The National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education invites you to attend a presentation by Associate Professor James Smith, who is visiting Curtin University from Charles Darwin University.

Negotiating respectful community engagement approaches to promote higher education pathways among remote Indigenous communities: Experiences from the Whole of Community Engagement initiative

About the presentation
Community engagement is often cited as a critical component of working with Indigenous communities in both Australia and other countries. Ideally, this involves engaging in ‘bottom-up’ approaches that scope, identify, and subsequently respond to, community needs and aspirations.

Community engagement is usually participatory and developmental in nature. It is often used as a means to shape policy and program development, scope research approaches, and support enhanced service delivery in a range of settings. However, the physical, social, cultural, economic and political contexts in which community engagement occurs can be different. As such, there is no definitive approach to what community engagement both ‘looks’ and ‘feels’ like within different Indigenous community contexts.

In this presentation, I draw on the various community engagement processes and strategies that have been used in six remote Indigenous communities during the establishment phase of the Higher Education Participation and Partnership Program – Whole of Community Engagement (HEPPP-WCE) initiative. This is a multi-site participatory action research project which aims to build the aspiration, expectation and capacity of remote Indigenous communities to participate in higher education. Information presented is based on a team effort involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff working side-by-side, and reflects an ongoing community engagement process with a sustainable partnership development focus.

About Associate Professor James Smith
James is the Program Manager for the HEPPP-WCE initiative within the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Indigenous Leadership at Charles Darwin University. This role involves working with six remote Indigenous communities to build aspiration, expectation and capacity to participate in higher education. Prior to his current appointment, James worked in a variety of executive and senior management roles in the Northern Territory in both the health and education sectors. He has a strong background in health promotion and community development, and is a Fellow of the Australian Health Promotion Association and Associate Editor of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia and the International Journal of Men’s Health. He is also an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health (CERIPH) at Curtin University.

WHEN: Wednesday 27 May 2015, from 4:00pm until 5:00pm

WHERE: Executive Briefing Centre, Level 2, Building 100, Curtin University (Bentley campus)

RSVP: ncsehe@curtin.edu.au by Monday 25 May
Spaces are limited, so registrations are essential.

For those of you who may be unable to attend, this session will be recorded, transcribed and published to our website.