A How-To Guide for Better Community Engagement
Here’s a familiar eyeroll-inducing situation you’ve probably encountered: A multinational company decides they want to build a big facility in your town. Local leaders and company representatives hold a series of public meetings to share the plans for the project, “get input” from residents and “hear your concerns.” At the end of the day, the company builds exactly the facility they had planned to build all along, and residents walk away with the sneaking suspicion that their input and concerns made no difference at all in the process.
This is what counts as “community engagement” today. And that’s wrong.
We’ve written extensively about the problems of community engagement here at Strong Towns. We also recently produced a one-hour short form course called “Community Engagement that Works“ (sign up for it here!) and today I’m sharing a how-to guide that accompanies the course.
A few takeaways from this guide… First, our cities should be structuring their community engagement processes with the goal of building understanding with residents. Unfortunately, most community engagement processes only focus on listening and fail to take the next step toward understanding.
Some examples of engagement aimed only at listening include:
meetings
public hearings
surveys and focus groups
visioning sessions
Community engagement that aims to understand looks more like:
demonstration projects
neighborhood walkarounds
(some) design charrettes
To build understanding, we have to set aside preconceived notions and see—literally see—what people actually need as they go about their lives in their town.
We advocate for a 4-step approach to public engagement:
Humbly observe where people struggle.
Ask: What’s the next smallest thing we can do to respond to that struggle?
Do that thing right now.
Repeat.
You can learn more in our free downloadable Action Guide. And if you want to dig deeper, make sure to sign up for our online on-demand Strong Towns Academy course, “Community Engagement that Works.”
You can find many more guides, how-tos, and case studies at our Action Lab.
Cover image via Unsplash.