What we do

Thinking about organising citizen juries?

To understand what your community really thinks about an issue, I am convinced by the evidence that a citizen jury delivers in spades.

We often hear people talking about issues that are sometimes politicized - and they don't have access to good quality information to inform their opinions. This is the particular merit of a citizen jury. The organisers have a responsibility for providing good quality evidence before asking the citizens to come to consensus with a view on the question before them.

To organise a jury, firstly you have a question. You are interested in a topic and you want to know what your community thinks about it. Then you need to consider what the community needs to know about the topic to be well-informed. This might include information about population health, ethics, data, technology, science - depending on your question. You also need local advice to ensure that your jury is going to work for your community. How should you present your evidence? What experts are available to speak to their part of the evidence?

How you recruit your jury is important, there are many considerations here. Do you commission a social research company to recruit for you? There may be a few options available. You need a venue, and considerations of timing and budget are crucial. It's complex but it has an evidence base which will ensure you succeed.

Enable your people to build community partnerships

I use a garden metaphor when I talk about sustainable teams.

There is complexity involved in bringing life to a beautiful practical garden, and it is the same with building sustainable teams in a complex world. There are great resources in our teams, but knowing what excites those people, what the conditions are for them to thrive - is crucial to sustaining a vibrant and beautiful garden - I mean team!

We can mentor your community-facing teams and build their capability to partner and learn from your community.

Partnerships with First Nations people

Partnerships don't just happen. We have to know, understand and trust each other over time before we can confidently talk about partnership. First Nations communities are diverse, like any group of humans there are similarities and differences. What is underpinning all in the First Nations communities is that they have ancestors who go back tens of thousands of years. That this culture has survived is an indicator of how successful the oral tradition is. Working with First Nations people continues to teach me about the complexity of that culture and the importance of respecting the ways of the ancestors.

There are tons of resources out there - but the most important of all is your ability to look within yourself and not assume that you "know" it all. There are more and deeper lessons that we soak up when we are open-hearted and come from a position of understanding our own ignorance. This is not our "fault". It is what happened in Australia for generations. Many generations including mine since colonisation weren't taught about the original history of our shared part of planet Earth, like we learned about British history. I am grateful that some of the original history is coming through in the experiences of younger Australians now.

I believe that until we recognise and acknowledge that post colonial history, warts and all, we cannot move on. Let's learn from and build our relationships so we can progress as a nation.

Real relationships are at the heart of real partnerships.