EN
Go Vocal’s blog—get insights, advice, and all the latest information on trends to help you foster meaningful engagement.
You've discovered Social Pinpoint, perhaps through a webinar or a colleague's recommendation. Maybe you think their platform would be a good fit for your online community engagement projects. But there could be something that better aligns with your specific needs.
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.
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.
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.
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 Engagement Success Plan 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.
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.
If you're committed to continuous improvement in your community engagement efforts, you need a clear understanding of your current performance. Measuring community engagement KPIs helps assess your participation projects and strategy, improve processes, and show how public input shapes decisions. But which ones should you look at? Let's have a closer look at some of the key metrics to track engagement.
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?
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?
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 organization. This doesn’t have to be daunting, and in the long run it will save you time, money, and headaches. So let’s start building that culture of engagement today!
The terms “community engagement” and “community development” are sometimes used interchangeably. After all, both ideas are based on the strength and improvement of our communities. Nonetheless, there are a few key distinctions between the two concepts. Let’s take a closer look at what they are.
Participatory budgeting — or, in plain English, involving community members in the allocation of public funds —is a powerful tool for cities to empower communities and co-create more pleasant, accessible, and equitable cities.
COVID-19 forced us to evaluate how and when we share space, and nowhere was that more visible than on once-busy streets and sidewalks. Americans cut their driving in half, roads were closed to cars in order to create public spaces, and outdoor restaurants (or “streeteries”) popped up seemingly overnight.
When local governments tackle comprehensive mobility planning, they also undertake the important task of expanding and improving infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians. By ensuring that bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure is safe, expansive, and comfortable, cities can make these modes of transport more accessible.
In recent years, citizens’ assemblies, panels, and committees have increasingly been implemented at all levels of government across the globe. They’ve been particularly useful to address polarizing issues such as climate change, with the infamous Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat commissioned by French President Macron as a recent national-level example.
Whether it’s a commitment to sustainable urban development, waste and pollution control, managing biodiversity, or educating households and businesses on environmental policy, local governments play a critical role in moving forward environmental programs in their local communities. Because environment and sustainability projects are so complex and far-reaching, when creating plans to tackle these issues it’s important that local governments engage their communities to identify priority issues and co-create actional solutions.
Many local governments struggle to include more residents in their projects and often find that some voices are much louder than others, and many people aren’t heard at all. To remedy this, cities are trying to increase their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
In the aftermath of a polarising debate, public servants are expected to put the pieces of the puzzle back together. But how do you bridge this divide and inspire your community to move forward together? The answer could lie in citizen participation.
.svg){kind=icon}
