Authentic Community Engagement
Beyond Surveys and Sticky Dots — Designing Participation That Actually Builds Trust
Thursday, April 9, 2026 · 10am PST | 90 minutes
Zoom - Workshop Format
Zoom - Workshop Format
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Community engagement is one of the most important parts of placemaking — and one of the most commonly fumbled. Too often, it turns into over-surveying, box-checking, vague facilitation, and public processes that ask communities for input without creating real ownership, momentum, or action.
This workshop helps you design engagement that is more grounded, more strategic, and more worth people’s time. Together, we’ll look at how to meet communities where they actually are, build from local strengths and relationships, and create participatory processes that respond to urgency without slipping into extraction, burnout, or performative inclusion. Whether you're working on affordable housing, public space, arts and culture, climate resilience, or neighborhood change, this session will help you build engagement approaches that lead to stronger projects and deeper trust. 🛠️ What We’ll Work On 1. Start Before the Script Learn how to understand community context before locking in goals, deliverables, or engagement plans. 2. From Deficits to Assets Shift from need-based framing to approaches that recognize local talent, leadership, culture, and existing capacity. 3. Respect People’s Time Explore alternatives to “over-surveyed and under-served” engagement that respect people’s energy and produce better insight. 4. Build a Phase 0 and Go from There Use early, low-risk experiments to test ideas, build relationships, and shape projects iteratively before major decisions are made. 5. Navigate Tension Honestly Work through common engagement challenges including conflict, fear, mistrust, co-optation, and the misuse of “placemaking” as a term. |
👥 Who You’ll Learn From
Hear from trained facilitators and leaders embedded in BIPOC communities who are working on urgent place-based issues including housing and homelessness, arts and culture, displacement, health and quality of life, and green space and heat resilience. 🎯 What You’ll Walk Away With A stronger framework for designing community engagement that is participatory, asset-based, politically aware, and grounded in real-world project conditions — plus tools and examples you can apply to your own work right away. PlacemakingUS Workshops PlacemakingUS workshops are highly interactive, skill-building sessions designed to strengthen the projects and plans in front of you while building your confidence in delivering world-class placemaking. Ideal for cities, consultants, place management organizations, universities, advocacy groups, and grassroots teams working toward meaningful community outcomes. 
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