Community Engagement: Our Strategies and Tools

Photos by Masters Group Design

For those who work with communities, it is important to remember that we enter as guests, and as guests, we need to respect those who have a connection to the place.

Community Engagement

At the heart of Live and Learn's work plan is a robust engagement process based on a model promoted by Playful Learning Landscape Action Network. It is designed to identify the community's priorities, values, and goals. Community residents are essential not only in helping us understand the nuances of their neighborhood, but also as co-creators in the design process.

Over the past five months, our work has resulted in nine engagement opportunities in the Sharswood and North Central communities. Residents were encouraged to express their hopes and dreams, shape the formation of ideas, and test design concepts. The iterative process will soon result in playful learning environments that authentically reflect who they are, what they value, and the culture they share.

As guests, we entered the communities prepared to listen with respect. We facilitated an interactive process, with multiple opportunities for feedback. As a result, we believe that Playful Learning designs will be broadly accessible and become a source of pride because the community’s participation was indispensable from the start. 

So, how did we do it?

Selecting Partners

What you are really building in this process is trust—trust that you have the community’s best interests at heart, trust that you will be there when needed, and trust that you will make sincere efforts to get to know the community and hear their voices.

Our first step was identifying community stakeholders—organizations that are embedded in each community—to serve as partners in this work. Trust and buy-in with the community was contingent on having partners who embraced the mission, were able to rally participation, and could foster ownership.

Partners included on-site staff from both developer teams (Pennrose and Community Ventures), a local nonprofit who serves the North Central Philadelphia neighborhood (Tree House Books), and three community organizations dedicated to improving the Sharswood neighborhood (Lower North Philadelphia Community Development Corporation, Brewerytown Sharswood Community Civic Association, and Brewerytown Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition).

These team members are the ears and eyes of the community. They offered historical information and details about past projects—how those projects were received and what concerns arose. They shared valuable knowledge about the inner workings of each neighborhood, what motivates participation, and how to sustain interest from residents. And they provided outreach in order to connect us to the broader community.

FOR EACH ENGAGEMENT SESSION, OUR PARTNERS:

• identified the best way to communicate to residents;

• assisted with location identification;

• selected local resources for food and incentives; and

• offered critical feedback.

Essential Components of Our Process

Every neighborhood is complex and has a story to tell. A neighborhood evolves from all the elements that make a place unique: a combination of history, economics, class, race, and location, to name just a few. Inherent to working with the community is sensitively navigating the ins and outs, the politics that permeate the daily mechanics of activity, and the culture that frames all interactions. In our engagement sessions, five essential components guided our interactions:

1. Listen and learn without preconceived notions.

2. Build in flexibility to make changes.

3. Engage residents of all ages.

4. Encourage hands-on participation and make it fun.

5. Be patient and give time for the process to gel.

The Tools We Used

When a community engages constructively with a project and assumes ownership, the initiative is a richer and more meaningful experience for all.

One of the most powerful tools in eliciting community input is storytelling. It encourages positive and collaborative conversations that lead to a deeper understanding of cultures and interests. Weaving elements of these stories into installations creates permanent and joyful memories.

At both in-person and remote sessions, we used games to encourage sharing and storytelling. Games can transcend language, background, and age, and everyone can play. They also inherently offer playful learning experiences. As opposed to a focus group, where the project team is extracting information from the community, games offer not only valuable data but the added bonus of social cohesion. In our sessions, we had participants select questions and answer individually and in small groups. When responses were shared, we began to see similarities and meaningful connections.

Other strategies we included:

• playing Mad Libs

• showing photos of other sites to get feedback

• engaging with arts and crafts

• taking a neighborhood tour and recording ideas along the way

• responding to questions and voting on ideas

• asking questions and providing responses in the chat for virtual sessions

Outcome

For true sustainability, engaging the community is not just an option, it is a necessary precondition.

Through storytelling, games, and communal activities, the Live and Learn team captured rich information and inspiration. Some community members preferred to  share their thoughts orally; others wanted to draw. Some residents completed worksheets, and others enjoyed interacting with questions on large display boards. Regardless of the method used, the activities produced meaningful data and helped build trust. We compiled responses along with observations by Live and Learn team members. We prioritized feedback, and relevant themes were identified for integration into the design concept.

Over 250 community members participated in a variety of community engagement activities including Playful Learning workshops, an interactive site tour, introductory and co-design sessions, and mini-block parties. With the invaluable help of residents, the talented teams at WRT and KSS Architects have completed the design phase of the project. Our pilot will now advance to phase 3, implementation, where the designs will be fabricated and installed.