all times are in Eastern Timezone

12:00 PM - 12:45 PM: TBD

Presenter: TBD

1:00 PM - 1:45 PM: Building Community Capacity and Providing Mutual Benefit Through Public Involvement Activities

Presenter: Adrienne DeDona

This thought-provoking session will center around the idea that public involvement activities can think beyond the benefit they provide to a project or process – also considering the *benefit provided to the people who participate and their communities.* In recent years, creating processes that are accessible and inclusive has been a central focus of our practice. Helping people be able to access a process and feel welcome is an essential baseline. But we should also be asking – what do they want to get out of it in the longer term? There are a range of personal benefits that people may enjoy from participating in a public process, such as increased knowledge of civic processes, connection or familiarity with local government, leadership skills, a more visible public profile within the community, and many others. Initial participation often inspires or opens doors to expanded and continued involvement, having a ripple effect of effecting change and benefitting communities into the future.

The benefits may vary as much as individuals’ goals and motivations – and public involvement practitioners can seek to understand and provide these benefits through our process design, creating mutual benefit. Together as a group, we will explore the concept of how individuals and their communities may benefit from participating in a public engagement process. (We’ll also discuss how, alternatively, some processes may unintentionally disincentive participation). Our focus will be not only on supporting people’s ability and access to participate, but also for them to gain something personally from the experience, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship. We will consider how this works as a mechanism to help participants become champions of a process and feel ownership of outcomes. We’ll also consider how this approach builds capacity, trust and representation long past a project’s end.

1:45 PM - 2:30 PM: Break

2:30 PM - 3:15 PM: Structural Changes for Lasting Participation in SLC: Engagement that Starts From Within

Presenter: Sarah Horton and Soren Fillet

When Salt Lake City’s Citywide Communications & Engagement Team realized that community engagement efforts had slowly spread across departments and become siloed from one another, they did nothing less than rebuild their internal engagement organization from the ground up.

Join Rachel Paulsen (Salt Lake City) and Wietse Van Ransbeeck (Go Vocal) to find out how SLC is moving from a fragmented engagement approach that was prone to staff burnout, to a replicable system for empowering staff, driving cross-departmental collaboration, and embedding engagement in the city’s DNA.

• Learn how to implement structural changes for more effective engagement

• Hear how a streamlined digital solution helped SLC bring all engagement under one roof

• Share candid perspectives in the Q&A on overcoming barriers to internal alignment, achieving buy-in, and inspiring staff to stay close to the mission: ensuring residents’ voices are heard

3:30 PM - 4:15 PM: IAP2 USA Licensed Trainer Session

Presenter: Justin Schneider, Cassie Hemphill, and Doug Zenn

Description coming soon.

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