Workpackage 8.1 of the IANOS project is dedicated to developing a community engagement strategy that can be applied in the use cases on the lighthouse islands (Ameland and Terceira) and the fellow islands (Lampedusa, Nisyros and Bora Bora). This report is the deliverable of WP8.1.
Within this report an approach to designing a community engagement strategy is formulated that is rooted in scientific research and enriched by best practices from the light house islands and fellow islands.
The report describes a general approach to designing a community engagement strategy, that consists of three parts. The first part is dedicated to assessing the situation and project that the community engagement strategy is dedicated to. It describes several factors that are rooted in literature on community engagement and psychological theories. These
factors should be assessed in order to be able to design an effective community engagement strategy. The results of this assessment will be used in the second part of the general approach, which describes a method for designing a community engagement strategy. This method is rooted in community engagement literature and draws heavily on some earlier EU projects. The method describes about ten items that together constitute
the strategy and that encompass all relevant issues that need to be addressed in designing community engagement. Finally, the third part of the general approach, describes the way the method and the assessment can be applied in a methodic and robust way. Although the general method is described as a theoretically based approach, it is substantiated not only by theoretical studies, but also by many reports on practical application of various community engagement efforts. In addition to that, all participants
from the islands have identified some best practices on community engagement from their own region and/or experience. These best practices are analysed according to the method of meta-analysis. The information from this meta-analysis is used to check the suitability of the general approach and leads to emphasizing those aspects of the approach that are identified as more important within the best practices.