Go Vocal’s blog—get insights, advice, and all the latest information on trends to help you foster meaningful engagement.
One of our Public Square podcast episodes takes us to the bustling metropolis of New York City, where the Public Engagement Unit (PEU), under the leadership of Adrienne Lever has developed an innovative approach to community engagement. Our conversation with her unveiled key insights and actionable strategies from their work, offering a blueprint for other cities and organizations aiming to enhance community engagement and public service effectiveness.
Whether you’ve been updating bicycle infrastructure or you’re struggling to connect transit options, it’s key to make your city’s mobility plan as inclusive as possible. So what exactly should you consider, and how should you go about it?
In the past few years, we’ve seen a rapid surge of shared mobility solutions in cities worldwide. But where does this trend come from, exactly? And how might it impact the future of our cities?
Citizen participation may be hot and happening right now, but it’s not a new phenomenon.
Six years ago, our co-founders Wietse Van Ransbeeck and Aline Muylaert started CitizenLab.
Our cities are becoming increasingly more tech-driven, yet digital participation isn’t always growing at the same speed. So, what are the main barriers to participation and how can digital tools help?
Running inclusive and participatory community engagement projects requires meeting people where they are. In part, that means having a plan for multilingual engagement to ensure that everyone in your community has the ability to participate. By removing language barriers, your community engagement efforts will be more inclusive, participatory, and representative.
Whether you’re working in the public or private sector, you’ll inevitably find yourself needing buy-in from community members and other stakeholders. Comprehensive plans, economic development plans, strategic plans, climate action plans, mobility plans – whatever your mandate, most planning processes share the same core components and necessitate public engagement.
Anonymous participation can be the key to unlocking engagement on topics that your community is divided on. We’ve helped clients host their fair share of such projects on Go Vocal platforms, and we heard the desire for an anonymous participation option loud and clear. Read more to learn how this latest feature can help increase engagement rates.
Born in 1981 in Taiwan, Audrey Tang has made waves as a software programmer and civic hacker-turned-Digital Minister.
An effective community engagement team, similar to a well-tuned orchestra, relies on a mix of diverse roles each playing their unique part in harmony. As for most teams, the key to success lies in bringing together people with different personalities, skills, and abilities. We sat down with Hugo De Brouwer, CitizenLab’s Head of Government Success, to discuss which roles and skills an organization needs to take participation to the next level.
Are you a firm believer in the offline old-school? Or do you choose the digital route whenever you can? Good news: when it comes to community engagement, you don’t have to pick one.
While citizens’ assemblies and panels have been around since the dawn of democracy, they’ve recently received increased attention as an effective means of resolving polarized debates and restoring public trust in democratic institutions.
Three years ago we asked ourselves, “How can natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning technologies help digital democracy platforms?” Go Vocal developed a feature that realizes just that.
When it comes to engaging with the public, social media is often a first instinct for many government officials. It is easy to access, widely utilized, and is often the first place people go to share their opinions on trending issues or topics in their communities. In fact, according to TechCrunch, 62% of adults now get their news from social media. But when it comes to meaningful and effective community engagement, especially if it’s in pursuit of inclusive and equitable policy-making, social media lacks the moderation, security, and deliberation required for officials to make truly representative decisions.
We’ve had a year of extreme weather. Around the world, cities of all sizes were ravaged by natural disasters.
Ever wondered how you match up on your community engagement efforts? We’ve got just the quiz for you. Answer a few questions, get a clear score of your efforts, and get resources to support you as you level up.
Understanding how your community – and who in your community – currently engages with local topics is crucial to identifying opportunities and gaps for your next community engagement project. Before getting started, consider who you need to reach and how you will do it.
It sounds like a contradictio in terminis, like ‘sound of silence’ or ‘sensible Twitter debate’. But ‘slacktivism’, a contraction of ‘activism’ and uh, ‘slacking’, has become a widespread phenomenon that urges us to reflect on the nature of activism and participation.
Digital community engagement can complement offline engagement, but it doesn’t replace it. Offline participation methods are still widespread, as they’ve proven their value for many communities by allowing for deliberation and debate.
By engaging their communities and tapping into collective intelligence, cities across the globe can set better priorities and facilitate sustainable development on a local scale.
This article was first published on Apolitical
A comprehensive community engagement strategy is key to ensuring the smooth launch of – and satisfying outcomes for – projects. Before initiating a project, it’s best to set clear objectives, define roles and responsibilities, and select the most promising communication channels. Looking for some guidance? Discover Go Vocal’s Online Engagement Canvas and how it can help you design your strategy.
Community engagement platforms can increase civic participation, improve trust between residents and governments, and can help collect data that increases the impact of your projects. When you optimize the way you use social impact data, there’s a real opportunity to assess a project’s performance and outcomes, improve future processes, and run more efficient and ethical projects.
On everything from clean water and waste management to access to sustainable transportation, it is crucial to put environmental justice at the forefront of your sustainability plans, and community engagement can be an essential tool to achieving this.
Deliberation and participation may seem like similar concepts. At their core, they kind of are: both deliberative and participatory democracies are systems that include citizens in governance.
As one of CitizenLab’s co-founders, current Commercial Director, and previous Head of Government Success, Aline Muylaert has extensive experience working with local governments to develop and implement successful community engagement initiatives. We sat down for an interview with Aline to discuss the importance of leadership buy-in and ambition in building a culture of engagement.
Have you ever logged into an analytics dashboard and felt daunted by all the numbers on your screen? You’re not alone. When trying to measure the effectiveness of your online community engagement efforts, the challenge is to sift through numerous available metrics and analyze the relevant ones so you can get to actionable insights.
We live in an era where online privacy is a vague concept and citizen’s trust in their governments seems to decline every day. And the introduction of an online platform can raise a lot of questions among citizens. What is it for? Why should they make decisions if they have a government who’s paid to do that? And what difference is it going to make?
Participatory budgeting can be a powerful tool for cities to educate, engage, and empower communities. As one of the methods ranking highest on the participation ladder, this kind of engagement project transfers considerable decision-making power to residents and stakeholders and thus maximizes the many benefits of community engagement. But what does it all entail? And how do you get started?
Ensuring that your community engagement is successful and worthwhile requires the full buy-in and continuous support from all levels of the community, starting with your organization and eventually also your residents. It requires developing a culture of engagement in your city. This doesn’t have to be daunting, and in the long run it will save you time, money, and headaches. In many states, community engagement is even now written into new laws and policies. For example, in Washington, as part of the promotion of environmental justice, the state requires that by July 1, 2022 all agencies have a defined community engagement plan for more equitable public participation in sustainable policies. Beyond legal requirements, community engagement is also becoming a norm in the pursuit of developing more inclusive and participatory governments. So let’s start building a culture of community engagement in your city today.
