Village In The City was set up to help community members connect and build their own micro-local communities. We also attract interest from people who are involved professionally in community development and engagement, which is great – the more heads and experience around the table, the better!
When asked about their hopes for joining Village In The City, one such new member from the UK said:
“I hope to get advice about how to reach different and hard-to-reach demographics to inform them about consultations and engagement events at the council which may impact them, and give them a chance to have their say.”
This is a great question! We talked about it at our May 2022 Village Builders call. These monthly calls are open to all members of our free online community (http://members.villageinthecity.net), and offer a place to share questions and challenges which we then work on together, live on the call. And here’s what we discussed:
Would they say they are “hard to reach”?
There seems to be something a little one-sided in referring to groups or demographics as ‘hard to reach’. It can even sound as if the so-called hard-to-reach people are in some way to blame. We talked about turning the situation around in our minds – what makes our project/event/service hard to engage with? How do we change the impression we give? How do we make ourselves relevant and useful to everyone, including these demographics? This can include the name as well as how it looks, where it crops up and what it offers. And some people get put off by the place/space to which they are being invited (perhaps it’s associated with unfortunate past incidents or crime?), or even being for people ‘not like me’. Being seen as telling people off for not using your service isn’t a good look, we think.
Service user or participant?
In some ways, the ‘service user’ tag/mindset is useful – seeing those involved as clients or even customers can be a helpful reminder to engage with the people and their needs and hopes, rather than simply dishing out whatever resource is on offer. On other ways, though, it can get in the way.
Are we inviting people to simply take (or leave) what’s available, or are we offering them the chance to participate, to shape what is happening, to have their views heard and (visibly) utilised, to be part of developing the future? It may be that these ‘hard to reach’ people are simply not convinced that there is value for them in engaging. They may have engaged before and found it unhelpful or worse. They may be not be convinced that they are really being asked to contribute. They may have offered to participate before, only to find the offer hollow and unsatisfactory. Once bitten, twice shy (and thrice telling others to steer clear).
How to join in and what to expect?
Another thing that can interfere with people engaging with projects (and therefore becoming ‘hard-to-reach’ is lack of clarity of how to engage. Sometimes projects can be over-rigid in how they require people to knock on their doors. Not everyone has internet access for booking, or getting information. Some may be on very limited data packages and unable or unwilling to do long Zoom calls. Some can’t make the day or time for all sorts of good reasons.
And the other possibility is also true. In setting out to be flexible and accommodating, some projects can develop into a ‘tyranny of structurelessness’, where it all looks random and ad-hoc to outsiders (and maybe even to insiders). It can be very daunting to enter a space where nobody seems to know what they are doing (which might be described by those closely involved as informal, spontaneous and open) but can actually lead to abuses of power as there are no checks and processes. The kind of people who get called ‘hard-to-reach’ may be exactly the people who are less confident, less eloquent and less accustomed to making themselves heard.
Hard-to-reach or easy-to-ignore?
One final thought. Sometimes people who are described as ‘hard-to-reach’ can all too easily become ‘easy to ignore’. Maybe because they have unusual (by the local standards) needs, maybe they don’t speak the language very well, maybe they are seen as a nuisance, maybe they are seen as ‘on the other side’ in some way.
The What Works Scotland review of evidence on promoting equality in community engagement is a comprehensive, if rather academic, look at a wide range of issues in this regard. It’s available free at http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WWSHardToReachOrEasyToIgnoreEvidenceReview.pdf.
In conclusion
100 years ago, Dale Carnegie wrote in How To Win Friends And Influence People that if you want people to be interested in you, you have to get interested in them. This remains as true today as it ever was. Some short guidelines about engaging with hard-to-reach groups:
- It’s up to us as professionals or community builders to get out to those people – we can’t (by definition) simply hope they will arrive one day.
- Make our work and services attractive and relevant (and approachable)
- If we are seeking participation, then make sure it really is participative, the results of people’s participation is visible (in particular to them) and they are acknowledged, thanked and kept involved
- Be clear as to how to engage and join in. Ask people what would be useful. Experiment. And make sure people are welcomed immediately when they do arrive
- If you are simply ticking a box, don’t bother. If you really want to engage with different groups, they will want to see action.
Thanks to those Village In The City members who joined in with this conversation (including Richard Lucas, Lynn Darke, Brian De Lord, Joan Robertson, Mark McKergow) on our May 2022 call. To join our community and participate in future calls, visit http://members.villageinthecity.net.
