Engage

Guide to City Government

Helpful information about our City government.

Civic engagement means creating opportunities for people to be involved in their local government and community. It can be as simple as voting, attending public meetings, sharing ideas or reporting problems in your neighborhood. When people are engaged, it helps us make better decisions that reflect what the community needs. It also builds trust and ensures everyone has a chance to be heard.

These resources can help guide departments and contractors in designing their engagement efforts better and creating consistent experiences for our residents.

Why civic engagement?

  • Bring more people to the table. Build trust with residents.
  • Collaborate with people who are impacted by our decisions.
  • Focusing on equity in design helps create more innovative, sustainable and responsive government services.

Toolkits

  • Think It

    Understanding why you are asking people to take time to provide input is essential. What problems are you trying to solve and what are the engagement goals?



    Learn More 

  • Plan It

    What are the best tools to accomplish your goals? Do you need people just to be informed about something or does a project need a more collaborative approach?

    Learn More 

  • Do It

    Ready to launch an engagement project. Take time to learn about best practices and ways to facilitate the conversation.

    Learn More 

  • Debrief It

    How are you going to use the information you collect and how will you tell people how they can use input? What worked, what didn't and what can you do better next time?

    Learn More 

Feedback

Have an idea on how to improve this site or is there something you think needs to be changed or added? Let us know.

Goals

Managing Resources and Time

Internal
Coordination and collaboration across city departments saves staff time when doing engagement events.

External
Community input can help the government choose how to allocate resources, design programs and change policies more effectively.

Collaborate on Decisions

Robust civic engagement creates opportunities for residents to share decision-making power with the government for policies and decisions that affect their lives.

Build and Maintain Relationships

Internal
Helps collaboration across and within departments

External
This could lead to a stronger sense of belonging and community among residents, more engagement in local elections, and more support for local government and policies.

Expanding Capacity through Community

Beyond generating new knowledge, certain engagement activities (e.g., hackathon, design challenge) may help alleviate resource constraints faced by the government and expedite the implementation of new, innovative ideas.

Our Approach

Strategic Plan

A cohesive approach to all civic engagement activities. This will be informed by the core values work.

Engagement Planning

A step-by-step, adaptable guide for planning, implementing, and evaluating engagement efforts, including how to create engagement plans as a part of project plans.

Implementation / Facilitation

Our team can provide assistance facilitating and implementing engagement activities, help analyze community feedback after the event, etc.

Coordination

Improve project coordination between departments with key external stakeholders to avoid duplication and feeling of being "over-engaged" by communities.