Successful planning requires comprehensive and effective public input. It's virtually impossible to claim broad community support without hearing from the citizens and other stakeholders in your community. Public participation must occur early in the process and each opportunity for input must be strategically timed, efficient, part of a participation plan, and clear regarding how it is to be used. Effective public participation can:
Relocalizations is familiar with a wide range of public participation strategies and mechanisms. In addition, innovative and unique strategies can also be developed that are specifically tailored to the unique needs of your community or organization. It is important to avoid the pitfalls and make the best use of valuable time in the public participation process. This is where we can assist you. Specific services include:
Innovative Strategies & Mechanisms - Relocalizations employees public participation tools based on a strategy that fits your organization and community. Mechanisms might include guided tours, design charettes, visual preference survey's (VPS), visioning, and media strategies. The strategy will be unique based on the type of process, community type, historical level and interest in public participation, special populations, and other factors.
The public meeting is still an important means to facilitate face to face communication. Typologies could include facilitated meetings, formal neighborhood group inclusion, focus or study groups, advisory committees, task forces, discussion and working meetings (such as forums, workshops, charettes, retreats), brainstorming sessions, nominal group technique, force field analysis, the Delphi method, or other techniques.
Finally, tools to broaden the participatory spectrum could include questionnaire
surveys (Web and/or traditional distribution), opinion polls, media coverage
(including interviews, press releases, video clips), public hearings, special
events (such as open houses, speeches, and exhibits), and other public relations
techniques such as newsletters, posters, flyers, and volunteer opportunities.
Coordination with New & Existing Plans and Programs - Just as important
as insuring that effective participatory mechanisms are included in new projects
and programs, existing projects and programs may benefit from either a tweaking
or a complete overhaul of the public participation strategy. This may be the
difference in salvaging an ineffective or failing program.
Community Outreach and Public Relations - Just as important as tailoring
a public participation strategy to a specific program or project, governments
and other organizations may benefit from a targeted or ongoing outreach program.
Outreach can allow the organization to stay connected to its constituency and
ensure that the pulse of the community is taken regularly. Additionally, public
relations strategies may provide benefits by getting potentially conflicting
parties together to discuss an issue prior to official hearing or legislative
action.
Public Identification Strategies - Critical to an effective public participation program is an accurate and comprehensive definition of the public. The purpose of this exercise is to be able to specifically tailor specific participatory mechanisms and target strategies toward each sub-category of the public domain. This will provide a number of benefits including efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and engender a sense of inclusiveness.
Public participation is the foundation of American democracy and is critical to the local government function. Most importantly, a community needs to listen to what its citizens are saying. Similarly, our most important role is to listen to you, to gauge what your needs are as an organization. Effective relocalization planning call upon public inclusiveness as even more essential to an effective process since community building is a central facet of relocalization.
Relocalizations has the experience and skills to develop an effective public process specifically tailored to the needs of your community or organization. Call Christopher Ryan, AICP at (617) 838-9454 or e-mail inquiries@relocalizations.com to find out more.