Community engagement – the idea of working collaboratively with groups of people united by an interest, issue or situation, to address matters affecting them – is a term applied to all kinds of scenarios. It’s as much a part of politics as it is a part of environmental activism, social justice campaigning and indeed, it has been a crucial element of peacebuilding in areas recovering from conflict such as Northern Ireland.  But how does one go about engaging a community? How do you build the trust, the sense of shared purpose, the drive, that gets members of a community, diverse almost by definition, on your side? To find out, we sat down with Zoe Keeping, our CHESS Plan Co-ordinator in... Read More