Community engagement is often celebrated as a cornerstone of democracy—fostering participation, transparency, and trust between communities and governments. But behind the scenes, the work can be messy, emotionally draining, and full of challenges that rarely get talked about openly.
This webinar brings together four seasoned community engagement practitioners for an honest conversation about those unspoken realities—and practical ways to navigate them.
Why this conversation now?
Australian engagement experts Max Hardy and Salley Hussey recently released a free e-book, The Underbelly of Engagement: The Unspoken Realities of Community Engagement. In it, they candidly explore the difficulties practitioners face—issues that are often left out of the public narrative.
Following that, Max Hardy and engagement consultant Michelle Weston hosted Navigating Tricky Interactions, a frank discussion about dealing with the unexpected. We believe this conversation is vital and want to bring a similar conversation to the northern hemisphere.
Joining them from Tamarack are:
- Yas Hassen, an engagement practitioner with a specialty in conflict transformation and somatics – how things feel in our bodies and how we can use awareness and movement to improve our well-being. Yas has been coaching communities to build skills for these challenging moments.
- Lisa Attygalle, who supports communities in creating authentic engagement practices and explores how fear can hold us back from engaging fully.
Together, they’ll tackle questions like:
- What can we do when things get heated?
- How should we respond to challenges or accusations?
- How can we resist the urge to tighten control—and instead release it to find better solutions?
- How do we care for ourselves and avoid burnout?
This is a rare chance to hear unfiltered insights, learn practical strategies, and feel less alone in the hard parts of community engagement.
Speakers
Max Hardy, Community Engagement and Co-Design Facilitator
Max Hardy is one of Australia’s foremost experts in community engagement and co-founded the IAP2 Australasian Chapter in 1997. He is well known for his thought and practice leadership in co-design and deliberative processes (he has now designed and facilitated 76 deliberative panels since 1998). Renowned internationally for his skilful design and facilitation of community engagement processes, Max has developed innovative models for collaboration and community engagement, for which he has won numerous national and international awards.
Max Hardy works in a variety of sectors, including urban planning, energy, local government, natural resource management, healthcare, infrastructure, and agriculture. He delivers training, mentors practitioners, executives and project managers, facilitates workshops/ summits, undertakes evaluation and provides strategic advice.
Michelle Weston, Designer, Facilitator and Consultant
Michelle is a well-renowned designer, deliverer, and facilitator of complex, long-term, and high-profile strategic communications and engagement programs. With an insights-led, inclusive decision-making and multi-channelled approach, Michelle understands how to work internally to gain organisational buy-in and support. She specialises in deliberating on wicked problems, working with communities from the ground up, facilitating a wide range of forums and designing capacity building programs.
With over 20 years of experience (10 working at Melbourne Water), Michelle has worked in, and together with, a number of government and not-for-profit agencies in the water, waste, health, transport, and planning sectors. With a background in community arts, and a British ‘keep calm and carry on’ nature, she is a fun, creative, and thoughtful collaborator.
Yas Hassen, Associate Director, Skills for Change
Yas is an Associate Director at Tamarack Institute’s Learning Centre. They are dedicated to community development and engagement, prioritizing ethical co-creation and collaboration. With an MA in Adult Education and Community Development, their focus lies in effecting tangible systems change by innovatingly bridging gaps across various fronts including Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, anti-racism, belonging, anti-poverty, and climate justice, all in pursuit of just futures. Yas specialises in Community Engagement, Learning and Development, Conflict Resolution, and integrating meaningful EDIJR frameworks.
Lisa Attygalle, Consulting Director, Community Engagement
Lisa Attygalle leads Tamarack's Learning Centre which supports learners to build their skills, relationships, and capacities that contribute to lasting community and systems-level impact on one or more dimensions of poverty. Over the last 12 years her work has focused on enabling community-based participatory decision-making, creating authentic engagement strategies that centre the voices of people most impacted, and the use of technology and creativity for engagement. Outside of her work at Tamarack, Lisa is an artist and co-owner of Seven Shores Community Cafe in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.