Subject
title
Engage Rockville
end
Department
CMO - Public Information and Community Engagement
Discussion
Members of the Mayor and Council have consistently expressed the importance of engaging the community and particularly challenged staff to do more to engage with the historically excluded populations.
Staff previously shared that the city’s community engagement is currently decentralized, and each department plans and outlines how it engages with the community on its respective projects and/or initiatives. Depending on the project, issue, or initiative, each department’s approach has had some success, but at times, it has had its challenges, leading to questions of whether the community or those impacted most by the decision to be made were adequately engaged.
Over the last couple of months, the city has experienced some transition, which has allowed us to revisit and reimagine how best to improve the city’s community engagement approach. After many discussions, research, and reviews of best practices, staff plans to adopt an overall framework for communications and community engagement that could help guide each department in its efforts.
The city recently became a member of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), an organization that provides training, materials, and a process for creating engagement plans that help build consistency and clarity in how community members contribute to decisions that affect them.
The “Engage Rockville” initiative uses the tools provided by the IAP2 to establish a framework for communications and community engagement that will guide departments and the Mayor and Council in their goals to increase public interaction and engagement. This framework ensures consistent messaging and makes two-way communication with the public more manageable, understandable, accessible, transparent, and inclusive.
International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)
The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) was founded in 1990 and has worked to advance best practices and methods for effective, meaningful, and inclusive public engagement since its founding. IAP2 defines public participation as any process that involves the public in problem-solving or decision-making and uses public input to make decisions.
Below is IAP2’s Spectrum of Public Participation, which is “designed to assist with the selection of the level of participation that defines the public’s role in any public participation process.” The engagement spectrum is used internationally and found in public participation plans worldwide.
The Framework: Engage Rockville
Using IAP2’s framework, staff is in the early stages of establishing the process and building our capacity to plan for and implement community engagement efforts as a part of city projects. The following enumerates the new process and framework for planning community engagement efforts.
A. Project planning: As City projects, initiatives, etc., are planned, project teams will consider what level of engagement is needed for their project or initiative by creating factors that involve which decisions have already been made, which decisions could benefit from community input, the potential impacts on the public, who is/will be impacted, the timeline, and the anticipated level of public interest in their respective projects, etc.
B. Creation of a Community Engagement Plan: A Community Engagement Plan outlines key roles, stakeholders, decisions to be made, engagement level, resources needed, and a schedule for engagement. The department’s project team will work with the city’s internal Community Engagement Team and JEDI Office throughout planning to ensure that engagement processes are thoughtful, equitable, effective, and inclusive.
C. Engage Rockville: Once the community engagement plan is developed, it is executed, with the department’s project team leading the community engagement efforts in coordination with the communication and community engagement team and other city staff (and/or a consultant). This includes utilizing appropriate outreach and engagement tools and techniques to facilitate engagement with the public based on the engagement plan. Community members participate in engagement opportunities and share their input with the project team.
D. Make the decision: After the community engagement plan is executed, the input is compiled by the department’s project team and provided to decision-makers. Decision-makers use public input, as determined by the level of engagement, to make better decisions.
E. Follow up: The department’s project team will then inform the community using the appropriate outreach and engagement tools how their input influenced the outcomes, decisions, and rationale for the decision(s).
F. Reflect and Evaluate: The department project team will gather feedback from participants on successes and challenges. Once that information is gathered, the project team will meet with the community engagement team to discuss ways to improve the engagement process.
This approach to centralizing the city’s community engagement and using this engagement framework will require additional resources and capacity. The Communications and Community Engagement (CCE) Department has been created to provide additional resources and build the capacity to formalize and operationalize the Engage Rockville framework city-wide.
Current Outreach and Community Engagement Tools & Techniques
The Engage Rockville framework will use (but not limited to) the city’s existing outreach and engagement tools and techniques to execute the community engagement plans:
• Outreach Tools:
§ Print
• Rockville Reports Print Edition
§ Social and Digital Media
• City Official Social Media Platforms (Facebook, X, Instagram, NextDoor)
• E-Newsletters (RockvilleReports.com and This Week In Rockville)
• RockvilleReports.com
§ City Website
§ Rockville 11
• Rock11Now Weekly Newscast
• Bulletin Boards
• Live Broadcasts
§ Copy/Print Production
• Fliers, Posters, Postcards, etc.
• EngageRockville <https://engagerockville.com/>.com <https://engagerockville.com/>
§ Project Details, including a Project Engagement Plan
§ Project Progress
§ Project Interactive Surveys and Feedback
• Volunteer <https://cityofrockville.galaxydigital.com/need><https://cityofrockville.galaxydigital.com/need>Rockville <https://cityofrockville.galaxydigital.com/need>
§ Interactive Website highlighting various city volunteer opportunities that allow the public to sign up and participate.
Outreach and Engagement Opportunities
With the additional capacity, the new department will enhance the existing outreach and engagement opportunities and develop new opportunities for the City and the Mayor and Council to engage with the residents.
§ Town Hall Meetings (In-Person or Virtual or Hybrid)
§ Walking Neighborhood Tours
§ Drives or Giveaways
§ Community Collaboration Workshops
§ City Department Engagement Events
§ “Neighborhood Connect” (new)
§ Rockville 11 Presents: Connecting with the Community (new) - Monthly Rockville 11 monthly program hosted by the Mayor and Council members.
Next Steps
Staff will continue to develop and operationalize Engage Rockville, including building capacity within the new department.