Outreach & engagement plan

The Outreach and Engagement Plan will be useful for:  

1. Deepen Stakeholder Understanding: 

• Gain insights into perspectives, concerns, and needs.  

• Inform decisions that reflect diverse community interests. 
  

2. Increased Public Trust and Credibility: 

• Build trust through transparent and inclusive processes.  

• Enhance organizational credibility and positive relationships. 

3. Better-Informed Decision-Making: 

• Include a wide range of perspectives. 

•  Access comprehensive and diverse information for informed decisions

4. Mitigation of Opposition and Conflict: 

• Engage stakeholders early to address concerns.  

• Proactively mitigate conflicts and reduce resistance.

5. Efficient Resource Allocation through focused efforts and targeted outreach: 

• Focus efforts on key stakeholder groups.  

• Utilize appropriate communication channels for targeted outreach. 

6. Community Ownership and Support: 

• Foster a sense of ownership and support.  

• Increase likelihood of community support for implemented decisions. 

7. Legal and Regulatory Compliance: 

• Meet requirements for public involvement.  

• Reduce the risk of legal challenges and ensure compliance. 

8. Innovation and Creativity: 

• Foster innovation through inclusive engagement.  

• Tap into the collective wisdom of the community for creative solutions. 
  

9. Positive Public Image: 

• Prioritize community engagement for a positive organizational image.  

• Demonstrate a commitment to listening and responding to community needs. 

10. Long-Term Relationship Building: 

• Foster long-term relationships through regular communication.  

• Create a foundation for ongoing positive interactions and connection with evolving community needs. 

The following steps suggest how we use the outreach and engagement plan 

• Define the purpose of the Outreach and Engagement Plan: 
  • Which local project is it supporting? (e.g. revitalising the Alfama district etc)  

• • What is this local project trying to accomplish in general?  

• • What is the expected role of the public and stakeholders in helping this project/program meet its goal?  

• • What is the intent of the public outreach and stakeholder engagement plan? 

• Define the target group and typology (internal/external stakeholders, revisit stakeholder mapping, stage 1)

• Identify the related policies, projects and events and determine how to leverage on them
  

• Define a prioritised list of stakeholders (based on a previous stakeholder mapping, stage 2) 

• • Divide stakeholders into the following categories, using a colour code: Green: Advocate (supportive) – Yellow: Neutral (Neither supportive or critical) – Red: Blocker (Critical)  

• • Decide on the priority given to each stakeholder: High priority – Medium Priority – Low priority  

• • Build a stakeholder matrix based on level of influence and level of interest, as follows:  

• • • Manage Closely: These are the stakeholders who have the greatest interest and influence on the project. You want to give them a status report regularly and ask for their feedback.  

• • • Keep Satisfied: This group is not quite as interested, but they are influential. They also need regular updates, and you want to get feedback from them before making any final decisions.  

• • • Keep Informed: These people tend to be the users of the project and have less influence but are highly interested. They should be updated throughout the project, but not at the same level of frequency as the above groups. d. Monitor: There is less influence and interest in this group, but keep them on your radar and make sure they don’t miss any major issues. 

• • • Define the approach based on the following: 

• Level of engagement of stakeholders: inform-consult-involve-cooperate-empower.  

• Define the key messages (short, accurate, understandable, compelling) and tools (e.g. 1 to 1 meetings, workshops, surveys, interviews etc) to be used per stakeholder and summarise this in an overview table 
  

• Define the implementation plan for stakeholder engagement including the activities, their description, key questions/informations, stakeholder group addressed, expected outcomes and comments

• Define a timeline

• Identify challenges, obstacles, concerns – this provides an opportunity to solve problems in advance of issues arising, and to develop key messages and outreach strategies that will address them.

• Consult the presentation on “Communicating your HUB” (link below) 

• Ensure you are involving diverse stakeholders and an appropriate spectrum of stakeholder groups / categories. 

• Remember that stakeholders’ time is precious; use it wisely and strategically. And so, DO NOT over-outreach! 

• Consider creating more than one Stakeholder map on different HUB topics / HUB-IN themes. The Stakeholder map template shows at the centre of the map the high-level topic “HUB-IN heritage-led regeneration”., Consider sub-topics or sub-themes. 

• The Stakeholder database can start as a list, which you will build up over time. 

• Take note of the type of relationship your team have with the stakeholders (well established, problematic, new, non-existent) as this can inform how you prioritise your efforts when shaping your Outreach and Engagement plan in the next step of your journey