Community Engagement: Principles, Strategies and Benefits - Desklib

This report discusses community engagement principles, strategies, and benefits with Age UK. It explores how social media platforms can be used to engage stakeholders and how a forward-looking approach can educate community members on internal and external factors that influence community development. The report also covers the importance of collaboration, community participation, socio-cultural integration, and multiculturalism. It includes a case study of Age UK's programmes and good practices for solving issues faced by older people.

1 Community
Engagement

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Project or programme..................................................................................................................3
Community engagement principles and standards......................................................................3
Benefits of stakeholders’ participation........................................................................................4
Relationship between the stakeholders and strategies are suitable for engagement...................4
Engagement with the help of Social media platforms................................................................4
Community engagement practitioner needs to adopt a forward-looking approach to educate
community members on internal and external factors that influence community development
.....................................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERNCES:..................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................9
Online..........................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Community engagement include the activities that are done by charitable organisation.
They work collaboratively and in group to serve a common interest. These communities have
their own objective and they work to address the issue that is faced by people (Hollebeek and
et.al., 2017). It is a powerful tool that helps in bringing changes. It is important to note that the
change is for good. Age UK is one of the charitable organisation and this report is based on the
programmes and good practices done by them. The focus of the organisation is to solve the
issues that are being faced by older people and how they can be solved. There is discussion
related to stakeholders and the strategies used to engage them. The benefits of using social media
platform is also discussed in this report. The organisation also promotes collaboration,
community participation, and inclusion to enable multi-culturalism and socio-cultural
integration, evaluation of the same is integral part of this report. In the end there is discussion
related to importance of forward-looking approach as it helps to educate the community
members.
MAIN BODY
Project or programme
The aim of Age UK is to solve the issues that are faced by old age people. They start the
programmes that engage older people. As these people live alone and have to face the issue of
loneliness (Programmes & innovation, 2021). They provide various services such as home help,
foot care, exercise, IT training, transportation as well as shopping. The focus on enhancing the
quality of life of old age people and provide them support.
The best practice is that they provide digital training to the older age people. In order to
develop digital skills in them and that will engage them to work effectively and live a happy life
(Brunton and et.al., 2017). They are able to communicate with each other through the digital
media platforms. The provide one to one support to these people and try to make them digital
champions.
Community engagement principles and standards
These are the principles that are used by Age UK in order work effectively and help the
old age people.

 Careful planning and Preparation: The organisation conducts proper planning and that
helps them to take effective measures to serve the members and engage them.
 Collaboration and Shared Purpose: Age UK works in a collaborative way. All the
members work with proper coordination to achieve a common goal (Glandon and et.al.,
2017).
 Transparency and Trust: Age UK works on the principle of trust and transparency.
Each and every point is shared with members and this helps to bring in good ideas and
views.
 Impact and Action: The organisation ensures that the are able to make a difference and
their actions have impact on the participants.
Benefits of stakeholders’ participation.
 The programmes launched by Age UK helps to educate the older people. It helps them to
learn new skills and also to get understanding about their own self. This helps the old
people to work effectively and achieve success.
 They are able to get good and effective advice because of the programmes. It helps them
reduce the loneliness and can live effectively.
 The engagement of stakeholders helps to reduce social deprivation. They work to care
about the communication, involvement, interaction between community and organisation.
Relationship between the stakeholders and strategies are suitable for engagement
It is important to note that Age UK maintains good relationship with the stakeholders.
They have analysed that due to the relationship they are able to achieve success and growth. The
community tries to understand the needs of all the stakeholders and make efforts to serve them
fore benefit of organisation (Caputo, Evangelista and Russo, 2018). The form strategies that
help them to solve the issues that are faced by the stakeholders. To promote the engagement of
stakeholders they allow them to participate in activities. Nowadays the world is turning digital,
so in this regard Age UK also works by using social media platforms as they are the tools that
helps in building relationship with stakeholders.
Engagement with the help of Social media platforms
Digitalisation has enhanced the use of social media platforms. It is seen that more and
more people are using social media. It is beneficial for the community to engage the customer's

through social media platforms (Chan and et.al., 2017). The platforms that are used by Age UK
are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and You Tube. It is seen that people use Facebook to get
connected with another. The organisation posts the content related to the campaigns on regular
basis so as to engage the stakeholders. They are working over this and get various benefits and
they have good and effective website as well. They plan to help the old age people and spread
awareness related to same through social media platforms.
They launched campaign related to enhancing the digital skills that will helped them at
the time of Covid-19. The digital platforms were used to interact with one another and reduce the
loneliness. The community post all the details on social media platforms so that more and more
people are able to get the details and use them for their success. They post motivating content as
well as videos that help in engaging the society. Creativity plays a major role in posting of
effective content via social media platforms. The trend must be followed while posting the
content on social media platforms (Shawky and et.al.,2019). It is seen that the community that
takes care about the trend in market is able to engage more people and serve them effectively.
There must be good and regular interaction with people as that also help to engage them. If they
are posting something on social media, Age UK must make efforts and reply to their point at the
same time. It will also be beneficial for all the people and the community as well. All this is
helpful for Age UK as that benefits them to engage the stakeholders. It is important to consider
the following points:
Community participations: It can be defined as involvement of more and more people
and it contributes to successful health promotion. This practice is beneficial for Age UK as it
assist in supporting elder people. They are able to analyse the problem that is being faced by
them and then take quick action by involving more people in decision making. The effective
decision making helps them to treat the members wisely (Hausmann and et.al., 2018). This is a
good and effective technique that helps to serve the members. The use of community
participation can be done through social media platforms as well. The use of social media
platforms will help them to work in such a manner that enhances the stakeholder engagement.
Collaboration: It is the activity of working together and in groups. It is important to note
that community work through taking care about the collaboration and in a coordinated manner.
When all the people work to achieve the common goals and no one can stop them from
achieving success. It is vital to note that In relation to Age UK, all the members work by

following the principle of collaboration and that is the reason of success. It is noticed that a
company must do efforts and integrate the goals of all with goal of community that is to help old
age people. This helps them to be successful. By using social media platforms all the members
able to achieve success with the success of community.
Socio-cultural integration: There are some norms that are formulated by society and are
part of there culture. The community must take care about the socio-cultural integration and then
work. An organisation that is able to take care of society is successful. There are some
characteristics of society that must be identified by the community (Nodehi, and et.al., 2021). In
relation to Age UK the community conducts proper research and tries to find out the social as
well as cultural factors that may impact them. Then they work by integrating both the factors in
order to achieve success and growth. As the world is switching towards social media, the
community is also using the same as a way of engaging the stakeholders.
Multiculturalism: There stakeholders and members of Age UK belong to different
culture. This clearly shows that the community follows multiculturalism. The do not discriminate
any member on the basis of culture. Each and every culture is valued and that helps them manage
diversity. They are working to bring social justice so they take care of each and every point that
may impact their image and working.
All these factors are important and are taken into consideration by Age UK. By taking
care of all of them the community is able to achieve success and growth. Also, the community is
helping a lot old age people and solving their issues using the able mentioned factors.
Community engagement practitioner needs to adopt a forward-looking approach to educate
community members on internal and external factors that influence community
development
It is important for these community practitioners to be forward looking and plan in an
effective manner. They are the one who provide education to the community members. They also
help them to work effectively and provide them direction. By looking forwards good and
effective forecast can be done and that will help Age UK to achieve goals and objectives in an
effective manner. Along with that the community is able to analyse the analyse the uncertainties
that may arise while working. This approach is helpful for them as it identifies that internal and
external factors that have impact on the community development.

 Internal Factors: It includes all the factors that are internal to the community but have
direct impact on their development. Majorly the working members of the community and
their skills have direct impact on the organisation (Muhl, 2018). All the stakeholders are
internal and their choice and need plays a vital role on working of community.
 External Factors: There are so many factors that are external to the community and have
impact on their working. The political and legal condition of the place must be fulfilled
while working. At the same time the socio-cultural norms that are formed by the
organisation must also be followed in order to achieve success and work effectively. By
looking forward Age UK is able to identify the external factors and their impact on the
community.
CONCLUSION
It is evaluated that collaboration of people that are aiming at development of society form
community. These communities have their own objective and the work to achieve the same with
full efforts. It is important to understand that Age UK work to support old people and they are
using social media platforms as well in order to raise awareness. There are certain principles and
standards that are followed by the organisation in order to achieve success and work effectively.
Social media platforms help the community to interact in an effective manner and help each and
every person to know about them. It is seen that there are some points such as community
participation that must be taken care by the organisation to maintain good relations, It is
necessary to follow the principles and analyse the situation of market in order to achieve goals,
The environment is dynamic and that is the reason there is need of proper analysis of future in
order to take wise decisions. It is also necessary for them to take suitable actions that are based
on community development. The organisation must analyse internal as well as external factors in
order to gain success.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Brunton and et.al., 2017. Narratives of community engagement: a systematic review-derived
conceptual framework for public health interventions. BMC Public Health, 17(1), pp.1-
15.
Caputo and et.al., 2018. The role of information sharing and communication strategies for
improving stakeholder engagement. In Business models for strategic innovation (pp. 25-
43). Routledge.
Chan n 2017. Engagement of vulnerable youths using internet platforms. PLoS one, 12(12),
p.e0189023.
Glandon and et.al., 2017. 10 Best resources for community engagement in implementation
research. Health policy and planning, 32(10), pp.1457-1465.
Hausmann, and et.al., 2018. Social media data can be used to understand tourists’ preferences for
nature‐based experiences in protected areas. Conservation Letters, 11(1), p.e12343.
Hollebeek, L.D., Juric, B. and Tang, W., 2017. Virtual brand community engagement practices:
a refined typology and model. Journal of Services Marketing.
Muhl, R.M.W., 2018. Effects of Internal and External Factors on Interspecific Competitive
Abilities of Phytoplankton Assemblages Influenced by Allelopathy (Doctoral
dissertation).
Nodehi, H.K., Khalesi, N., Nasiripour, A.A. and Dehkordi, P.R., 2021. Strategic analysis of
community participation in primary health care in Iran and presentation of promotion
strategies using internal and external environment assessment techniques. Asia Pacific
Journal of Health Management, 16(1), pp.77-85.
Shawky, S., Kubacki, K., Dietrich, T. and Weaven, S., 2019. Using social media to create
engagement: A social marketing review. Journal of Social Marketing.
Online
Programmes & innovation, 2021. [Online] Available through: <https://www.ageuk.org.uk/our-
impact/programmes/>