Roadmap for Public Engagement

The Roadmap for Public Engagement is designed to give cities, counties, and special districts a starting place to meaningfully engage the full diversity of their residents in various policy decisions. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, local governments transitioned overnight to a digital, comprehensive engagement model out of necessity. Now, as we approach nine months since that drastic transition, it is an opportune time to evaluate public engagement methods that went into place in March, as well as the ones existing prior to the pandemic. The pandemic reinforced that need for engagement not only for communication with the community, but for community health overall.

Local government leaders know that at the heart of local government is the community. But too often efforts to engage the community are either haphazard (at one extreme) or formulaic (at the other). How do you know whether you are investing your public engagement energy and resources wisely? We created this Roadmap to support your agency wherever your public engagement efforts are at. It can help you:

1. Identify your agencies public engagement strengths and guide steps for improvement. 
2. Become strategic about engagement - whether it be creating a public engagement plan, incorporating a training into your team building structure, or evaluating the effectiveness of your efforts.
3. Discover best practices from local governments around the country and see how your government measures up.  

At the Davenport Institute, we are fully aware that legitimate public engagement requires more than just a desire to engage.  We hope that as agencies, cities, counties, and special districts work through this checklist, they will begin to see areas where their engagement practices can improve.

As you explore this evaluation tool, we are also committed to helping you find the best resources to improve engagement with your residents.  Here are some places you can start: 

• Personalized strategizing and consulting: Looking for something more specific? We can help connect you to our broad rolodex of public engagement consultants, facilitators, and experts across the state. Email us to set up a call or Zoom meeting to discuss what support your organization needs to meet your public engagement goals.

• Training: The Davenport Institute offers both full-day and half-day trainings in the basics of public engagement, including aligning purpose and process. We also offer a shorter, executive seminar for upper level management and a variety of customized trainings. Or perhaps you are ready to tackle the world of online engagement. Our Gov 2.0 training is a great place to start. For more information on all of these options, visit our training page.

• Resources: The Davenport Institute is committed to connecting cities to the public engagement resources that will help them succeed in legitimate public engagement. Check out the News & Resources pages on our website, and explore links to outside resources.

The Roadmap for Public Engagement will recognize three levels of completion based on our public engagement assessment tool:

	This agency, city, county, or special district is a leader in the engagement field. It has earned this designation by meeting at least 17 of the criteria listed.
	This agency, city, county, or special district has successfully institutionalized resident engagement as part of its operational culture by successfully meeting at least 15 of the criteria listed.
	This agency, city, county or special district is making genuine efforts to improve its engagement with residents, and successfully meets at least 12 of the criteria listed.

Sometimes an organization submits an application for recognition and is recognized as a silver- or gold-level engaged municipality, but then continues to press forward in their good engagement work. We absolutely encourage organizations to re-apply for recognition. Because good engagement takes time, and because new policies and practices take a while to become institutionalized, you may apply for a higher-recognition after one year. We look forward to walking with you as you improve your engagement efforts until all of California's cities, counties, and special districts are at the platinum level of engagement. 

If you have any questions about re-applying or about how you can improve your engagement efforts, please email us to set up a Zoom meeting or phone call to discuss your specific needs.

Working through the Roadmap for Public Engagement evaluation platform will help you determine whether your organization is ready to apply to be recognized as a publicly engaged agency, city, county or special district.  When you are ready, you can apply by answering the questions in the boxes provided. As you work through these criteria, you will notice that many of them may seem open ended. Because the Davenport Institute recognizes that different communities face different challenges and bring different assets to the engagement process, we recognize that how your particular organization meets these criteria may look very different from the way that another organization accomplishes the same goal.

This platform has been developed based on conversations and observations from our training, grant-making, and consultation, as well as on a survey of accepted best practices in the public engagement field. We have relied on input from dozens of public officials and our advisory council. All of this has been directed by the following members of the Davenport Institute task force:

Artie Fields, City Manager, City of Inglewood
Rod Gould, City Manager, City of Santa Monica (retired)
Ken Hampian, City Manager City of San Luis Obispo (retired)
Dennis Donohue, former Mayor, City of Salinas

We have developed this platform to give cities, counties, and other local government bodies the opportunity to assess their public engagement efforts, have the opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan, and implement action steps under the guidance of our experienced team.