Community Wellbeing: it’s the current hot topic, but what does it really mean?

Wellbeing in individual terms is generally understood as the journey towards being the best version of yourself (I get it, I even wrote a book about it). In corporate speak, we have (hopefully) moved from fruit bowls and flowers to meaningful programs advocating diversity, real work-life balance, inclusion and social responsibility. However, when it comes to community wellbeing – the stares are often blank and conversation stagnant. We just don’t seem to get it.

At the recent launch of the wonderful IAP2 thought leader paper - Groundbreakers and Transparency Makers: the Role of Engagement in ESG by Sally Hussey at Parliament House, I was asked dozens of times about the role of wellbeing in engagement. How do we focus on community wellbeing (especially in the energy transition), how do we achieve optimal community wellbeing and how on earth do we measure it? Our politicians and policy makers are certainly on board with the concept of wellbeing in terms of community. Is it really being actioned though? Is wellbeing at the forefront of our policy, infrastructure, resource and engagement planning? Do you really consider community wellbeing first and foremost?

In my day-to-day work, as an infrastructure and resources engagement practitioner who specialises in wellbeing, I often hear the word wellbeing depreciated as a buzz word or defined in the simplest terms. It seems that understanding the connection between personal wellbeing, team wellbeing and community wellbeing seems a step too far for most.

Yet at the Parliament House launch, wellbeing was the number one topic of discussion and its importance to the success of projects and how to put it at the forefront of planning and policymaking was the focus of discussions. The report states with the widely accepted idea that businesses and organisations have responsibilities for the wellbeing of society came an increasing shift in focus towards ESG issues.

So, what is wellbeing?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines wellbeing as a positive state experienced by individuals and societies. Similar to health, it is a resource for daily life and is determined by social, economic and environmental conditions. Wellbeing encompasses quality of life and the ability of people and societies to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose. Focusing on well-being supports the tracking of the equitable distribution of resources, overall thriving and sustainability. A society’s well-being can be determined by the extent to which it is resilient, builds capacity for action, and is prepared to transcend challenges.

The Australian Government has issued the Measuring What Matters Statement which they have described as the first iteration of Australia's national wellbeing framework.

While I strongly challenge the statement that it was developed through “extensive research and consultation”- (two calling for submission periods in two years with just over 250 submissions is not adequate consultation) – the framework is designed to help us to better understand what matters most to Australians and to build a healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous Australia for everyone. They are certainly admirable goals and while the statement has been strongly criticised for the lack of consultation, a top down, directive approach and the use of outdated data, the very fact that wellbeing has been brought into focus is a massive achievement.

The designed framework for Australian community wellbeing, which underpins the statement, includes five broad themes - healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous which are supported by fifty indicators. As always, subjective outcomes are hard to quantify, but this is a good start. It would be an even better start if it had been developed using best practise community engagement methodologies and processes. Excellent community engagement and optimal community wellbeing are synonymous. If we get the engagement right, then we will better understand what really DOES matter to the community.

So why do we need to start with personal wellbeing first? It’s that old put your mask on first analogy. You can’t help anyone else until you first put your own mask on. We start by practising self-care. By focusing on our own wellbeing, we can do our jobs more effectively and help our teams operate in a manner that delivers better outcomes for the communities we work in. It sounds simplistic, but personal wellbeing is the starting point. It ensures we can influence for optimal wellness in our teams and in our communities.

How do we plan for community wellbeing?

When we plan our engagement activities, we need to start with assessing the community’s current state of wellbeing and then we need to ask - what does optimal wellbeing look like for this community? Then we need to design methods for the community to answer those questions. Answering them ourselves defeats the purpose. The community is best served to tell us what their current state of wellbeing is and what optimal wellbeing looks like to them. Telling people how they feel, or what their lives should look like is not good engagement.

When our Governments are proposing policies or infrastructure for our communities, we need to ask - Will this contribute to the community’s wellbeing? Of course, there can be (and likely would be) multi-pronged answers to that question. Projects may benefit/contribute to wellbeing for the wider community and negatively impact those that are in the construction zone. Then our question becomes how we can offset those impacts to ensure community wellbeing. Do we prepare deliberative engagement strategies to ask the community how best to allocate a community benefit fund? (Just one way of working this scenario).

Community wellbeing is not the community simply accepting a project because they’ve been battered into submission. It is about delivering projects that service the community and offsetting impacts through deliberate and in many cases deliberative conversations. Giving the community space and time to give genuine input, engaging early enough so that input has meaning and utilising methods that ensure we hear diverse voices. The path to community wellbeing is about listening. It is being a witness to the community determining outcomes. Optimal community wellbeing is ultimately determined by the community. The Australian Government’s Measuring What Matters Statement could be a good vehicle for measuring community wellbeing, if the consultation around further developing the measurements embraces best practise community engagement practises and a commitment to really listen is enacted. We are on the right path, but we have a long way to go.

Donna Groves is the Principal Community and Stakeholder Engagement Consultant working on energy, infrastructure and natural resource projects at Comacon Pty Ltd. She is also the author of Shine – a personal wellbeing story.

For further information on Comacon's Wellbeing Program click here.

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