People often face numerous barriers to participation. People may have busy lives, multiple responsibilities, and limited time to expend. To identify barriers relevant to your target partners, participants, and audiences of your engagement, consider the following categories of barriers:
- Do the outreach methods you use reach your intended audiences so that they know about the event?
- Is information effectively communicated to prospective participants?
- Is the time of day/week and length of the event accessible to participants?
- Is the location physically close to the target audience?
- Is the location well-known/regarded positively?
- Is there available public transportation?
- Is there available parking?
- Is there a need to compensate people for travel costs?
- Is there a meal provided?
- Have you worked with community leaders to understand other specific logistical needs facing the target community?
- Is there support or partnership with community leaders to help connect with different cultural/social groups?
- Have you worked with community leaders to understand cultural contexts and needs?
- Are there foreign language and/or ASL interpreters to address language access needs?
- Is the event fully accessible to people with any special needs?
- Is information about the engagement accessible? (i.e. available in multiple formats, multiple languages, easy to understand)
- Are the location, sponsor(s), partners, and discussion perceived as being balanced, neutral, and welcoming to diverse audiences?
- Is the event transparent so people understand who is sponsoring it and why?
- Does the event seem salient or important enough to attract people?
- Are the outcomes/results of participating in the event attractive to people?
- Is motivation to attend sufficient or is there an additional incentive (e.g. money or gift) that may help persuade people to attend?
Understanding multiple, different groups
Keep in mind there may be multiple types of barriers preventing people to participate in community engagement events, and different barriers may be relevant to different groups. It is important that your recruitment plan takes into account diverse barriers.
As one general example, once people have heard of the event, potential non-participants often fall into one of two major categories (click below to toggle), and different barriers may be most relevant to each group1:
Cultural/Social barriers
- No multi-lingual resources/interpreters
- Have been excluded from outreach campaigns about the engagement event
- Feel intimidated about participation
Personal/Motivational barriers
- Anxiety or uncertainty about what will happen at the engagement and risks of engagement
Logistical barriers
- No transportation to community engagement event
- Community engagement event is physically far away
- No health/accessibility accommodations
- No time
Cultural/Social barriers
- Group is unfamiliar with public engagement
- Group's social networks are not interested in the engagement
Personal/Motivational barriers
- Lack of trust in government or engagement process
- Lack of personal interest in the issue
- Does not value engagement
- Feels intimidated about participation
Brainstorming Solutions
Once barriers have been identified, effective outreach strategies should address prominent barriers and potential concerns people may have about your event. For example, many people may be attracted to participate in an engagement activity because they are interested in the issue. For such persons, incentives to participate in an engagement activity may include the opportunity to influence a decision or decision-maker affiliated with a court.
In other cases, material incentives may help persuade community members to attend who otherwise may not. Common forms of material incentives used by public engagement practitioners include a small cash fee or gift card, compensation for any travel expenses, or a free meal.2
See other examples of and strategies for addressing barriers below:
| Barriers | Strategies |
| Reaching group members |
|
| Barriers | Strategies |
| Inaccessible times |
|
| Inaccessible places |
|
| Family care obligations |
|
| Lack of time |
|
| Barriers | Strategies |
Language | Provide interpreters and materials in multiple languages |
Ability/disability | Ensure accommodations are available for persons of varied abilities |
Trust | Train or work with community leaders to recruit, conduct, and/or facilitate the engagements; if appropriate, court actors could observe or the leaders could report back to the courts |
| Barriers | Strategies |
| Trust |
|
Lack of interest or prioritization |
|
[1] Cropley, A., & Phibbs, P. (2013). Public participation in planning barriers, opportunities and ideas. Henry Halloran Trust: University of Sidney.
[2] See, for example: Bogaards, M., & Deutsch, F. (2015). Deliberation by, with, and for University Students. Journal of Political Science Education, 11(2), 221-232; Fishkin, J., Kousser, T., Luskin, R. C., & Siu, A. (2015). Deliberative agenda setting: Piloting reform of direct democracy in California. Perspectives on Politics, 13(4), 1030-1042; and Griffin, J., Abdel-Monem, T., Tomkins, A., Richardson, A., & Jorgensen, S. (2020). Understanding participant representativeness in deliberative events: A case study comparing probability and non-probability recruitment strategies. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.221