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For example, a Community Engagement Planning Hand, Co-created Physical Activity Opportunities and Recruitment and Incentivisation of Volunteers carried out for an event should include specific sustainability considerations that ensure social impact continues after the event.
strategies, they may not be able to do all this work themselves. For a successful Collaboration Kick- On , it might be necessary to recruit other partners to step up when specialist knowledge is needed.
Looking back to look forward
Sustainability is not just about looking forward. Planning for sustainability also involves taking stock of what has been achieved to date. Take the time to reflect on successes and possibly re-examine some mistakes too. This provides a better understanding of current sustainability activity and, more importantly, how this can be improved in the future by collaborating further. Organise a Collaboration Kick-On event to celebrate what has been achieved at the end of the event. Reflect on how collaboration has gone in practice, and identify how best to work together in the future to sustain social impact for future events. The Gameplan Collaboration Kick- On Agenda Template provides a helpful guide for what to include in discussion.
Taking the long view
Planning for sustainability is more long-term than much of the other event planning. It can help ensure that initiatives continue to run smoothly when the present team, leaders and volunteers have moved on. It is also more all- encompassing, involves looking at the picture as a whole, and necessitates Event Decentring . Factor these questions into planning: • What were the goals? • What has been achieved? • Is there sufficient staffing? • Is the budget sufficient to cover expected costs now and in the future? • What obstacles might be encountered? And how can they be overcome?
Handing over for local ownership
During the Collaboration Kick-On , take stock of what needs handing over to sustain community engagement and social impacts as highlighted by the Social Impact Handover and Gameplan Social Impact Handover Plan . Consider how future collaboration can help deliver the outstanding sustainability actions. Think how best to share knowledge of initiatives being handed over. Recruit and mentor new leaders and Community Explorers to play a role. This is part of Asset Mapping . Knowing how an initiative works, and passing that information down to the next generation, will help new leaders to both sustain and develop initiatives further. This is also the point at which external resources can be leveraged to support emerging activities, such as Microgrants for equipment or training.
Lasting relationships
Sustainability is not merely about keeping initiative(s) going, but also building on and developing new relationships, practices, and procedures that become a lasting feature of the community. Asset Mapping approaches that highlight the value of supporting and building on existing assets such as volunteers and local infrastructure are an important strategy to Keep it Local and sustain social impact. Such an approach requires collaboration. Collaboration can take place in a variety of ways, from writing funding applications together to sharing resources and ideas. However, although community members are undoubtedly best positioned to determine their concerns and
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