Axis of Influence series: Voice and Echo
Voice
“If this was America you’d be paying a fortune for the information and know-how that’s contained here. This model is indispensable for any organisation serious about making an impact”.
(comment from ‘Voice’ facilitator training)
‘Voice’ is a tool which helps community groups and networks to assess and improve the influence they have on agencies and partnerships. The ‘two axes in ‘Voice’ plot existing capacity to influence against how influential the group feels. It can be used to: assess and monitor community influence, prompt discussion and debate within groups and help plan how to become more influential.
Here you can download:
- 2 page information leaflet providing the general gist
- Handy Guide – Part 1 of the Voice Resource Pack - this provides the basics of Voice so you can have a go with it. If you want to do more or use it in different ways then we strongly advise that you get in touch with us to discuss how – we have been developing some useful resources.
- Toolkit to aid facilitation of Voice
Articles:
- Community Development Journal (International Journal article on Voice when it was called the ‘Axis of Influence’)
- NCVO newsletter (Case study article of Voice when it was called the ‘Axis of Influence’)
changes offer facilitator training and work with groups.
For more information about Voice, join our networking site
and – we have recently worked with both Voice and echo together – to help Town and Parish Councillors to see where they sit in this ‘world’ of influence
echo
echo is a tool for public agencies to use to consider how open they are to community influence, in relation to their potential to respond to that influence. The tool is ready for testing – contact us if you are interested in commissioning us to work with you using echo. People who have worked with it to date have said things like this…
- It is an easy toolkit, could be useful across the County to help consistency and to talk to the non-converted
- It could help with the Community Engagement Strategy development thought process
- It could provide us with a baseline of where we are – and an action plan
- It made me think differently – more deeply into what outcomes could be
- It turns the intangible into the tangible
- I can see how we could usefully apply this to help the organisation move forward in terms of equality and diversity
- There has to be recognition of good practice in the organisation, echo can help us to locate this and learn from it
- Within an LSP context it is important – funding reductions will make it hard for the LA to respond so we are going to have to work more in partnership
Here you can download:
- 2-page information leaflet providing the general gist
- research report - the original report
changes offer facilitator training and work with agencies.
For more information about echo, join our networking site
and – we have recently worked with both Voice and echo together – to help Town and Parish Councillors to see where they sit in this ‘world’ of influence