Community engagement is a planned and intentional process that includes the community in understanding issues, helping shape Council decisions and how we implement them. This leads to better, community-informed outcomes and decision making.

This is our new definition - what do you think?

This Policy defines Council’s role, commitment and expectations to embed community engagement in how we plan and deliver our work. It sets clear and consistent expectations for when we will engage, who we will engage, and how we will engage.

This Policy is supported by internal teams, systems, and processes to ensure all community engagement activities comply with its requirements.

Community engagement is an important part of Council’s decision-making process. While it provides essential insight into community needs and perspectives, it is one of several inputs to Council decision making.

We consider community feedback alongside other evidence, such as research, customer data, expert advice, strategic policies, and legislative requirements, to make informed and balanced decisions.

The Victorian Local Government Act 2020 outlines a set of overarching principles that are central to our engagement practice and describe the need for community engagement to be transparent, accountable, meaningfully informed and representative.

We have developed a set of engagement commitments, appropriate to our community and its needs, to demonstrate how we apply these requirements in practice.

Council recognises the importance of early engagement. We will plan for and implement an engagement process when it is identified that a proposed project or decision will impact all or some of the community.

There may be circumstances where we are only able to inform the community of decisions and actions.

Our engagement process is shaped by what is being proposed - its complexity and significance, the level of impact and who will be affected.

Our community engagement follows a clear and consistent process to ensure decisions are shaped by informed and meaningful community input:

• we plan
• we deliver
• we analyse
• we evaluate

Our community is anyone who lives, works, plays, visits, studies, or is invested in our City, who may be impacted by or interested in Council decisions – whether individually or collectively.

We will use our engagement principles to ensure our efforts include all the communities we serve and are committed to looking beyond traditional tools to enable and encourage their participation.

Our small team at Council supports project teams and our community to ensure your voice is heard in our projects and plans.

You might see us at events or pop-ups around the City, but you will also have chances to meet and speak to project teams directly.

Have a question or ideas for improvement? Email us anytime at communityengagement@maribyrnong.vic.gov.au