Initial Visioning

To kick-off a community engagement project and establish a clear understanding of project intentions.

An informal focus group can create the ideal environment for beginning community engagement.
https://rmsbunkerblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/5-tips-for-new-focus-group-moderators-market-research/

PURPOSE:

To better understand your client's perspective, needs, and desires.

DESIGN PHASE:

(highlighted in bold are the phase or phases most applicable)

Vision and goals
Site exploration
Program development
Co-design
Design evaluation
Implementation

MATERIALS NEEDED:

For Virtual Format:

Video conferencing/webinar platform
PowerPoint
Computer/Laptop with microphone

For In-person Format:

Paper Handouts
Pens
Whiteboard/Poster board
Dry Erase Markers/Markers

PREFERRED FORMAT:

This works best as an in-person focus group. It should take approximately one hour.

SUGGESTIONS:

Do use to help in preparing a project scope and design objectives
DO utilized within the first two phases of engagement
Do use to help in curating an understanding of the area/landscape
Do use with smaller groups
Do task project members as note-takers in order to ensure a thorough meeting summary

Overview

The initial visioning discussion is an engagement format situated for the first phase of a community engagement project. A visioning discussion simply initiates open communication between the client and designer (engagement facilitator). Further, it creates a springboard for discovering the client’s perspectives, needs, and ultimate desires.

This initial visioning engagement activity has been created as an accumulation of various engagement methods proposed by Umut Toker is his book Making Community Design: A Guide for Planners. For initial engagement sessions, Toker suggests methods like the Likes and Dislikes Analysis, Wish Poems, and the PARK Analysis. Our visioning discussion utilizes the varying objectives of these methods and merges them into one succinct and effective engagement session.

Organization and Process

In order to utilize this engagement method, the following steps are recommended:

(Before the Meeting)

Establish a focus group/steering committee and set up time to meet with them
Pull up the attached discussion question, do these coincide with your goals for this engagement session? If not, feel free to edit the discussion questions in order to meet your objectives.
(Optional) Compose a PowerPoint if this is the first engagement phase and the project needs to be introduced to the focus group.
Assign project members to meeting tasks, most importantly a single discussion facilitator and a note taker.

(Day of the Meeting)

Before delving into the discussion questions/engagement session give the group some context. What are the objectives of your session? How will their participation help you and the project’s success?
If in person then handout the discussion questions.
Have discussion facilitator to begin the discussion. Read out of the first question and give each individual 1-2 minutes to write their answer down.
One-by-one have each participant share their answers. As the individuals share their answers, type or write them out for the entire group to see. Use this as a running summary for each question.
Open up the group for any discussion about the question at hand.
If the facilitator needs any clarification on certain answers then go ahead and ask them.
Repeat steps 7-10 until all questions have been discussed.

The following image represents the format of handout that should be utilized for in-person engagement sessions, as listed in step #6

Utilizing a flip chart as seen here can be an easy way for the facilitator to share the responses with the rest of the group, as discussed in step #8
Image source: https://foodcorps.org/3hardtruths/

Case Example

In order to begin our engagement session with Kate’s Club, an initial visioning discussion was utilized. Kate’s Club is an Atlanta based non-profit that aims to support and empower children or young adults facing life after the death of a loved-one. In order to enhance their mission, they were looking to re-design their outdoor space. As the design team, we began the project with a project brief, listing their initial goals and objectives. While the project brief gave our team a concise summary of their project purpose, we felt as though we first needed to grasp a better understanding of their space and their visions it.

Due to COVID-19 an additional layer was placed atop selecting an initial engagement method. We knew that our first (and almost all) encounters with the clients would be virtual. With a virtual meeting in mind, our team looked towards a way to blend some of the traditional engagement methods into one. Utilizing Toker’s Making Community Design Work: A Guide for Planners, we deciding to engage in a casual discussion with our key stakeholders. Through this discussion, we formulated a list of questions to grasp a better understanding of our project and our client’s needs and desires.

A Zoom meeting was established. Prior to the meeting, our group appointed one group member to lead the meeting and the other two as note takers. Prior to a meeting a PowerPoint was formulated with a few introduction slides, and then a slide with the established discussion question. During the meeting, the lead group member led the conversation and encouraged the clients to either utilize the chat feature to share their thoughts, or to vocalize their thoughts to the group.

While the meeting produced a list of the client’s opinions and thought process, the virtual discussion proved to be difficult. It was difficult to get the entire group to participate. Rather, the group largely followed the lead of one person.

Before beginning our visioning discussion we gave a brief project overview to help introduce the steering committee to this project and our intended engagement process.

After a brief project introduction, we kicked off the visioning discussion sharing this screen on zoom and giving an overview of the various questions that were were going to be discussing. We then promptly delved into the first discussion topic.

Lessons Learned

In order to produce a wider pool of opinions and greater participation, engagement methods should follow the following suggestions:

Conduct engagement session in-person, ideally within a focus group setting
Utilize handouts in order to encourage participation and collect individual responses prior to group discussion
Give a time limit for each member to respond to each question
Avoid skipping ahead and stick to the order of the questions
When sharing individual responses, give each member a time to share (like a round-robin)
As individuals are sharing their responses, compile them on one master list (whiteboard, poster, chalkboard, etc.) for the entire group to see
Have supporting questions preparing, if participants need clarification or participation encouragement

Sources:

Toker, Umut. 2012. Making Community Design Work: A Guide for Planners. APA Planners Press.

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