Best Practices of Community Engagement for Gwen Walford House

This report discusses the best practices of community engagement for Gwen Walford House, a healthcare provider in Hereford, England. It covers the principles and standards, benefits of stakeholder participation, use of social media, and forward-looking approaches for educating community members. The report emphasizes the importance of community engagement in creating positive social environments and improving the lives of people in the society.

Community
Engagement (1)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Project or program..................................................................................................................1
Community engagement principles and standards.................................................................2
Benefits of stakeholders’ participation...................................................................................3
The use of social media for community engagement.............................................................4
Forward looking approaches by community engagement practitioners to educate community
members on internal and external factors affecting community engagement........................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Community engagement can be explained as engagement of people with each other at a
given place so that a positive social environment can be developed. Community engagement can
be elaborated as the contribution of people from diverse backgrounds, geographic locations,
cultures, traditions etc. who come together to share their interests, ideas, beliefs, culture and
other diverse phenomenon for creating positive cultural growth. Community engagement can be
elaborated as the positive interaction among the people, organisations and various societies that
helps to develop positive changes and healthy relationships among them. The report is based on
Gwen Walford House, subsidiary of Rotherwood, a healthcare provider that is headquartered in
Hereford, England. It is a leading healthcare provider that was established for offering
exceptional standards of nursing care to the people who are physically disabled, elderly, requires
palliative care, sensory requirement etc. It helps in resolving various problems within the society
for ensuring good health of the people, positive and safe environment, etc. so that community
growth can happen (Ariese, C. E., 2018). This report will describe the assessment and analysis of
the best practices of community engagement. It will also describe the projects and programs on
community engagement along with its principles and various advantages that the stakeholders
gain. This report will include the use of various social media platforms that can be helpful to
achieve community engagement. It will also describe the relevant ways that can be helpful in
promoting community participation, collaboration and diversity for developing a creating social
integration and community. In the end it will describe the approaches that can be useful for
educating community members.
MAIN BODY
Project or program
Gwen Walford House wants to spread positively, community interaction and good health
of the people in the society by improving their lives and higher quality of living standard. Gwen
Walford House provides companionship, support and health care to the people in the society for
improving their living conditions. It provides many benefits like health services, nursing
facilities, palliative care, and residence to the people who require extra care in day to day life (Di
Napoli and et.al., 2019). Gwen Walford House helps older people improve their digital skills and
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technological know-how so that their lives can be made easier with the help of technology. It is
helpful in providing greater connectivity and intelligence with people by communicating their
thoughts and expression with the use of digital technology in daily life. Digital technology has
become one of the most important parts in community engagement that helps to entertain people
and bring them closer. By this people can interconnect their cultures, traditions, thoughts, etc.
with other people from different places. The use of digital technology by the people is helpful to
reduce stress, depression and anxiety so better community engagement can be initiated.
Community engagement principles and standards
There are many principles and standards that are used by Gwen Walford House for
providing better support and comment engagement for the people in their care home. This is
helpful in creating better quality services and people in optimum manners. Some of the
community engagement principles and standards that are used by Gwen Walford House are
given below.
 Careful preparation and planning: Prior preparation and planning helps Gwen Walford
House to ensure that the needs and requirements of the people are fulfilled in an effective
and efficient manner. The preparation and planning is helpful in clarifying the activities
and actions required for achieving the community engagement activity.
 Openness and learning: It is helpful in ensuring openness and free flow of thoughts,
ideas, etc. among the people. It is helpful in learning new things and enhancing the
community engagement activities by sharing interests and knowledge with each other
(Fernandez, M., 2018).
 Transparency and trust: There must be honesty, trust, transparency and other ethics for
improving community engagement. Gwen Walford House uses transparency and trust for
engaging positive community interaction among the people.
 Collaboration and shared purpose: Without the collaboration and shared purpose it is
near to impossible to develop community engagement among the people. Therefore, it is
necessary that people should have a considerable amount of collaboration and shared
values for improving community engagement activities.
 Complying with Government laws and legislation: Without proper rules and
regulations people cannot develop community engagement (Gray and et.al., 2021). Gwen
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Walford House continuously monitors and seeks advice from the UK Government
agencies for ensuring safe and secure community engagement activities for the people.
Benefits of stakeholders’ participation
Stakeholders such as the people, community, society, groups and individuals from different
backgrounds, cultures, traditions etc. provides various advantages for improving community
engagement.
 New learnings and knowledge can be gained from the people from different
backgrounds, cultures and traditions. Gwen Walford House maximises interactions with
their stakeholders so that better interaction among the people can occur.
 Interaction among the people can be enhanced by indulging the stakeholders for
community engagement programs (Johnston, K. A. and Lane, A. B., 2019). Gwen
Walford House has developed positive interaction activities for the people to enhance
inter cultural mix.
 Collaboration with the stakeholders increases that helps to improve community
engagement by developing loyalty, trust and understanding among the people. This is
helpful in eliminating the negative and bringing closeness, positivity, peace and harmony
among different communities.
 Eliminate risks: Participation of stakeholders is also important for eliminating risks and
navigating the thoughts and behaviour elder people who are connected with the Gwen
Walford House. Stakeholders provide better solutions and understanding about the
negative problems for eliminating them and bringing peace and harmony within each
other for improving community engagement and growth.
The use of social media for community engagement
In the current era of technology has not the use of social media resulting in higher level of
engagement of the people by connecting diversity of societies, groups, traditions from various
places. Social media has provided higher engagement activities among the people due to the
higher level of innovation and attractiveness of people towards social media (Osborne and et.al.,
2021). Social media has provided opportunities for improving community engagement by
connecting people from across the world. Social media has provided various technological tools
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such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. that has diversified the exchange of
traditions, beliefs, values, cultures etc. throughout the world. With the help of social media
people can share their views, ideas, traditions and culture with each other and understand the
behaviour and attitude of each other. This has enhanced the community interaction by spreading
awareness among the people. With the help of social media, Gwen Walford House has created
awareness among the citizens for enhancing the welfare activities within the society and
developing community interaction for improving the positive relationships among people. Social
media is also helpful in improving the engagement of stakeholders, people and groups by
spreading awareness, knowledge and understanding of the elder age group.
With the help of social media, Gwen Walford House tries to raise charity, by spreading
awareness of their program and creating better channels for serving the people in need. It has
also helped to educate the people so they can be made aware about the prevailing conditions of
the society for improving the community engagement. Gwen Walford House develops creative
posts and innovative contents on YouTube and other social media platforms for interacting with
a larger number of communities and resolving their problems. Social media can connect people
from throughout the world for increasing the engagement among the people and enhancing the
overall psychological health of the patients effectively and efficiently (Pierce, S., Blanton, J. and
Gould, D., 2018)/ With the help of social media Gwen Walford House has tried to update people
about their services on a regular basis so that they can interact with a maximum number of
people for helping them out.
Gwen Walford House has used various social media methods and techniques for
introducing many campaigns that have improved the digital understanding of the people within
their community for improving their interaction. Social media interaction is a very crucial
initiative that was taken by Gwen Walford House for providing assistance to the people during
the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of social media the health care services were provided to
the people by directly interacting with them through social media platforms and collecting their
health vitals. Social media has improved the communication activities among the people within
the society at the time when people were not allowed to meet with each other. The contribution
of social media is a very positive aspect for improving the overall community interaction and
engaging people for existing together in a positive world environment. With the help of social
media the creative steps can be taken for improving the cross-cultural connectivity among the
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people and improving their existence within the society (Renwick and et.al., 2020). It is very
important for engaging a large number of people from various locations by sharing their ideas,
values, traditions, cultures etc. with each other. With the help of social media money volunteers
have taken part in the community engagement activities and have supported the organisation for
improving its work. With the help of voluntary engagement of people it was possible to provide
better services to the clients and bring a better environment for their existence within the
community.
 Community participations: Gwen Walford House has improved community
participation by social media in a very positive manner with high effectiveness and
efficiency. In today's era the people are feeling more disconnected, stressed and highly
interfered by the reckless or immoral behaviour of their loved ones, community and
society. This problem is very common throughout the world and has caused a lot of
dissatisfaction, stress, and other common symptoms among the people within their
community. Gwen Walford House has developed many effective ways for providing
them residence and healthy lifestyle through community engagement. They utilize
various tools and techniques for enhancing the participation of people and improving
interaction between them. Social media has helped to provide better participation of the
community and has improved communication among the people for improving their
engagement.
 Collaboration: It is among the most important factors for improving the community
engagement program by Gwen Walford House. Collaboration has a very important role
and improving community engagement and creating valuable judgement by increasing
coordination among the people (Satizábal and et.al., 2022). When people tend to work on
a single objective the level of collaboration increases and it affects their unity to a greater
extent. Gwen Walford House should work towards improving the coordination among the
people by initiating common motives among the people.
 Social-Cultural integration: Gwen Walford House is an organisation that is focused
towards community welfare and it is very important that they keep updated with the
social and cultural integration activities. Organisation masters work in the interest of the
communities and societies for improving socio-cultural integration. The happiness of
society, affects the ability of an organisation to achieve its goals and objectives
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effectively and efficiently. Social media is a great platform for regulating depositive
culture and knowledgeable socio-cultural integration where everyone supports each other.
They need to increase social cultural integration for developing community engagement
where people can interchange their ideas, beliefs and values with each other.
 Inter-cultural mix or multiculturalism: The concept of inter-cultural mix and
multiculturalism can be explained as the engagement of people with multi-cultural
society by developing unity and collaboration with each other (Schiavo, R., 2020). Gwen
Walford House followers multiculturalism for maintaining a positive intercultural mix for
improving the health of the people in their care homes and care Shelters by eliminating
discrimination and supporting the needs of individual as per their requirement. With the
help of social media the care house tries to create better interconnectivity between various
people from diverse cultures that is helpful in improving the positive interaction among
the people and improving living conditions.
Forward looking approaches by community engagement practitioners to educate community
members on internal and external factors affecting community engagement
Community engagement practitioner plays a very important role in driving people towards
community engagement and better community relations. The need to adopt forward looking
approaches for bringing better engagement activities within the society and provide guidance or
instruction to them. Forward looking approach can be explained as the practice of seeing into the
future to evaluate the consequences of the actions taken today. There are many factors that affect
the community engagement activities that may be internal as well as external.
 Internal factors: It mainly includes the actions committed by the community itself that
affects the community engagement activities. It may be related to the contribution of
people towards the community engagement activities, their habits, attitude and behaviour
towards others that affects community practice. It is very important that they are educated
about various community practices that can be helpful in improving community
engagement.
 External factors: It can be explained as the forces from the outer environment of the
community such as government, legislation, changing technology and other dynamic
situations across the global Trend (Tan, C. C. and Apisit-Isariyah, P., 2018). The policies,
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legislation, changing technology, government interventions and global trends must be
analysed for preparing best community engagement activities at a particular place.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that community engagement is a very important
practice for improving the community programs. It has been obtained that there are various
programs and purposes that can be helpful in improving stakeholder engagement. Moreover, the
report has described the use of social media for improving the community engagement program
within the society. Furthermore, it has been explaining various principles and standards for
improving the engagement and its benefits on people. Finally, it has been discussing various
needs for looking into the future to enhance community development activities by community
engagement practitioners. Community engagement programs have been considered a very
important part for improving social connectivity and bringing equality and harmony among each
other.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ariese, C. E., 2018. The social museum in the Caribbean: grassroots heritage initiatives and
community engagement. Leiden University.
Di Napoli and et.al., 2019. Community trust: A social indicator related to community
engagement. Social Indicators Research, 145(2). pp.551-579.
Fernandez, M., 2018. Increasing community engagement in Latino residents to improve health
outcomes. Local Environment, 23(9). pp.920-933.
Gray and et.al., 2021. Diversity in clinical trials: an opportunity and imperative for community
engagement. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 6(8). pp.605-607.
Johnston, K. A. and Lane, A. B., 2019. An authenticity matrix for community
engagement. Public Relations Review, 45(4). p.101811.
Osborne and et.al., 2021. New frontiers in local government community engagement: Towards
transformative place-based futures. Futures, 131. p.102768.
Pierce, S., Blanton, J. and Gould, D., 2018. An online program for high school student-athlete
leadership development: Community engagement, collaboration, and course
creation. Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2(1). pp.23-29.
Renwick and et.al., 2020. Community engagement is…: Revisiting Boyer’s model of
scholarship. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(6). pp.1232-1246.
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.
Schiavo, R., 2020. Advocacy, community engagement and cross-sectoral collaborations as key
strategies during COVID-19 response and beyond: New directions for a new
decade. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 13(1). pp.1-5.
Tan, C. C. and Apisit-Isariyah, P., 2018. Towards a community-based theory of brand
community engagement. Advanced Science Letters, 24(7). pp.5167-5170.
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