Community Engagement Toolkit

 Welcome!

 

We designed this space to ensure we all have a common language and framework for engaging our community. Here, you’ll find engagement resources organized into easy-to-access modules that will help you collect feedback to inform the strategy development process for Guelph and Area Ontario Health Team (GA-OHT). 

As a participant in the engagement activities, we are asking you to:

  • Learn a little about engagement collect surveys (Module 1)

  • Learn more about deeper engagement and have meaningful conversation (Module 2)

  • Make a plan for doing the engagement in the community (Module 3)

  • Make sense of what you learn, and share back key insights (Module 4)

  • Do all of this in a trauma-informed way, and through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion

Designed to support your engagement efforts, the modules are iterative and build off of each other. Beginning with an introduction to engagement, then moving into more in-depth data collection, analysis and synthesis techniques—no matter your familiarity or experience, the toolkit will help you along your engagement journey. If are you have time for is collecting a handful of surveys, then you need only review Module 1. The more capacity you have, the further into the toolkit you can get, and the deeper your engagement will be.

Building a trauma-informed engagement practice

At every stage of the engagement process, it is important to incorporate a trauma-informed approach with a lens toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) outlines six trauma-informed care principles to embed in your engagement practices:

  • Safety

  • Transparency and Trustworthiness

  • Peer Support

  • Collaboration and Mutuality

  • Empowerment, Voice, and Choice

  • Cultural, Historical, and Gender

If you think about how these principles play out during community engagement, there are many implications on how we interact with community members. Everything from creating a safe space to acknowledging how bias and racism have and continue to impact community members and how they experience care. The following are three specific practices to keep in mind: 

  • Universal precaution. When we engage with stakeholders, we take the universal precaution that everyone has experienced trauma. 

  • Make a plan. Although we don’t ask specifically about issues related to trauma or experiences with racial injustices, we need to be prepared to respond when these topics emerge. 

  • Make intentional decisions about who is involved in engagement. Whenever possible, ensure that the people doing the engagement are reflective of the people they are engaging. 

Lastly, trauma-informed practice doesn’t stop with community members. During engagement, it is also important to take care of yourself and reflect back a trauma-informed lens. Some considerations include:

  • Understand your own potential triggers and energy levels

  • Give yourself space around engagement you anticipate might be challenging—take a break and ground yourself ahead of time 

  • Plan ahead for what you will need after the engagement with respect to recovery or rest 

Getting started

 
 

After exploring the toolkit, you will leave with the knowledge and knowhow to start engaging patients, staff, and community members in a trauma-informed way with a lens toward diversity, equity and inclusion. The outcome of this engagement will support both your organization’s and the GA-OHT’s important work related to strategy development. As a first step, you will want to make intentional efforts to connect with other organizations involved in engagement and discuss who you have collectively talked to in order to extend your impact. It is important to design our collective engagement activities in an inclusive way, where all voices are included!