Creative Engagement TIps

At Sleeping Giants, we often engage with the public to find out their views on an issue on a client’s behalf, whether it’s our evaluation work or helping community organisations develop Place Plans.

Traditional research tools like surveys and interviews have their place. But these methods rarely reach everyone – some find it asks too much in terms of their time, overly formal, or just a bit boring.

Using more creative methods can make sharing your views more appealing and helps people express themselves in different ways. Accessibility is really important to us, and by offering a range of methods it can help neurodivergent people and those with disabilities take part in different ways.  

Here are some of the ways you can use creative methods to engage with people.

• You can use small cards with images to select to enable someone to express themself in a different way during an interview. This is particularly useful for working with people with additional support needs – if someone has difficulty communicating verbally then visual methods are crucial. Also, some autistic people can find one-on-one interviews with a stranger quite intense so focusing on cards can make it easier. It can take a bit of time to find and print images that are relevant to your project, but it is worth it to help someone take part who might otherwise not be able to.

• Ask participants to draw, do collage or a combination then talk about the work to explain their thoughts on an issue. Drawing can be quite intimidating for some people, so collage is a nice, low-pressure way for people to visually express themselves. You just need lots of materials to cut up.

• Simple props can be used to spark imagination. For example, at recent children’s workshops we used ‘magic wands’ (really just some sticks cut from a shrub in my garden) to imagine things they would like to change in their community. The kids loved whooshing their wands and had lively discussions on their village and what would make things better.

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• Another creative prompt we use is to ask people to imagine writing a postcard to someone they know about the issue you’re engaging on. We often buy postcards with images that are relevant to the project. This one is easy to organise, low cost, and helps reach people who might not be willing or able to fill in a full questionnaire.

These are just a few ideas, but there are many ways you can engage with folk creatively, without needing expensive resources or specialist artistic skills. Often all it takes is a bit of imagination and willingness to try things out.