Rob is interested in deliberative engagement and the ways in which citizen voice can connect to and influence strategic decisions on big issues.
Connect with Rob on LinkedIn
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Rob is an experienced project director, facilitator and engagement specialist, and has designed and facilitated engagement programmes across sectors, including in health and social care, utilities, the voluntary sector and local government.
With a background in organisational development, Rob encourages clients to consider engagement work in the context of wider organisational ambitions and the importance of connecting-up citizen voice and lived experience with the big picture of strategic decision-making.
This builds on Rob’s long-standing track record supporting local authorities and CCGs to embed co-design and ‘asset-based’ approaches in their work with citizens and service users, and his interest in community development.
"Our engagement work at Traverse is about enabling people – including those more seldom-heard – to help inform the decisions that affect them, and to participate more fully in shaping the world they experience.
"If we believe that sustained, positive change is powered more effectively through networks rather than hierarchies, then as a society we need to get better at connecting up our resources between councils, partners and local people – and good engagement is crucial in shaping how that happens.
"The best thing about being at Traverse is the calibre of people you get to work with, both colleagues and clients. There’s a real sense that we feed off each other’s ideas and interests, and for that reason, no project exists in a vacuum. I think our work is much stronger for that."
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