Community Engagement

At WMS, we are ready and able to assist our clients with the development of effective community engagement strategies. Community support is vital for the success of each stage of the Floodplain Management Process, and it is important to have an early understanding of the community’s view. Using a toolkit we developed based on the principles of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), our team can provide you with a set of prompts to work through to effectively develop meaningful community engagement activities.

WMS Project Director, Catherine Walker, is certified with IAP2 and is qualified to lead community engagement strategies, and can work through our toolkit to identify stakeholders, determine the appropriate level of participation, select engagement techniques and identify evaluation criteria alongside clients.

Utilising our team’s expertise, we will lead community engagement and promise to:

• Ensure we have a strong understanding and awareness of previous consultation undertaken to date to minimise consultation fatigue and demonstrate progress at each client meeting;
• Use plain English descriptions, and where possible reference real historical flood events rather than design AEP’s to provide better context to residents; and
• Partner with clients to present a united front and greater ability to respond to questions from the community.