Engagement activities: Tools and methods

Deciding what activities to do as part of your engagement will depend on the purpose and level of your engagement (i.e, are you trying to inform, consult, involve, collaborate, empower?) and your engagement audience. The facilitation method resources below provide some examples of methods and activities you can use for each level of participation in health and care research community engagement projects. 

General resources

• Tamarack Institute:  Index of Community Engagement Techniques. A comprehensive list of community engagement techniques that can be selected based on the level of engagement you are conducting. Techniques include a description, helpful resources as well and factors to consider and are organised by level of engagement - inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower.

• University of Kansas: Community Tool Box. A toolkit with 46 chapters of comprehensive guidance and advice for community engagement and community-building work. 

• Involve website. Involve is the UK's public participation charity, who's missions is to put people at the heart of decision-making.  They develop, support and campaign for new ways of involving people in the decisions that affect their lives. Involve has a comprehensive range of resources available on its website to support public participation and citizen democracy, including, methods, guidance and advice on developing and designing public participation processes, case studies, and publications. 

• Involve and Local Government Association: Not Another Consultation! Making community engagement informal and fun.  Practical guidance to help plan and deliver informal engagement events with a health focus that combines fun with appropriate engagement methods that can be tailored to the needs of different communities. 

• Bank of Ideas.com. An extensive set of resources and guidance for planning and delivering community engagement, including different methods and activities. The Practical Techniques and Tools for Engaging Community from Bank of Ideas provides a number of different tools and methods, and guidance for facilitators in planning and facilitating community spaces. 

• The International HIV/AIDS Alliance. 100 ways to energise groups: Games to use in workshops, meetings and the community. A set of 100 ideas for energiser activities to use in community workshops or events. 

• Iriss. Co-production Project Planner Tools. A guide to different tools and techniques for facilitating community spaces and events. 

 Methods to inform 

• The Cookie Experiment is an interactive and fun activity that you can use to inform people about health and social care research. It is adapted from Thiel's (1987) Cookie Experiment: A Creative Teaching Strategy which was originally designed to teach nursing students about research. 

• The Why Cycle is an NIHR activity that you can use to help you plan your key messages when talking to people about health and social care research. It starts by talking about why rather than what so that your audience understands the purpose of the opportunity you are offering them to participate or get involved in. 

Methods to consult

• NIHR: Research Ready Communities, Group Community Conversations booklet. Provides a set of methods that can be used to consult members of the community for their views and feedback on a topic or project. The methods include word clouds, the H-diagram, carouselling, voting with your feet, and sticker wall (also known as sticker or dot voting, Photovoice). 

• Dotmocracy: How to Use Dot Voting Effectively. An overview of the dot voting or sticker voting method, including how and when to use it. 

• Our Locality: Tips for Trainers: Introducing the ‘H-form’ - a method for monitoring and evaluation. An overview of the H-diagram method for collecting community views and feedback. 

• Wishes tree: An interactive activity that allows members of the community to share their wishes. This is a useful exercise for understanding what matters to members of the community to help shape your evaluation. 

• The World Cafe: World Cafe Method. A methodology for facilitating discussions in larger groups.  

• Europlanet: Graffiti Wall: A participatory and creative evaluation or feedback activity that allows people to write or draw their comments onto a public display. This works well for public events and could be used to consult communities on their ideas related to research or your engagement project. 

Methods to collaborate

• Gastaldo et al. (2012): Body-Map Storytelling as Research: The case of undocumented Latin American workers in Ontario. Provides an overview of the Body Mapping technique and its uses. Body mapping is a participatory, creative technique that allows participants to visually represent aspects of their lives, their bodies, experiences and the world they live in. It can be used in a range of contexts, including as a research method. 

• Lego®: Lego®  Serious Play Methodology, Open Source. Provides an overview of the Lego® Serious Play® methodology, a practical and interactive facilitation process for groups of 4-8 people.  

• Pipdecks: Tomorrow's newspaper headlines: A visioning activity using an imaginary newspaper cover story to help your community members and partners imagine the future. This could be used to set evaluation outcomes with your community or to understand what community members would like to see for their community in the future to help inform research or engagement priorities. 

Methods to empower

(i) Community Asset Mapping 

Community Asset Mapping is a participatory process through which community assets (resources and strengths) are identified and documented. "Asset mapping involves generating a map or inventory of the capacities, skills and talents of individuals, associations, organisations, the natural and built environment, and local economy (inclusive of its gift economy). A visual map of resources is usually created from the identification process. The asset mapping process is not about data collection, it is about connecting people to their neighbours and their ecology and economy on the basis of their assets and priorities. A visual map of resources is usually created from the identification process." (Nurture Development). 

• ABCD in Leeds resources page. Includes a series of resources, information and tools for asset-based community development approaches. 

• Nurture Development: Asset-Based Community Development. Provides an explanation of an asset-based approach and its benefits. The website also provides a range of Asset-Based Community Development resources. 

• Foot and Hopkins (2010): A Glass Half-Full - How An Asset Approach Can Improve Community Health and Well-being. Provides an overview of and rationale for taking an asset-based approach to health and wellbeing. It also provides an overview of the asset mapping process as a technique.

• Vale of Glamorgan Council (2017): Community Mapping Toolkit. Provides an overview of different methods and activities designed to help communities understand and participate in the community mapping process so that they can find out what is going on in their community. 

• Preston City Council: The Community Mapping Toolkit. A guide to community asset mapping for community groups and local organisations. 

• UCLA Centre for Health Policy Research: Asset Mapping. A guide to help the planning and delivery of an asset mapping process. 

• Catalyse: Discover Cards. A set of cards that can be used with people to identify assets in a local community. 

(ii) Participatory Action Research 

• Pain, Whitman and Milledge (Durham University) and Lune Rivers Trust: Participatory Action Research Toolkit: An Introduction to Using PAR as an Approach to Learning, Research and Action. Provides guidance on what a Participatory Action Research project commonly looks like, how to work together and some questions to ask as you go. It does not provide advice on methods, as these will vary depending on what the research is about.

(iii) Photovoice 

Photovoice is a participatory photography method that seeks to empower people to share their experiences through photographic storytelling.

• The University of Kansas, The Community Toolbox: Chapter 3, Section 20. Implementing Photovoice in Your Community. Describes what Photovoice is, who should use it, why and when. Provides guidance on how to implement a Photovoice project. 

• Wang and Burris (1997): Photovoice: concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Provides an overview of the development of the photovoice concept, advantages and disadvantages, key elements, participatory analysis, materials and resources, and implications for practice.

(iv) Participatory budgeting

Participatory budgeting is a process through which citizens or community members are involved in making decisions about how money is spent. 

• Local Government Association: Participatory Budgeting. Provides an overview of participatory budgeting as a form of citizen participation. 

When planning an event in the community, it's important to plan and prepare well. This checklist is designed to help you do this. 

Inclusion and accessibility

• Check with partners or community members whether an in-person event will work best, or if it needs to be held online. Also check what day and time of day will work best for people (for example, if the majority of people attending are employed or attending school, whether there are periods of celebration and religious observance etc.).

• Check with your participants for any dietary, accessibility or other inclusion requirements before the event. When providing catering, check whether the food is appropriate for the group attending (considering dietary requirements and respecting cultural traditions). 

• Some people may not be confident with reading or writing or may need interpreting support. Others may need written materials in other languages. Make sure you know what is needed in advance and have the appropriate provisions in place. Consider how you will facilitate their equal participation during the training. 

• If childcare provision or support is needed for participants to attend, consider how you will support this (e.g. through reimbursement of childcare costs, provision of childcare). Previous examples include the provision of a creche in the adjoining room of an informal community event to raise awareness about health and care research. 

• Regardless of the visual needs of participants, it is good practice to prepare printed or written material with large fonts (minimum 12pt font). Make sure anything that is printed is done so as to size for accessibility. 

• If there are any mobility or accessibility issues, consider how any activities involving moving/walking around can be adapted. 

Venue: 

• Arrange an appropriate and accessible venue. Make sure people can get there easily, that it is somewhere people feel comfortable visiting, and that the venue/room is accessible (for example, is there an induction loop or level access?)

• Check that the room can be used comfortably for both plenary and smaller breakout group activities for the group size. Make sure that people can move around comfortably if they are breaking out into groups or moving around the room as part of the session. 

• If you can, try to visit the venue beforehand and confirm with the venue whether chairs/room setup can be moved around if needed. If the event is designed to be interactive, consider the room layout that will help encourage this (i.e. avoiding a lecture theatre-style layout). 

• Make sure that the room you are using has natural light and windows/access to fresh air to avoid depletion in energy levels. 

• If you are using flipchart paper, check whether the venue provides a flipchart (and if so, whether this is for free or an additional cost). Check whether there is empty space on part of the room's walls and whether this can be used to stick and display flipchart notes from the session. 

Facilitation: 

• Where possible, have at least one colleague with you on the day and in the planning to help you with organising and liaising with the venue, setting up and managing the space on the day, and facilitating the group (e.g. supporting groups in breakout group work, monitoring participation and energy levels). 

• Always start the session with ground rules or an agreed 'ways of working', to help create a collaborative space where everyone feels comfortable participating. Asking people what ways of working they would like to suggest can help create buy-in for them. It's also helpful to have a minimum set of ground rules in mind that you would like to suggest so that you are confident that the space is participatory and collaborative. 

• Depending on how well the group knows each other, and how well you know them, choose an icebreaker or starter activity that encourages people to feel comfortable participating and interacting with each other. 

• Try to actively listen to what people say, and provide a short summary of how you understand their contribution - allow them space to correct you if needed. Remember that as the facilitator, it is your job to be neutral, and to create an environment for people in the room to share and discuss ideas, rather than for you to impose opinions or ideas on the group. 

• Make sure you have printed out any handouts, evaluation forms etc. in advance and that you have all the materials you or participants might need on the day, including as a backup if technology fails (for example, if you are planning to show slides, do you have handouts or materials that you can use instead?) 

• Try to use a mixture of facilitation methods that allow for different levels of participation and confidence, and that help to maintain energy and momentum. For example, using a mixture of small break-out group discussions or activities and full group discussions in plenary. Where you are asking people to share their views or opinions, asking people to start solo (or think individually) for a minute or two allows for everyone to think and write down their ideas before sharing them more widely. This, combined with small group or pair work can help to ensure that individuals who are less comfortable speaking in large groups are able to speak and share their thoughts. 

• Try to use plain language that is understandable and appropriate for your potential participants, both in any promotional materials (e.g. flyers) and at the event itself. Check with community partners on this and take their advice on what will work. If you are using any health or research-specific terms, try to make sure these are spelled out and explained early on, in a way that is easy to understand. Find fun or easy ways for people to comfortably call out or ask to clarify jargon or words that they don't understand (e.g. yellow cards or squeaky objects). 

• Consider whether your activities allow for people who are less comfortable writing to participate and whether there are ways you can facilitate their participation (e.g. by making a co-facilitator available to jot down ideas or using drawing/discussion-based activities). 

• Monitor the energy and participation level of participants throughout the session. Incorporate energisers and comfort breaks where needed, even if it means moving around your original agenda timings (the further resources section includes some ideas for energisers you can use). After lunch (also known as the graveyard shift) can often be a low point in group energy. Try to schedule activities that require people to actively participate and move around (if appropriate for group members) after lunch. 

• Notice who is taking part and who isn't - is it because they don't have anything to add, or because they don't feel comfortable speaking up in the group? Providing different methods for people to participate, and setting out ground rules at the beginning of the session can help with this. 

• Always include time for feedback activities to help you understand how the group has found the session, what has worked well, and what could work differently next time.