Community Engagement Approach

Because there is still much to do to improve the lives of people living with mito, our focus is often on the negative. We will balance this by also celebrating and communicating about:

• the strengths they have developed due to being impacted by mito
• the aspects of their life that are unrelated to mito
• their unique value as a person and their contributions to our society

This approach will support Mito Foundation’s goal to empower mito community members.

We recognise the benefits to mito community members having opportunities to develop relationships with each other and sharing their lived experiences. Mito Foundation can facilitate these through formalised peer support interactions and by hosting and promoting events for mito community members. These connections strengthen the collective voice of the mito community.

We also recognise the benefits of fundraising as a way for community members to connect with their local communities to share their mito story, and to give back to the wider mito community.

This engagement approach will influence all aspects of Mito Foundation's work. When we can, we will share knowledge across our teams. To avoid community members having to share their expertise multiple times. Through our work, we aim to build our understanding of the mito community's experiences.

We will be informed by the levels within the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation (see figure below).

We will seek opportunities to increase the influence the mito community has on decisions made by Mito Foundation. We will try to involve community members in decisions about which level of participation is best suited for particular initiatives.

	INFORM	CONSULT	INVOLVE	COLLABORATE	EMPOWER
Goal	To provide balanced and objective information in a timely manner.	To obtain feedback on analysis, issues, alternatives and decisions.	To work with the community to make sure concerns and aspirations are considered and understood.	To partner with the community in each aspect of decision making.	To place final decision making in the hands of the community.
Promise	"We will keep you informed."	"We will listen to and acknowledge your concerns."	"We will work with you to ensure your concerns and aspirations are directly reflected in the decisions made."	"We will look to you for advice and innovation and incorporate this is decisions as much as possible."	"We will implement what you decide."
Current Examples	Email newsletters from Mito Foundation; updates shared at events.	Feedback on support service and fundraising offerings. Contributions to advocacy projects.	Mito Community Advisory Panel.	Some projects (e.g. NDIS toolkit). Board membership.

Summary of the spectrum of participation, adapted from placespeak.com with permission from IAP2 to use their spectrum of participation in this publication.

When mito community members drive their own fundraising initiatives with the support of Mito Foundation team, this could be considered as an example of the ‘Empower’ level of participation. Fundraising is not usually considered through this lens, so this is not shown as an example above.

Mito can cause fatigue, sensory disabilities, and other physical limitations.  There are many competing demands on the time of mito community members (e.g. accessing health care can take up significant time, many community members also have caring responsibilities). We commit to:

• Being flexible in the ways that we interact with mito community members to suit their limitations
• Making engagement activities accessible
• Planning interactions to use mito community members’ time efficiently