VOiCE is a database planning and recording tool that is designed to assist individuals and organisations to design and deliver effective community engagement. Community participation and engagement is a central feature of public policy and reflects the desire of public sector reform to deliver outcomes that respond to the aspirations of service users and communities.
VOiCE helps users to:
- Plan community engagement and service user participation
- Conduct it effectively
- Monitor and record the process
- Evaluate the outcomes
The tool can be used to support a range of participation from whole area regeneration to specific concerns with individual services.
VOiCE can be used by:
- Staff of front line service units in public, private or voluntary organisations, primarily as a tool to support direct engagement practice
- Intermediate level, operational service managers to maintain a coherent view of what is being done by their staff and units and to plan conduct and evaluate engagement they might initiate
- Strategic planners and managers to ensure a coherent and properly planned approach to engagement, to provide a basis for quality assurance relating to the overall conduct of community engagement and to plan conduct and evaluate engagement they might initiate
VOiCE can also be used by community groups and organisations wishing to engage their own communities or initiate engagement between their community and relevant agencies.
How does it work?
VOiCE builds on two widely adopted tools: National Standards for Community Engagement and Learning, Evaluation and Planning - LEAP
It is organised around the key planning and evaluation steps of Analyse, Plan, Do and Review.
Using this structure VOiCE asks key questions related to good community engagement that need to be addressed at each step, provides a recording system for the engagement as it develops and enables evaluation and learning from the experience.
VOiCE is available on CD-Rom from the Scottish Community Development Centre. It has been developed using funding from the Scottish Government as part of the third year of support for the National Standards for Community Engagement. For more information, visit http://www.scdc.org.uk/what/voice/.
