planning, performance & play -...

Planning, Performance & PlayNontraditional Methods in Community Engagement

Carol Davis

New River Valley Livability Initiative Leadership Team

May 13, 2014

• Mostly rural and small university towns (Virginia Tech)

• Decline in manufacturing jobs in rural counties

• 3 year regional planning process – across multiple

topic areas

• Significant and sustained opposition to this planning process

Issues;

Vision

Baseline Conditions

Trends and Projections

Goals and Indicators

PriorityStrategies

• Housing (Aging In Place)• Arts and Culture• Economic Development (Internet Access)• Natural Resources (Agriculture; Water Infrastructure)• Energy• Transportation• Community Health

New River Valley Livability Initiative:Parallel Engagement & Technical Process

IssuesBaseline

Conditions

Trends and Projections

Goals and Indicators

Strategies

• Housing (Aging In Place)• Arts and Culture• Economic Development (Internet Access)• Natural Resources (Agriculture; Water Infrastructure)• Energy• Transportation• Community Health

New River Valley Livability Initiative:Parallel Engagement & Technical Process

Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement: Legitimacy, Trust Building, Buy-In, Implementation Partnerships

Our Planning Process Outreach Goals:• Robust stakeholder engagement - broad representation• Equity of engagement – reaching the harder to reach• Understand feedback in context (ex: road conditions)• Improve two-way communication (talk with not at)

• elected and staff understanding of citizen needs/concerns• citizen understanding of intersecting issues, competing needs,

resource limitations

• Building capacity and norms for civic problem-solving • Geographic balance:

• Common priorities across region and …..• Particular needs of communities within region

What About Implementation?

Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement: Legitimacy, Trust Building, Buy-In, Implementation Partnerships

Legitimacy: • process itself• information and data generated• recommendations that emerge

Trust-Building: • strengthen (or mend) existing organizational relationships• forge new ones• create common ground and shared understanding• moving away from binary or “zero-sum” thinking

Buy-In: • the action steps are discernible (not just the problem/vision)• people are invested in seeing the vision realized• there is an inclusive “call to action”, a sense of ownership

Implementation Partnerships:• MUCH more likely to emerge, be effective and remain durable

if first three are in place (legitimacy, trust-building, buy-in)• … The “pretty plans” come off the shelf!

What Makes Engagement Meaningful?

Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation

Public Meeting

Citizens input is “welcome” at a

public hearing on codes, bylaws,

ordinances and other things beloved by

planners and bureaucrats.

Tuesday at 6 p.m. in a room with

uncomfortable chairs. Parking limited.

Informing and Other Forms of Tokenism

• Low accessibility for non-experts.

• Unclear how citizen input impacts process or outcomes.

• Emerging proposals appear to be “done deals”

The Town Hall Meeting

The Town Hall Meeting

• Has it changed over time? • How does the public perceive its role?

• Who does it work for? • What is it set up to do?

• High stakes, zero-sum outcomes• Dialogue low, often absent• Proposal may pass but…

Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement

What Gets in the Way?

Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement

What Gets in the Way?• Limited resources (time/$$)

• Habits and comfort• Fear of conflict

• Desire to maintain control (info, process, outcomes)

• Management of citizen expectations

Some of our “standard” engagement efforts:• Regional Kick-Off Summit with 150+ participants

(table discussions)• Website – working group progress and draft

documents, direct communication with WGs• Online and paper surveys – several iterations• Spanish language survey and outreach events with

local churches• Lower-literacy survey (community partners)• Community meetings with established groups

And some “not-so-standard” engagement methods:PlaceMatters

• Keypad polling at Kick-Off and Final Summits• CrowdGauge – NRV Tomorrow Survey

VT Dept of Theater and Cinema - Directing & Public Dialogue• BuildingHome: Storytelling, Improvisational &

Participatory Theater techniques• Interactive Community Performances: Whether System,

Behind A Stranger’s FaceCollaboration between Sojourn Theater, VT, and PlaceMatters

• BUILT NRV game


• Keypad polling at Kick-Off and Final Summits• CrowdGauge – NRV Tomorrow Survey




• BUILT NRV game

Both standard and nonstandard methods brought value ….


• Keypad polling• CrowdGauge – NRV Tomorrow Survey




• BUILT NRV game

Both standard and nonstandard brought value ….

Let’s compare: standard and nonstandard survey methods

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30% Top 3 Housing Goals - by locality Development Patterns &Rural Landscapes

Affordability

Housing Options near Jobs

Energy Efficiency

Aging In Place

Housing & NeighborhoodPreservation

Rental Properties

Community Priorities Survey:Housing Snapshot

Top Regional Priority:Development Patterns and Rural Landscapes: Infrastructure development (e.g. roads, public water & sewer) happens primarily around existing town and job centers to conserve rural landscapes.

Secondary Community Priorities:a. Housing Affordability: Radford (Top Priority) Floyd,

Montgomery, Pulaskib. Housing Options Near Jobs: Radford, Giles

Community Priorities Survey:Housing Snapshot

Values: a range of perspectives on high-priority goals

Future Vision

CrowdGauge/NRV Tomorrow Survey:Imagining the Future

CrowdGauge/NRV Tomorrow Survey:Mock Participatory Budgeting

CrowdGauge/NRV Tomorrow Survey:Policy Support

CrowdGauge/NRV Tomorrow Survey:Snapshot of Results: Programs Section

Total Coins

Total "Votes"

Combined Score

Vote order

Coins order

Combined Rank

Top Ten

656 164 820 3 2 5 3424 212 636 1 5 6 3534 178 712 2 4 6 3690 138 828 7 1 8 3290 145 435 6 13 19 2366 122 488 13 10 23 2360 120 480 14 11 25 0160 160 320 4 23 27 1252 126 378 11 16 27 0226 113 339 16 18 34 0265 53 318 27 15 42 0164 82 246 22 22 44 0105 105 210 18 28 46 0250 50 300 29 17 46 0138 69 207 25 25 50 0

Familiar format: Likert scale, ranking

Selections more nuanced, contextualized

Fewer tech obstacles for usersMimics “participatory budgeting”,

forces hard choices

Far less time to develop, deploy,and analyze

Develops understanding of intersecting impacts and co-benefits

Yields easy-to-communicate data Yields more meaningful conversations

Easy to discern regional commonalities and community-based priorities

Let’s Compare


• Keypad polling• CrowdGauge – NRV Tomorrow Survey




• BUILT NRV game

We were really skeptical at first…….

Other “not-so-standard” outreach methods

So we hired these artists to help you…

So we hired these artists to help you…

We knew we wanted to

• Have more authentic conversations

• understand root concerns (interests over positions)

• reach the harder-to-reach vs. the usual suspects

• built trust and collaborative spirit

• create capacity for civic problem solving

• … move away from “broken” approaches

Building Home - Town Hall Nation

Town Hall Nation

Sojourn Theatre, TEAM,

Imagining America

April 23-26, 2012 - Virginia Tech

Building Home: Behind A Stranger’s Face

November 17th – December 3rd, 2012

The BUILT Game

Comparing• rural and in-town perspectives

within localities

• differences/similarities between

localities

• perspectives from regional bodies

Goals

core values and priorities

key tensions and tradeoffs

obstacles, challenges

potential action strategies

The BUILT Game

• Individual Priorities

• Collaboration –Neighborhood/Town

• Integration –Town/County

The BUILT Game

“Perspective is a powerful driver behind choices. Sometimes we make decisions too quickly without considering the impacts, however small and unintentional, that they may have on other people.”

(It made me think…..) “about the importance of understanding community dynamics, recognizing that compromises will have to be made, but working together as a whole it can be made better.”

The BUILT Game

Beyond just numbers….greater context to citizen priorities and

concerns

• Past citizen experiences with planning, land use, development

patterns (i.e. eminent domain, historic districts, affordable housing,

observations of environmental decline)

• Priority themes, key tensions emerge – inform working groups, local

staff, and elected officials at the front end of the planning process and

throughout

• Ideas that can shape and fine-tune goals and strategies

• More nuanced understanding of community priorities (downtown

revitalization, family-friendliness)

• Build partnerships for eventual implementation,

and capacity for civic problem-solving.

Nonstandard Engagement: Using the Data

Meaningful Engagement:Moves Your Process from Vision to Action

Legitimacy, Trust Building, Buy-In, Implementation Partnerships


Aging Successfully at Home and in Our Communities –A Community Workshop & Design Book..coming soon!

2013 Community Impact Grant: Habitat for Humanity of the NRV

for Critical Home Repair

Lowering the Cost and Complexity of Residential Solar: Pilot project in Blacksburg now!


Aging Successfully at Home and in Our Communities –A Community Workshop & Design Book..coming soon!

2013 Community Impact Grant: Habitat for Humanity of the NRV

for Critical Home Repair

Lowering the Cost and Complexity of Residential Solar: Pilot project in Blacksburg now!

11 partners

Realignment of program mission and grant-making

9 partners

Questions?Questions?

Livability Initiative Reports http://www.nrvpdc.org/

http://www.nrvpdc.org/

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