you represent your group. You could share imagery that reflects your belief on social media, for example a well-placed rainbow can show you're an LGBTQIA+ friendly group.
Keep an eye on religious holidays and post on social media wishing a happy ‘holiday’.
Create awareness in your group by using some of the activities in the Activity Finder. Share images of the activities to celebrate the experience.
When people join your group, in any capacity, they may have specific needs which you can support to ensure they feel valued and included.
This could mean making tweaks to how you run things, but those tweaks will make all the difference to the person who wishes to take part.
Find out more about supporting participation on welcoming and including, which has more detailed tips.
As a leadership team, consider how your furthering reach is going. Consider the Stop, Start, Continue approach.
Ask yourselves:
- Stop: What isn't working and is there anything that we need to stop doing?
- Start: What could we start doing? What have others tried that we could give a go?
- Continue: What's going well and what could we do more of?
Reaching out to a new community
Reaching out to a new community can feel a little daunting. But remember, most community groups will be thrilled you want to engage with them.
Find out how to engage a new communityGive it a go
Check out our collection of furthering reach ideas that have been tried and tested by volunteers.
Discover volunteers' furthering reach ideasFurthering Reach and Community Impact
Don't miss out on any opportunity to further reach when engaging with your community.
Find out about Furthering Reach and Community Impact