Kāinga Ora: Communications and Engagement Strategy
Summary
Town Hall partnered with Kāinga Ora in 2019, providing embedded communications and engagement expertise across several of the country's largest urban redevelopment programmes, including in Ōwairaka, Northcote, Oranga, Roskill South, Māngere and Porirua.
Town Hall also advised on internal change communications through a Centre of Excellence programme, and provided strategic counsel for the Auckland Light Rail Specified Development Project (SDP) Assessment.
Across this long-term client relationship, Town Hall has helped Kāinga Ora build and maintain the social licence needed to deliver new homes and infrastructure to communities across Auckland and in Wellington.
The Challenge(s)
Kāinga Ora faced the complex challenge of delivering large-scale housing redevelopments across multiple existing urban communities to address critical housing shortages. The programme required navigating significant community change while building social licence for new social and market housing precincts, along with the necessary infrastructure, across Mount Roskill, Māngere, Northcote, Oranga and Porirua.
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Sustaining a coherent, trusted narrative across multiple concurrent, long-term programmes, in established communities not always receptive to change.
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With multiple agencies and teams involved, maintaining clear coordination was essential to avoid conflicting messages, unclear roles and inconsistent information reaching residents, local boards, mana whenua and other stakeholders.
Image: Ōwairaka Development
The Town Hall Approach
Summary
Town Hall provided Kāinga Ora with strategic counsel along with embedded, on-the-ground communications and engagement support across its major developments, establishing a strategy proportionate to each development's stage and context while keeping messaging and tactics consistent with Kāinga Ora's wider redevelopment programme.
Team members worked alongside development, placemaking, communications and construction teams as an extension of the Kāinga Ora team across multiple developments.
Recognising the significance of the change these redevelopments represented to established communities, Town Hall built strategies that prioritised dialogue and collaborative problem-solving. The approach centred on building social licence through clear communication of the programme vision to stakeholders helping communities understand and accept the transformational change required while creating meaningful pathways for feedback throughout redevelopment activities.
