1. Why is cultural engagement planning important?

2. Why is cultural diversity engagement important?
NSW community demographics mean there is a need to engagement with culturally diverse client groups or stakeholders
Engagement helps ensure access and equity for culturally diverse communities in program/service delivery and communications/marketing activities

3. Reasons given for lack of engagement:
A perceived lack of resources
Claims of too few or too many people to consult with, especially in communities with several organisations or broad community leadership
Lack of experience or capacity in engaging with culturally diverse communities
Previous failed attempts that resulted in a belief that the issue was not of interest/need in culturally diverse communities

4. The business case
Challenges or engagement failures should not deter practitioners from understanding and benefiting from good cultural diversity engagement
Demographic statistics make compelling reasons why cultural diversity engagement should be part of organisational life.
Engaging with culturally diverse communities is an area of skill that can be learned, delivered, replicated and refined

5. NSW 27.6% of the NSW population were born overseas
This is or over 2 million people
In Sydney this increases to 37% of the population born overseas
25% of people in NSW speak a language other than English at home
This is almost 2 million people

6. Cost efficiency of engagement
Investing upfront in engagement helps get planning right to meet community needs
Talking to your target communities helps build the right messaging to make sure diverse communities understand your information .
Investing in quality translations, culturally appropriate messages and images that are accessible and able to be used by diverse communities ensures your overall investment is not a waste

7. Planning for engagement activities
The following method can be applied to many engagement activities:
Do your homework
Speak to people to find out what they want
Ask what they need
Ask what they will use
Develop the resources and materials alongside the outcomes

8. Access & Equity
Without the involvement of the significant number of people from culturally diverse backgrounds there is a risk that the program/service may not meet their needs.
A lack of engagement can result in differences between those who can and those who cannot access or use services based on language proficiency levels.
Failing to involve all cohorts in your target communities can lead to potentially significant costs in designing and retrofitting more accessible pathways or corollary services.
The use of appropriate engagement activities ensures that services/programs that are being planned meet the needs of culturally diverse populations
The current migration to online/digital platforms is an example of not considering accessibility for culturally and linguistically diverse communities that may lack:
Digital literacy
English language skills
Digital access to benefit from these online services Some sectors such as aged care and health are now facing retrofitting of approaches that deliver greater access to culturally diverse audiences as an alternative to digital access.

9. Getting engagement right ensures sustainability
Delivering successful engagement with culturally diverse communities not only benefits the design, delivery and use of programs or services it also establishes relationships that can bear fruit over the medium to long term. This can take form as the following:
Ongoing feedback from user populations
The potential development of partnership/sponsorship: through community specific activities evolving from existing relationships
Providing a pipeline of stakeholders: for other types of organisational engagement and involvement

10. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Successful engagement delivers strong relationships that are based on trust and transparency
Results in convergence of outcomes for both organisations and culturally diverse communities
Strong relationships are essential to create goodwill between organisations and culturally diverse communities.