Innovative techniques for local community engagement on climate change adaptation

Abstract: Climate change adaptation requires communities to prepare for both extreme weather events and the more gradual shifts that a changing climate may bring. Our project designed and evaluated several face-to-face activities to engage communities in North East Victoria on climate change adaptation. The objective was ultimately to help vulnerable people in the community become more resilient by connecting them with resources and supportive networks. The workshops tested several innovative community engagement activities, including storytelling, visioning and creative practice. These activities responded to a body of research on best-practice approaches for engaging community elders and leaders as spokespeople and peer educators, as well as research on deliberation and the use of story to locate sustainability experiences in an emotional landscape. The workshops used existing community networks to multiply their potential impact, and took place in communities that had experienced extreme climate events (drought, fire and flood) firsthand. We present a toolkit of ten community engagement activities drawing on the experience of these workshops. We contend that these activities are potentially replicable by local governments and other stakeholders in climate change adaptation. Further, they can bring to life the many and varied materials created by various agencies about preparation for climate change