Community engagement is an integral part of the process to inform project decision-making. Adopted by Regional Council in 2024, the municipality's Community Engagement Strategy (CES) aims to:
- provide a corporate framework for the effective delivery of public engagement efforts
- enhance the municipality’s diversity and inclusion goals
- reflect industry standards
- develop processes to effectively address the rapidly changing environment of public engagement
The CES was informed by:
- the municipality’s previous Community Engagement Strategy (2008);
- the 2023 Planning & Development Public Engagement Guidebook; and
- the Diversity & Inclusion Framework and supporting corporate strategies, frameworks and action plans that provide guidance on engaging with diverse communities.
The Regional Municipal Planning Strategy (Plan) serves as a guide to “engage citizens in the development of policies, programs and services as the basis for building healthy, strong and inclusive communities”. The plan further states, “HRM seeks to engage citizens in an ongoing dialogue through education, promotion and public debate on regional and local issues. Participation should be inclusive and accessible to all.”
Municipal projects are diverse and vary in unique engagement needs. If you would like to share thoughts about any current municipal projects, but can’t attend an engagement meeting, take this opportunity to get involved, read what people are saying, and provide feedback through the municipality's online community engagement platform - Shape Your City Halifax. The online tool complements traditional consultation activities like open houses and town halls. It makes engagement programs like these more inclusive and accessible and makes it easier for you to share your opinions through tools like discussion forums, quick polls and surveys.
Understanding engagement
The municipality has developed an approach to engagement for policies, programs and services that reflects the needs of the project and the community it impacts. There are key steps and considerations for all types of engagements to ensure they are effective, accessible and inclusive, approved by Regional Council, as per Administrative Order 2023-002-ADM (Respecting Public Participation for Planning Documents, Certain Planning Applications, and Engagement with Abutting Municipalities).
There are standard steps/considerations involved in developing an engagement approach. When planning engagement, employees familiarize themselves with the community, identify any barriers to participations and work closely with our Diversity & Inclusion team to ensure underrepresented communities are consulted. At a high-level, this assessment guides how we design the engagement programs and what tools and formats are used to reach residents (e.g. in person, online).
Steps for community engagement
1. Assess the need for and purpose of community engagement
2. Identify who is impacted and familiarize yourself with the communities
3. Design a tailored engagement plan
4. Identify and address barriers to participation
Engagement Considerations
- Assessing the need for, and purpose of, public engagement
Project teams complete a series of impact assessments based on legislative requirements, Regional Council direction, the level of impact on the community and the level of influence participants have on the outcome. These assessments help inform the objectives for engagement.
- Familiarizing ourselves with the community
Working alongside the municipality's Office of Diversity & Inclusion/African Nova Scotian Affairs Integration Office, employees seek guidance from the communities that are impacted by the project to help inform the most appropriate forms of engagement. Considerations include community demographics, resources, broad representative participation and appropriate meeting times and locations. Community needs are considered by screening conditions to determine if a more robust or targeted level of participation is required.
As many communities have been historically underrepresented in, and excluded from, participation, engagement strategies aim to centre the voices, interests, values and experiences of underrepresented identities and cultural groups. Project teams actively seek to include diverse community members when planning engagement activities.
Pre-engagement may be necessary for applications or projects that require significant or sensitive engagement approaches. Pre-engagement is an opportunity for informal networking, individual introductions and enhanced communication by bringing together impacted stakeholders to help identify issues and determine how best to engage.- Identifying barriers to participation
Before engagement activities take place, employees work to identify and address barriers to participation by considering the communities who may be impacted. Barriers to participation may be physical, informational, attitudinal, technological, cultural, etc. and include anything that prevents a resident from fully participating in an engagement opportunity. Individual residents, as well as communities, may have less experience, confidence, or capacity to participate; as such, staff work with them to determine the most effective ways to engage inclusively.
Anticipating and addressing barriers to participation means asking critical questions to understand how and why persons are excluded and how we can work to foster more inclusive and accessible engagement.- Designing engagement activities
Engagement activities are designed intentionally to ensure accessibility and build trust with residents.
Online engagement may include making information on halifax.ca, social media, surveys or Shape your City, the municipality’s online engagement portal.
In-person engagement events may take various forms to optimize mutual learning and facilitate communication between project teams and residents in real time. Best practices are followed, including consideration of barriers to participation.- Delivering engagement
Project teams continuously monitor the effectiveness of engagements and communicate regularly with key partners to build and foster authentic relationships. Careful consideration is placed on building trust and centering marginalized voices during engagement to ensure feedback is reflective of the community’s needs. This includes offering a welcoming environment and providing adequate resources when facilitating meetings.
Project updates are made available to residents indicating project status and timelines, how feedback was or will be incorporated into the decision-making process, what will happen next and how residents can continue to participate.- Reviewing, analyzing and reporting feedback
Records from engagement activities are maintained to ensure all feedback is considered. A 'What We Heard' report is often used as an effective way to summarize feedback received, contributing to strong and transparent relationships between the municipality and the community.
These summary reports are published online to enable residents to review and validate the findings or bring forward concerns that may not have been addressed. A social lens review is also conducted to ensure the findings are reflective of, and sensitive to, all members of the community.- Evaluating engagement
By evaluating engagement activities, employees are able to identify and address issues, and also inform future municipal engagements. The following indicators are considered in the evaluation of our engagement programs:
Inclusive participation, balanced and complete information, effective process, capacity building and resources.
This Public Engagement Guidebook has been created as a tool to help ensure municipal engagement initiatives are developed with these goals in mind.