🗞️ 2024 Fireside Chats Highlights, Dana Point Visioning Framework & more!
January 16, 2025 edition
EngagingCities shares outstanding work by our network of planners and changemakers, who actively involve their communities in creating better places and a brighter future.
🔥 2024 Fireside Chats Highlights
That’s a Wrap!
I had such a great time interviewing my amazing guests last year and learned so much from them. I hope you enjoyed the episodes as much as I did! I put together a 12ish minute highlight reel with some of my favorite moments. Check it out now!
👀 Watch or listen to the 2024 Fireside Chats Highlights
📧 Email us at hello@engagingcities.org if you have suggestions for topics you’d like to learn about or guests you’d like to hear from on the podcast in 2025!
Kelly Hickler, AICP, IAP2 - Community Manager with EngagingCities
📚 Plan Showcase
Get inspiration, explore trends, or gain insights by exploring our curated list of community-recommended or award-winning plans. Check out this example:
📒 Dana Point Visioning Framework: The Visioning Framework document for the City of Dana Point presents a comprehensive guide set to shape the future development of the General Plan update. This strategic document encapsulates the voices and aspirations of the community drawn from an extensive engagement process.
Consulting team:
RRM Design Group
💻 Take a look at more plans and submit yours here.
🚀 Fresh Insights
💡 Elevating Local Governance Through Purposeful Participation and Operational Excellence
Community engagement and operational improvement in local government are often discussed but rarely understood in depth. The idea of participation and innovation is compelling, but too often, the execution falls short of achieving meaningful outcomes. We spend time creating budget simulations or interactive tools, yet miss the mark when it comes to addressing the real issues that lie beneath: clarity of mission, operational efficiency, and strategic focus. Read more…
— Shared by Brooks Williams, MPA
💡 Overcoming Obstacles in Neighborhood Development
The decline of organic neighborhood development was not inevitable — it’s the result of deliberate choices about how we regulate, finance, and build our cities. By understanding factors that have contributed to this shift, we can begin to envision new approaches that prioritize community-driven growth. Read more…
— Shared by Jeffery Tompkins, AICP, ASAI
💡 Transforming Communities, One Space at a Time
In the latest article from fc3architecture+design, we explore how urban design can bring communities closer, support diverse needs, and create places where everyone feels at home. Read more about our vision for human-centric community design and how we can shape a brighter future for all. Read more…
— Shared by Frank Cunha III, AIA
✨ Read more fresh insights here.
💼 Featured Job Opportunity
Explore our list of community-engagement related job postings, such as:
📎 Principal Participation Officer
Camden Town, England, United Kingdom
We’re looking for a participation expert who can help us to strengthen community voice and ensure that we’re working alongside our residents to drive the design and shape of local neighbourhoods and services. In this role, you will support the organisation to connect with the wealth of social capital already in the borough, developing a greater understanding of informal community networks and organisers and breaking down barriers to involve and inspire citizens who may not have participated before. You will be experienced in deliberative engagement and democracy and will work with colleagues across the organisation to develop new approaches to bringing citizens closer to service and policy design and decision making. You will champion and enable citizen social activism across the borough and support the Council and partner organisations to connect and work collaboratively with local people.
🗃️ Find more jobs and submit yours here.
🙌 Support for APA Interest Group
We believe the practice of Community Engagement should have its own Interest Group within the American Planning Association (APA) as a place to network, find inspiration, and share best practices. Help EngagingCities make the case by filling out this online form to express your support and get updates along the way. You may view the existing Divisions and Interest Groups within APA here for reference.
➡️ Visit EngagingCities.org and follow us on X and LinkedIn for more stories like these!
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