Community Engagement: Principles, Strategies and Benefits - Age UK Case Study

This report discusses community engagement principles, strategies, and benefits through the Age UK case study. It covers the description of the programme, community engagement principles and standards, benefits of stakeholders’ participation, relationship among the stakeholders and strategies that are suitable for their engagement, engagement with the help of social media platforms, and factors that influence community development. The report also includes references from books and journals.

Assessment 1:
Community
Engagement

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Describe project or programme..............................................................................................3
Community engagement principles and standards.................................................................4
Benefits of stakeholders’ participation...................................................................................4
Relationship among the stakeholders and strategies that are suitable for their engagement..5
Engagement with the help of Social media platforms............................................................5
Factors that influence community development.....................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Community engagement is the process under which the NGOs and other business
organisation work to engage the local people. The task is to solve the issues of the people and
provide them best available support. These are basically charitable organisations that work to
help the people and take them out of problematic situations (Gilmore and et.al., 2020). There are
certain issues being faced by general public such as insecurity, social deprivation, crime, lack of
recreational facilities, discrimination situation and some environmental issues. These
organisations work to help them and solve their issues so that they are able to overcome the
situation. There is need of managing their work so that they are able to live a free life. The
problems are at societal level and by solving the problem the members of community will be
able to lead a better life. This report is based on Age UK that is one of the registered charitable
organisation. They focus on helping the aged people and solving the problems faced by them.
This report evaluates the relations among the stakeholders and the policies that will help to
engage them. The best social media platforms that support the programme are mentioned.
MAIN BODY
Describe project or programme
Age UK aims to provide effective services to old people. The programs provide services that
help to old age people to solve the issues being faced by them. The old people are left alone and
one of the major issue face by them is related to loneliness. There is need of engaging these old
people so that they are able to live a happy life (Kim, Newman and Jiang, 2020). They are being
provided with services such as home help, exercise, foot care, IT training, transportation and
shopping as well. All this is required by the old age people so that they are able to carry on the
work in proper manner and take advantage of the facilities. The focus is to enhance the quality of
life that these people live.
Age UK aims to provide training facilities for the old people as well. They plan to enhance
their skills so that they are able to carry on the work effectively. It is necessary so that these
people are able to develop new skills and that makes them confident to achieve success in their
working. They are given right to use digital marketing platforms such as Facebook and
Instagram in order to develop relations with others. Socialisation helps them to live a better life
and they are able to carry on the work effectively.

Community engagement principles and standards
It is analysed that the Age UK is working according to certain principles that help them to
work effectively. There is key role of following such principles and standards as they help them
to enhance their presence and provide proper support to the people. The principles that are being
used by Age UK are as follows:
 Careful planning and Preparation: It is observed that they are indulged in careful
planning and preparation that makes them more successful in market (Tan and et.al.,
2022). They take effective measures that are necessary to serve the members of the
society and help to engage them.
 Collaboration and Shared Purpose: Age UK is a charitable trust that believes in
following the approach of collaborative working. It is necessary for them to share the
purpose and manage the working effectively.
 Transparency and Trust: Age UK believes in trust and transparency. All the members
are provided information related to new ideas and actions that are being taken by the
firm. It helps them to trust the organisation.
 Impact and Action: All the actions that are being taken by Age UK are in the favour of
their members and have positive impact on them.
Benefits of stakeholders’ participation.
All the programmes launched by the firm are for the benefit of old people. They tend to
enhance their skills and develop knowledge that will be beneficial for them. They want to
enhance the image of organisation so that more people are engaged towards them.
 There is key role of stakeholders as they enhance the decision making of the firm. They
are able to get good and effective advice because of the programmes (World Health
Organization, 2020). It helps them reduce the loneliness and can live effectively.
 There is reduction in social deprivation due to the proper engagement of the stakeholders.
The regular communication helps to build relationship and manage the working
effectively.
 It helps the community to get better advice so that all the issues being faced are resolved
and the community is able to benefit the members in an effective manner.

Relationship among the stakeholders and strategies that are suitable for their engagement
Age UK works to maintain effective relationship with the stakeholders. It is necessary for
the firm to develop such relation in order to operate smoothly. The success of the firm depends
on the relation that they maintain with stakeholders and help the organisation to enhance their
image in market (David-Chavez and Gavin, 2018). All the strategies are formulated to build
relation with the stakeholders and engage them. By communicating all the information to them
the charitable organisation is able to involve them in the decision making. The use of social
media platforms is done in proper manner in order to keep the stakeholders engaged in the
business.
Engagement with the help of Social media platforms
The trend in the market keeps on changing and there is need of following the same. The use
of digitalisation helps the community to engage the people and work with them effectively.
There is need of using internet to enhance the presence over social media platforms. It helps to
reach more and more customers and manage their working. Age UK believes in continuity and
this helps them to create an image in the mind of stakeholders.
There is need of using social media tools at the present time as it helps to involve the
stakeholders. The major platforms that are being used by Age UK are Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter and You Tube. The stakeholders must be aware about all the actions that are being taken
by company (Galiatsatos and et.al., 2020). The use of proper social media platforms is necessary
to engage the people. It is seen that Facebook is being used by people to interact with each other
and is one of the efficient platform to connect with relatives and friends. It is a tool that is
preferred by the people to develop relations. The company is able to post regularly on the
website to make the people aware about the work done by them.
One of the campaign launched by them at the time of Covid-19 helped them a lot. The same
enhanced the image of charitable organisation. The use of digital platforms helps the old people
to reduce the loneliness and interact with each other. They have practice of posting the relevant
information on social media so that they are able to make them aware. This awareness is
necessary to enhance the participation of people. There is key role of monitoring the
performance of the post and carrying the work accordingly (Corbett and Le Dantec, 2018). The
posts by Age UK are motivating for the local people and specially for those who are facing some
issue in the old age. They start joining the community to get right amount of help and support.

One of the major effort done by the organisation is related to their power that help them to
solve the query of people. The company answer the questions of all the stakeholders and provide
them effective response. This create positive image of them and engage more people towards the
community. It is necessary to take such actions as they are for the benefit of the community and
its members. There are some points that are being considered by Age UK and they are as
follows:
Community participations: The use of social media platforms helps age UK to enhance the
community participation. Regular post on social media such as You Tube, Facebook and
Instagram helps to reach more customers. In order to provide support to the older people there is
need of updating the services that are provided by community. There are certain issues that are
being faced by the local people and there is need of solving the issues (Osborne and et.al., 2021).
The use of right tools and techniques is necessary to help the people to overcome the challenge
faced by them. By engaging the stakeholders, it becomes possible to overcome the issues and
motivate the community participation.
Collaboration: It is the ability to work together and achieve a common purpose. There is
need of collaboration is order to achieve the goals and objectives. The use of collaborative
approach by Age UK helps them to attain successful position. The efforts done by all the staff
members of the firm are in the favour of elder people and to provide them effective conditions.
The use of social media supports Age UK and attain success to achieve the common goal.
Collaboration is the key to success for the firm.
Socio-cultural integration: There is need of taking proper care of the society. The socio
cultural integration helps to follow the norms and values that are necessary to be followed. It is
necessary to maintain relations with the other members of the community understanding their
cultural norms and value. Age UK spreads awareness regarding Socio-cultural integration and
make more people aware about the concept. There is need of managing the work and value the
diversity of people.
Multiculturalism: Social media is a place where people of multicultural become friends and
share their views. All the people have different perception, talents, thoughts, values culture,
language etc. All of them are able to meet at a particular platform and become friends. In Age
UK the members are from different culture and all are given equal value (Satizábal and et.al.,
2022). There are diverse people in society and all of them must be respected.

Factors that influence community development
There is use of forward looking approach that is being adopted by community engagement.
They work to educate the members of the community to provide them future growth. The factors
that impact Age UK are as follows:
Internal factors: These factors are internal to the community and they have control over
them. They can take care of the community members and it assist in developing their skills
(Dahles and et.al., 2020). This helps to manage the overall work.
External factors: These are the external factors that have impact on Age UK. These are
not in control of the company and there is need of following those factors as well. The forward
looking approach adopted by company is required to manage working.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that community engagement is the act of engaging the
members of society and helping them by solving the issues faced by them. There is need of
managing the work of the community members so that they are able to carry on the work in
proper manner. There is evaluation related to the programme and the benefits of the same.
Stakeholders play a vital role in the success of community and they make efforts to engage the
stakeholders. The use of best activities makes the working of charitable organisation easier.
There is need of regular communication that engages the members so that they are able to engage
the stakeholders in the market. The use of proper strategies will help them to manage the overall
relations that are beneficial for their firm. There is need of using digital marketing strategy as it
is necessary at the present time. The strategy that is being used by the company is mentioned is
the report. The factors that have impact on working of charitable organisation are mentioned.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Corbett, E. and Le Dantec, C.A., 2018, April. The problem of community engagement:
Disentangling the practices of municipal government. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI
conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-13).
Dahles and et.al., 2020. Social entrepreneurship and tourism in Cambodia: advancing community
engagement. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 28(6), pp.816-833.
David-Chavez, D.M. and Gavin, M.C., 2018. A global assessment of Indigenous community
engagement in climate research. Environmental Research Letters, 13(12), p.123005.
Galiatsatos and et.al., 2020. Community calls: Lessons and insights gained from a medical–
religious community engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of religion and
health, 59(5), pp.2256-2262.
Gilmore and et.al., 2020. Community engagement for COVID-19 prevention and control: a rapid
evidence synthesis. BMJ global health, 5(10), p.e003188.
Kim, G., Newman, G. and Jiang, B., 2020. Urban regeneration: Community engagement process
for vacant land in declining cities. Cities, 102, p.102730.
Osborne and et.al., 2021. Community engagement and vulnerability in infectious diseases: A
systematic review and qualitative analysis of the literature. Social Science & Medicine, 284,
p.114246.
Satizábal and et.al., 2022. The power of connection: Navigating the constraints of community
engagement for disaster risk reduction. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 68,
p.102699.
Tan and et.al., 2022. Digital approaches to enhancing community engagement in clinical trials.
npj Digital Medicine, 5(1), pp.1-8.
World Health Organization, 2020. Risk communication and community engagement readiness
and response to coronavirus disease (COVID-19): interim guidance, 19 March 2020 (No.
WHO/2019-nCoV/RCCE/2020.2). World Health Organization.