Intercom: Hear Our Voices

Hear Our Voices—
community consultation

Community consultation...

...is at the core of Intercom's ethic, and also of our services. Our own large contact lists include a vast range of individuals from across the peninsula, and we are also in touch with dozens of independent groups which don't (of course!) share their own circulation-lists with Intercom or anyone else, but they can forward our messages and Bulletins to their own members by e-mail or by post.

We consult---always in confidence!---for two reasons.

Community consultation for stakeholders

First, so that our stakeholders can run ideas past a broad range of local LGB/T people and find out what they think about an idea. We've done this kind of confidential consultation on behalf of local government, the criminal justice system, employers, and many others. Obviously, we absolutely protect the confidentiality of our contacts: our reports are completely sanitised of all personal details. For examples of these reports, have a look at our Monitoring box below, or our focus groups report on the Criminal Justice System from Cornwall and Devon in 2004. Reports on our on-going consultation on LGB/T people's feelings and experiences about community safety in and around Exeter, and on young Devon LGB/T people's feelings about their personal safety, will be available soon.

And of course our biggest ever community consultation --- so far! --- was the peninsular survey of 2005-06. We published the results in a report called A Firmer Foundation in September 2006.

Community responsiveness for Intercom

Second, we consult so that we can make sure Intercom itself stays on track, and is aware of people's concerns, and of all the different kinds of opinion there is amongst LGB/T people in the peninsula.

The Trust is nothing if it is not community-led. Intercom's over-arching policies, and the way we approach (e.g.) our training and policy work, must always be responsive to the actual needs and priorities of the LGB/T people and communities in the peninsula.

Everyone counts

But being community-led does not mean being led by community leaders, or prominent individuals who have got their own focus, or speak loudly and get headlines. It means listening to an enormously broad range of different people, and continually testing the range of opinions. It means staying in touch with reality, and this ideally includes everyone.

If only it were possible to contact everyone, and hear from everyone directly! All we can do is be careful to listen on the broadest spectrum we can achieve. For ten years we have been learning listening skills, and openness, and how to balance complexities fairly and honestly.

An example: MONITORING

We hear from some people and one or two organisations a passionate argument that every employer ought to monitor how many of their workforce is LGB or Trans. We are told we ought to encourage employers to do this. But this message comes from people who are themselves largely Out at work; and they are a very small minority indeed in the South West peninsula.

We get a quite different message, virtually unanimously, from those who are not Out at work and have no intention of coming Out. They do not want to be put in the position of being asked their sexual orientation---they know this leaves them only with the options of leaving it blank, or saying they "prefer not to say" (both of these are felt to be a giveaway) or else lying. And lying, in the context in which so many LGB/T people live, is probably the safest option. We know many good people have felt driven to it.

The issues are very similar when it comes to monitoring an organisation's service-users.

For more information on this topic, look at Intercom's position paper on monitoring.

If you would like to play your part in community consultation --- if you would like to make your voice heard --- please contact us. There is always room for any new voice.