Facilitation Guidelines and Best Practices for Community Engagement Events

Purpose

This guide provides city staff, consultants, and contractors with fundamental facilitation skills and best practices for leading productive community engagement events that build trust and generate actionable insights.

Core Facilitation Principles

1. Trust and Neutrality

Gain and maintain the trust of participants, remain neutral on substantive and procedural aspects of the discussion, and show respect to all participants at all times.

2. Inclusive Participation

The specific goals of engagement events will vary, but as a facilitator a main goal is to help create a container for residents to share their honest perspectives in a productive and respectful way. This is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between residents and government, and facilitators have an essential role in this work.

3. Process Over Content

• Focus on how the conversation happens, not what conclusions are reached

• Guide the process while letting participants drive the content

• Stay neutral on policy positions while advocating for fair process

• When necessary, redirect and educate to help keep the conversation focused and productive

Know Your Community

• Partner with trusted leaders/organizations

• Research the demographic makeup of your audience

• Understand the history and context of the issue

• Identify potential tensions or sensitive topics

• Learn about previous engagement efforts and their outcomes

Design for All

• Choose accessible venues with parking and public transit access

• Offer childcare, interpretation services, or other accessibility supports whenever possible

• Schedule multiple sessions at different times and locations

• Provide materials in multiple languages if needed

For more information on accessibility, see xx guide.

Set Clear Expectations

• Define the purpose and scope of the engagement

• Explain what decisions can and cannot be influenced

• Communicate how input will be used and when

• Share the agenda in advance

Prepare Your Materials

• Create agenda that helps achieve stated goals. Best if done in partnership with key leaders/community orgs

• Create visual aids that support different learning styles

• Prepare flip charts, markers, sticky notes, etc. for interactive activities

• Test all technology in advance

• Have backup plans for technical failures

Welcome and Introductions (10-15 minutes)

1. Acknowledge the space: Let trusted partners or venue hosts open the meeting, or at least thank them for their generosity and expertise, recognize whose traditional land you're on if appropriate
2. Introduce the team: Share names, roles, and why you're there
3. State the purpose: Be specific about what you hope to accomplish
4. Review the agenda: Give people a roadmap for their time

Establish Ground Rules Together (5-10 minutes)

Rather than imposing rules, ask: "What agreements do we need to have a productive conversation?"

Common ground rules include:

• One person speaks at a time

• Respect different perspectives and experiences

• Focus on issues, not personalities

• Ask questions to understand, not to challenge

• Share speaking time (don't dominate)

• Put devices away or on silent

• It's okay to change your mind

Create Psychological Safety

• Normalize different viewpoints: "We expect to hear different perspectives"

• Address power dynamics: "Your input matters regardless of your role in the community"

• Encourage questions: "If something isn't clear, please ask"

• Model vulnerability: Share why this issue matters to the city and why city wants to hear from community

Managing Participation

For Quiet Participants:

• "Let's hear from someone who hasn't spoken yet"

• Use written reflection before verbal sharing

• Create small group discussions before large group sharing

• Use direct but respectful interventions to encourage quieter participants

For Dominant Participants:

• Set time limits for speaking and use direct but respectful interventions to remind dominant individuals to allow space for others

• "Thank you for that perspective. Let's see what others think"

• "I want to make sure we hear from everyone. Let's move to someone else"

• Use structured formats like round-robins

For Conflict and Tension:

• Acknowledge emotions: "I can hear this is really important to you"

• Redirect to shared values: "It sounds like we all want what's best for our community"

• Ask clarifying questions: "Help me understand what concerns you most about this"

• Separate positions from interests: "What would need to be true for this to work for you?"

For more in-depth guidance on managing conflict, see xx guide.

Active Listening Techniques

• Paraphrase: "What I'm hearing is..."

• Reflect emotions: "It sounds like you're frustrated because..."

• Ask for clarification: "Can you give us a specific example?"

• Summarize themes: "Several people have mentioned..."

Keeping Discussions on Track

• Gentle redirection: "That's an important point. How does it connect to [topic]?"

• Acknowledge and redirect: "I hear your concern about X. Let's make sure we address Y first, then come back to that"

• Use the agenda: "We have about 10 more minutes on this topic. What else is important to cover?"

• Park important tangents: "That's worth discussing. Let me put it on our 'parking lot' to address later"

Encouraging Deeper Thinking

• Ask follow-up questions: "Tell us more about that" or "What else?"

• Probe for specifics: "What would that look like in practice?"

• Explore implications: "If we did that, what might happen?"

• Build connections: "How does this relate to what [resident] mentioned earlier?"

Synthesize What You Did and What you Heard (10-15 minutes)

• Recap the different exercises that people participated in

• Summarize key themes and insights

• Highlight areas of agreement and disagreement

• Note questions that emerged

• Acknowledge the contributions made

Clarify Next Steps (5-10 minutes)

• Explain what happens with the input received

• Provide specific timelines for follow-up

• Share how people can stay involved

• Give contact information for questions

Appreciate Participation

• Thank people for their time and insights

• Acknowledge the difficulty of the topics discussed

• Recognize the value of different perspectives shared

• Invite continued engagement

Evaluation and Feedback

• Ask for quick feedback on the process

• Provide evaluation forms or online survey links

• Ask what could be improved for next time

Post-Event Follow-Through

Immediate Follow-Up (Within 1 Week)

• Send thank you message to participants

• Share summary of key themes and insights

• Provide copies of any materials used

• Include next steps and timelines

Ongoing Communication

• Update participants on progress and decisions

• Invite input on implementation details

• Share stories of how their input made a difference

• Maintain mailing list for future engagement

Internal Debrief

• Review what worked well and what could improve (see debrief template here xx)

• Document lessons learned for future events

• Share insights with other departments

• Plan for continued engagement