About Northern Beaches Council
Northern Beaches Council takes a proactive approach to engagement, focusing on capacity building and fostering lasting partnerships with community groups—particularly those that are often hard to reach or easily overlooked. This inclusive strategy has led to significant, long-term impacts that extend beyond the duration of individual projects.
The Goal
Over time, the Council has seen the cumulative success of its initiatives, with each project strengthening connections and broadening engagement across the community.
Briana Wherry, Team Leader of Social Planning and Strategy at Northern Beaches Council, emphasised the importance of fostering inclusivity in the council’s engagement efforts.
“Inclusive engagement is core to what we do. And we believe that it’s critical to successful public policy that can result in transformative change within the community, but also internally. We also always approach engagement as a way for us to deliver capacity building and increase partnerships with our community groups, especially those that are often hard for us to reach or could be easily overlooked. And this usually hopefully, this today has resulted in a far-reaching impact beyond just the life of the engagement project.”
For instance, Northern Beaches Council recently developed a Multicultural Inclusion Plan aimed at strengthening connections with its diverse communities. The goal of this initiative was to ensure that all residents, regardless of their background, feel welcomed and able to participate fully in community life. To achieve this, the Council worked closely with cultural leaders to effectively engage and reach the right people.
The Approach
By collaborating with cultural leaders, all project materials were thoughtfully translated into six key languages identified from local community needs, using certified translators to ensure accuracy. To make the process even more accessible, the Council provided in-language translation services during the consultation period, allowing non-English speakers to engage directly with the project team. They also used targeted advertising through multicultural social media groups to raise awareness and encourage participation.
To empower these leaders, the Council also implemented a “Workshop in a Box” approach. This innovative strategy involved training cultural leaders to facilitate workshops within their own communities, giving them the tools and resources needed to engage people directly.
The Result
What truly set this initiative apart was its success in engaging the community. Typically, policy-related projects see limited feedback, but this one received over 130 submissions, with 57% coming from people who identified as from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. This level of engagement reflected the effectiveness of the intentional and personalised strategies used by the team, making it a standout success.
Briana Wherry, Team Leader of Social Planning and Strategy, offered her advice on how community engagement professionals can enhance inclusive engagement.
