What We Do
We use creative public engagement strategies to connect leaders directly with community stakeholders and local priorities.
To make a political transition truly transformative, the transition must be turned inside-out.
Talking Transition is a public engagement initiative that capitalizes on the short window of time at the beginning of an incoming political administration to closely connect policy with community experiences and priorities.
We work with incoming administrations to signal that a new form of government is possible by demonstrating how leaders can engage people, strengthen networks, and empower a base that will provide the political will to do the hard things.
How?
Break Open the Transition Using:
Authenticity
By explicitly committing to transparency, you will signal that a new kind of politics can begin to heal fractures in public trust.
Inclusivity
By lowering the barriers to participation, designing opportunities for broad public participation, paid work, and recognition, you will highlight how this time will meaningfully be different.
Facts
By using surveys and innovative data collection techniques to “quantify the mandate,” you will engage a population more representative of all.
Activities
Through creative public engagement activities we enable a rich, fact-based policy dialogue.
City or Countywide Survey
Custom surveys capture data that illustrates the urgency and overall resident sentiment toward important policy areas and issues.
Community Conversations
A series of public events that make policy discussions accessible to the public and collaborative with local stakeholders.
Civic Saturdays have 3 main components:
Community Visioning
A series of “facilitated structured discussions” empower residents to share visions and insights concerning the city’s most pressing equity issues.
These sessions help to generate the resident insights that can help drive the development of more effective policies as well as clarity around where there is consensus from residents around tactical issue areas that matter to both the administration and the social sector.
Civic School
Open workshops invite community members to better understand how government works, how decisions are made, and how residents can influence decisions and outcomes. These workshops are led by select agency staff, with guidance and technical assistance from HR&A, with a focus on how to turn the decision-making of their agencies “inside out.”
The outputs from these sessions are stakeholders that are better able to partner and hold city government agencies accountable on issues of community concern, and better able to disseminate those teachings in their own communities.
Action Plan Workshops
Special “expert” sessions build on the Community Visioning to create connections among community leaders, subject matter experts, and policymakers around targeted policy design efforts.
The impact of these sessions is to build a network of cross-sector organizations that have new tools, methodologies, and ways to collaborate with each other and with city government on the design of effective and equitable policy solutions.
Results
Cement your political brand around inclusion
Talking Transition helps to build a public narrative that highlights a commitment to transparency, collaboration, and inclusion
Raise the bar for community engagement
By participating in and supporting Talking Transition, government staff learns new tools for public outreach
Gain clarity on what needs to be done
Public engagement allows leaders to understand community perspectives, insights, and solutions
Increase opportunity for community partnerships
Talking Transition creates opportunities for hundreds of organizations to explore how to partner with government