April 2021 Newsletter

  From the Executive Manager's Desk - Gail Madziar

April 2021 Message: Gail Madziar, Executive Manager, IAP2 USA

IAP2 USA is fortunate to have a group of dedicated leaders to help guide us along this bumpy path of the new roaring '20s as some are calling it. Congratulations to our 2021 executive team: President Gwen Howard, Vice President Heather Imboden, Treasurer Lisa Carlson, Secretary Michael Bailey and Immediate Past President Cathy Smith. The group was re-elected by the IAP2 USA Board of Directors at their March 18, 2021 board meeting. To meet the entire IAP2 USA board visit the board web page. Providing empowering and supportive leadership is important in the best of times but during adversity it is essential. Our leadership’s focus on resilience, empathy, transparency, and connectedness is apparent in their commitment to the IAP2 mission.

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What do you get out of Professional Certification (CP3)? By Sara Dechter, CP3, AICP

The funny thing about public participation is that it is hard to know if you are “good” at it.  My first 10 years as an urban planner, getting ready for public participation was something that kept getting assigned to me.  I hadn’t been to any trainings except what my employer offered, and I was awed by the skills of the facilitators that we would occasionally hire.  Eventually, I was the one my peers would call when a project was controversial, or they were stumped on how to get from the point they were at to the decision.  But the nagging question persisted, “Am I any “good” at this?” 

In 2019, I applied for evaluation as a Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) to find the answer.

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2021 North American Virtual Conference - Sponsorships Available

The 10th Annual International Association for Public Participation’s (IAP2) North American Conference is virtual again this year with exciting technology upgrades and experience enhancements for participants and sponsors. This year’s conference theme Sound Partnerships: Community engagement in Times of Change offers a reflection from the past year highlighting the lessons learned and the innovations that came from carrying public participation values through a global pandemic and racial justice reckoning. The event will be an inspiration and call to action as we all move public participation forward equitably in our communities and neighborhoods. 

A variety of sponsorship opportunities are available to meet the diverse needs and interests of our partners. Contact Erin Zimmermann, Strategic Development Manager, IAP2 USA

erin@iap2usa.org for details.

Chapter News - Emerging Northeast Chapter is hosting their first discussion panel

Municipal Perspectives on Community Engagement

Thursday, May 27, 12-1pm

How do you capture people’s attention when the world is on fire? What will public participation look like when the world is a safer place? What new community engagement practices are here to stay? Join us for an exciting virtual panel discussion with engagement practitioners and professionals across the Northeast region to discuss how municipalities are navigating stakeholder engagement in 2021 and adapting to overcome barriers to traditional engagement.  

Congratulations Northeast emerging chapter.

2021 Annual General Membership Meeting June 21

Announcing this year's Annual General Membership meeting. Members can view the agenda and register here. 

2021 North American Virtual Conference: Registration Opens Next Week!



2021 Core Values & Greater Good Awards: Deadlines Approaching

Core Values Awards

Each year IAP2 Affiliates around the world celebrate excellence in the profession through the IAP2 Core Values Awards. The awards go to projects and organizations which best demonstrate IAP2's Core Values and help to raise the bar in the field of public engagement by sharing best practices and inspiring the P2 community to learn from one another. The Core Values Awards encourage new approaches and innovative uses of existing ones.

Members can watch our March 19 webinar highlighting last year’s winners here. 

More details about last year’s CVA winners is also available here.

Read more and apply here by May 21, 2021

Greater Good Award

Greater Good Awards are presented to an individual each year in recognition of excellence in the field of public participation in the United States. Nominees will have demonstrated outstanding leadership, service, and application of the IAP2 core values in the field of public participation. Candidates may be nominated by any IAP2 USA Member, Chapter or Committee.

There are two categories of awards:

  • Greater Good Award: In recognition of people who have exerted leadership and made an impact on the profession over a period of years.

  • Greater Good - Emerging Leader Award: In recognition of emerging leadership (for people who are under 35 and/or have fewer than five years in the practice) and are making a new impact on the profession.

Learn about the 2020 Greater Good winner and the Greater Good Emerging Leader winner. 

Read more and apply here by June 30, 2021.

Featured Course - Comprehensive Equity Workshop: From Theory to Application

Trainers: Dante & Christina James

The Gemini Group

Two Sessions

May 11 12:00 - 3:30 pm (EDT)

May 12 12:00 - 2:30 pm (EDT)

Join us for this new, comprehensive workshop that combines both beginning and advanced equity courses rolled into one!

This course covers foundational content  aspects of developing a common language and understanding of the historical and present-day presence of institutional and systemic racism, and how to begin to address it internally and for stakeholders, including concepts of equity frameworks and tools. Additionally, the training touches on intersectionality and addressing equity as related to other marginalized identities in addition to race.

The advanced material is less content driven than the foundational portion and utilizes knowledge learned to address participants discussing their own equity work, its challenges and opportunities. Intersectionality will also be discussed with more depth, and a scenario will be used for a deeper understanding and application of the implementation of equity. This session will also cover microaggressions and macro-microaggressions.

    Register

    Webniar Recordings -  Available free to Members On-Demand

    All of our past webinars are available to members who are logged into iap2usa.org. Just click here and you will be prompted to login to the Webinar Archives.

    April Webinars

    April 13 Learning Webinar: Appreciative Inquiry - Empowering Communities through Collaborative Infrastructure Design

      In this reprise of a popular session from the 2020 IAP2 North American Conference, Carrie McIntosh of the BC Ferry Corporation and Darcy Vermeulen of Argyle (formerly Context) will discuss how AI was used in the planning of a new ferry terminal in Horseshoe Bay, BC.

      Learn how to run your own appreciative inquiry process and empower the public through strategic co-creation. Increasingly infrastructure design is an expert-driven process, yet publics have vital contributions to make. Hear about how our project team approached this challenge and how you can too.  

      In this session, you'll learn how to use AI principles in engagement processes and how to involve the public meaningfully in complex processes like infrastructure design.


        April 20 Taster: Project Management for Public Participation Practitioners


        You have a P2 project to set up. Do you want to increase your certainty that your process will be a success? This Taster with Carole Spicer PMP, is just the ticket you need!

        Project Management is all about the knowledge, tools and techniques to make a project run smoothly, and it's a natural fit with IAP2's Five Steps for Public Participation Planning. This Taster will provide you with an introduction to project management concepts, a project management framework, and start the discussion of how project managers and public practitioners compliment and need one another to succeed.

        P2 practitioners, project managers of a P2 process, sponsors of a P2 process, and even those who are just interested in learning more about project management will learn a lot from this Taster.

        View these and other webinars in our Webinar Archives


        Upcoming Webinars

        May 11 Learning Webinar - NAC Encore: Participatory Budgeting to Promote Resiliency and Community Healing in Response to Ferguson

        How does a community recover from something like the vicious civil unrest Ferguson, Missouri, experienced in 2014? In this reprise of the very popular session at the 2020 IAP2 North American Virtual Conference, Paula Southerland and Michelle Mitchell of the St Louis County Department of Public Health, will discuss how Participatory Budgeting (PB) played a significant role.

        You'll get an in-depth view of St. Louis ReCAST (Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma) a SAMHSA-funded initiative that began in 2016, and the participatory budgeting (PB) utilized in the design and delivery of all services related to the grant.

        You'll learn a method of incorporating community-led decision-making in programmatic funding and how community-based participatory approaches address inequality issues by giving community members a voice which empower and promotes self-efficacy. You'll also see how co-learning and empowering the community can result in more informed and transparent decision for resource allocation and delivers long-lasting, sustainable benefits.

        Register
        All Upcoming Webinars

        If our current courses don't meet your needs please fill out this quick survey so we can help you become the P2 practitioner your community needs.

        Other News

        Member Spotlight

        If your organization  had any recent P2 successes or thought of creative solutions we want to hear about it! Please contact info@iap2usa.org to be featured on our website or newsletter.

        COVID-19 Resources


        If you are looking for guidance on how to safely reopen your next event, The ESA Reopening guide offers a great checklist.

        **We continue to add more resources to help you adjust to the new virtual world. Check out our favorite online tips and tools here. **


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