Engaging Community

Community Engagement Ideas

💡 Attending an interagency meeting? Give a 10-minute introduction to the Charge Up project and how it supports people, share the household resources (as printouts or as a link) and invite workers to refer community members to your Centre for an information session or a group information session or a longer 1:1 consultation. 

💡 Does your Neighbourhood Centre have a pop-up information stall at your local market or supermarket to engage people who may not visit your Centre? Why not include printed handouts How to get a better energy deal and buying an appliance, and invite community members to your Centre for an information session or a 1:1 consultation.

💡 Are staff and volunteers in your Neighbourhood Centre missing out on energy bill concessions? At your regular staff meeting, print and give out the 'Are you missing out on energy bill support?' handout and ask them to check they are receiving concessions. If they are unsure, they can come to you to check.

💡 Are there other events or national days that you could link to? For example something like Earth Hour. You could teach people with Smart Meters in their homes how everyone in the family can access the energy use dashboard to track energy use, and check out this video on how to set energy use budget alerts if your community members are with Ergon. For those without smart meters, you could print and handout information on Reading your electricity meter.

Group Household Information Session Ideas

Group Household Information Session Ideas:
💡 Does your Centre hold art, cooking or exercise classes? Drop into some of the classes being held in your Centre and give a 10-minute talk to the group about one energy education tip, basing your tip on one new household handout each time. Why not start by printing and sharing the 'Are you missing out on energy bill support?' handout and ensuring everyone has notified their provider of their concession? You also refer to the concessions and rebates summary to provide further detail on what they may save. The Queensland Government's Energy Rebates and Concessions factsheet identifies what rebates are available and how to apply.

💡 Hold a 60-minute 'Bring Your Bill' information session, inviting people in your community to come along with their bill and learn together about how they can understand their energy use and save money.
You can use this editable social tile to promote the offer.
You can use the Bring Your Bill Session Guide to follow to help facilitate the session, and the Energy Bill Components as a printout to walk through and handout if helpful. 
The handout How to get a better energy deal will be useful for the session, as will the www.energymadeeasy.gov.au website.

💡 Are there sector stakeholders that can complement the delivery of an information session at your Centre? Why not contact COTA, Energy Queensland or Tenants Queensland’s Empowering Renters program or Uniting’s Energy Literacy team and ask them to deliver an information session targetted to a group in your community such as those who are aging or renters. Or you could show a short snippet from one of the videos of Audrey presenting content in Module 3: Are you paying too much? or Module 4: What can I do at home? Or keep checking the "Ask an Expert" channel in Microsodt Teams for more video content that will be posted there.

1:1 Consultation Ideas

1:1 Consultation Ideas:
💡 Does your Centre offer emergency relief? When providing emergency relief, include a printout of the  'Are you missing out on energy bill support?' handout and mention the importance of checking the importance of receiving concessions.

💡 Offer a 30-45minute 'Bring Your Bill' 1:1 consultation that can really help people in your community! 
You can use this editable social tile to promote the offer.
You can use the Bring Your Bill Session Guide to follow to help facilitate the session, and the Energy Bill Components as a printout to walk through and handout if helpful. 
The handout How to get a better energy deal will be useful for the session, as will the www.energymadeeasy.gov.au website.

💡 Do you work with CALD communities, including those for whom language can be a barrier?
Promoting 1:1 consultations might be improved through ambassadors or influential leaders from their community. If offering a translator is possible you could do this, as well as using visual resources to help communicate. Pages 5 to 9 of Ergon's Power Savvy booklet can be helpful tool to help communicate about energy use and opportunities to save power. 
Don't assume that language barriers can't be overcome - translation apps, smartphones and ai powered devices can help people understand information, if they are motivated and engaged.

Promotional Activity Ideas

Promotional Ideas:
💡 Print out the household handouts and provide them to each staff member and volunteer at your Centre. Include a flyer about the 1:1 consultations you offer and the next group information session you are offering. Ask everyone to spread the word by word of mouth! While you have them, why not ask them to a 1:1 consultation or to participate in an information session so they can benefit? 

💡 Print out the household resources handouts as A3 posters and pin them to walls around your Centre. The Centre noticeboard is obvious, but pinning to the back of the toilet door might also get people's attention.

💡 Include the household resources handouts as downloads in your Centre's newsletter.

💡 Increase participation in household group information sessions by using posters, flyers and social media posts about your offering and sharing these with community members, partner organisations and anyone who can refer community members to you.

💡 Engage local schools by including an ad in the school newsletter about the information session you're offering and speaking at the P&C. Encourage children to take part in home energy assessments.

💡 Use your Centre's social media pages to post a series of educational posts of bite-sized information. A tip-a-day of energy education (e.g. 'Save money by putting signs around the house to remind family to turn off lights/appliances at the wall when not in use') or interactive educational posts (e.g. 'Does an appliance on standby still cost me electricity?' or

💡 Use your Centre's social media pages to invite conversation about energy. A post such as 'What was the highest bill you had this year -- and why?' with a caption to an information session or 1:1 consultations at your Centre can help people engage with the potentially dry topic.