Portland Courant

The independent consulting firm Pregame just released their report from the Portland Engagement Project (PEP) External Listening Sessions!Through PEP, Civic Life and the City wanted to learn how we can better serve Portlanders and make it easier to get involved with government. Pregame hosted meetings with all different people all over Portland like neighborhood associations, community leaders, nonprofits, and parent groups.The learnings in the report can help not just the City, but any organization trying to reach more people.These tips might help with your next project:

• Keep it simple. This can mean anything from limiting your survey to a few questions to making sure your graphics are clean and easy to read.
• Keep conversations constructive. Focusing on creating ideas instead of making complaints helps keep the conversation moving toward solutions.
• Design for regular people, not professionals. Using an “explain it like I’m 5” guideline can help. It’s not about intelligence, but respecting people’s valuable time and attention.
• Make it as easy for people to share information. Try creating simple social media posts and asking partners to share with their networks.
• Be clear about the scope of the project. It’s easy to get off topic and spend valuable time on things that will not help you achieve your goals.
• Equitable engagement is about more than translation. More or different forms of outreach may be needed to engage with non-English speakers.
• Make new connections through current relationships. Being introduced by someone both parties know can be helpful for building trust and interest.
• Consider the competition. Highlight how your project is unique and make it easy to participate to stand out from other engagement efforts.
• Big projects need a reliable manager. Projects benefit from a consistent manager to keep track of the many moving parts.

Original source can be found here