🗞️ The Triangle Effect with Nader Afzalan, Mastermind "Hot Seat" Session, APA Interest Group Updates, & more!
January 30, 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.
🔥 Fireside Chat with Nader Afzalan
“Be honest with yourself. Move away from process and focus on the end result.”
Nader Afzalan is a city planner, educator, and researcher at UC Berkeley who runs his own firm called The Triangle. He details his involvement in designing public engagement processes to reduce emissions and air pollution in disadvantaged communities for the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Nader emphasizes the importance of genuine community engagement, trust-building, and impact over simply following procedural steps. He also discusses the significance of paying community members involved in public engagement and the challenges faced due to time constraints, limited resources, and bureaucratic hurdles. Nader suggests starting with the desired outcomes to create effective engagement plans and recommends being honest and realistic about what can be achieved.
📧 Contact Nader on LinkedIn
Key Takeaways
🤝 Building Genuine Relationships: Establishing trust requires a long-term commitment to building relationships with community members. Effective engagement is not merely about meeting agendas but fostering genuine connections over time.
📊 Data-Driven Decisions: Nader’s experience emphasizes the importance of using data in urban planning to inform policies and understand community needs better. This approach can lead to more effective and sustainable outcomes.
💰 Valuing Contributions: Paying community members for their time and expertise is crucial in legitimizing their input. This practice not only compensates participants but also signals that their contributions are valued, fostering a more engaged community.
📋 Tailored Engagement Strategies: Different projects require different engagement strategies. A one-size-fits-all approach can lead to tokenism. Understanding the context and specific needs of each community is vital for successful engagement.
🔄 Flexibility in Processes: The ability to adapt processes based on community feedback and real-time observations is essential. Nader highlights that flexibility can lead to better outcomes and more meaningful engagement.
🎯 Outcome-Focused Planning: Nader advocates for starting with desired outcomes in mind and working backward to design engagement processes. This method can clarify objectives and ensure that resources are allocated effectively.
💪 Community Empowerment: Empowering communities is not just about involving them in processes but also about ensuring they have the resources and support needed to influence decision-making effectively. This includes training, facilitation, and sustained engagement efforts.
📧 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!
📅 Engaging Events
Are you facing a community engagement challenge? Sit in the "hot seat" as your peers collaboratively solve your challenge in real-time! Participants will learn from each other as they take turns sharing their challenges and offering solutions. Everyone is welcome, whether you are a community engagement novice or expert.
The session will be moderated by Kelly Hickler, AICP, IAP2
📅 Thursday, February 13, 2025
🕕 10:00 - 11:00 am MDT
👉 Register now at Eventbrite
🙌 Updates on APA Interest Group
We submitted our application to create an Interest Group within the American Planning Association (APA)! We are excited to start building the Interest Group once it’s up and running. If you haven’t already, please fill out this online form to express your support and be the first to know when it’s officially launched.
📚 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:
📒 Newark360: This plan represents a visionary blueprint for Newark's growth over the next decade, prioritizing equity and community engagement. Guided by principles of health, equity, and resilience, this master plan is a direct response to the needs and aspirations of Newarkers amidst challenges such as climate change, racial injustice, and economic shifts.
Consulting team:
Prepared in-house
💻 Take a look at more plans and submit yours here.
💼 Featured Job Opportunity
Explore our list of community-engagement related job postings, such as:
📎 Community Engagement Specialist
Envision Resilience, Boston, MA
Envision Resilience is building a team to help grow its impact in working toward inclusive, adaptive and resilient climate futures through design and community engagement. The nonprofit is seeking skilled and visionary professionals to join its team. The Community Engagement Specialist will be responsible for generating, fostering and maintaining thoughtful, impactful long-term partnerships with community members in each of the towns and cities Envision Resilience works in. Regular travel to Envision Resilience community sites will be required.
🗃️ Find more jobs and submit yours here.
➡️ Visit EngagingCities.org and follow us on X and LinkedIn for more stories like these!
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