June 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 14

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Community Engagement: The Key to
Understanding Local Perspectives
By Kelsey Coats

I

n most community efforts, constituents and key partners' goals must
align for success and sustainability. Citizen engagement is a key component to understanding local perspectives and priorities, building
trust and working together to ensure relevance and buy-in.

At Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, the urban and municipal park
program provides educational resources and technical assistance for
local communities working to better
understand, develop and implement
constituent-centered
engagement
processes. The program is currently
facilitating a specific effort, Working
on Wellness Environments, funded
via the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention High Obesity Program, which aims to empower partners in four Texas border counties
to improve walkability and connect
to safe everyday destinations. It also
aims to increase access to fresh fruits
and vegetables using locally driven
Policy, System and Environmental
changes or enhancements.
Our mixed-method approach to
community engagement is key to
understanding local perspectives and
priorities while building trust. There
is no standardized approach that will
work best for every community be12

Parks & Recreation

cause every community is different.
Additionally, while we strive to get
feedback from as many people as possible, we recognize we do not reach
everyone. Always consider whose
perspective is missing and why. Some
of our engagement tools include:
* A web page that serves to inform
about the project and is a gateway to resources and other engagement tools
* Social media that celebrates local
efforts and wins while connecting local groups to each other,
tools and resources to inform decision making
* Assessments, such as windshield
tours, site assessments, asset
maps, photo voice, walking audits and site inventories, that facilitate understanding of multiple stakeholder perspectives
* Workshops that inform what
is possible and what are best
practices
* Pop-Ups that use visuals and
temporary change to see behavior change and get actual on-site
feedback
* Pop-Up Citizen Input conducted
at everyday places, such as grocery
stores, to get people's perspectives
who would not be reached in a traditional feedback loop
* Coalitions that provide a collaborative forum to get partner

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perspectives, build teams, tie
into existing and important/relevant efforts, and tap into shared
constituents or constituents we
might not reach without partners
* Action Institutes, a collaborative
process balancing learning, planning, doing and, most importantly,
feedback loops and troubleshooting
* An RFA program that enables
local teams to take the lead on
projects by outlining their plan,
identifying who their partners
are, and assessing what supplies
or technical assistance they need
In one year, these tools have facilitated the collaboration of more
than 40 partner organizations across
four counties to plan and plant a
farm-to-school orchard, complete a
downtown walkability pop-up and
planning process, create healthy
food policies for events, plan story
walks, complete a planning process
for wayfinding and trail signage at a
local park, plan a youth-led healthy
design academy, improve local farmers markets, and enhance a comprehensive plan to include alternative
transportation infrastructure park-like
elements into everyday places. Also,
citizen engagement has ensured these
projects are locally driven. For other
examples and case studies of how to
use a strong engagement framework,
check out NRPA's Community Engagement Resource Guide (nrpa.org/
CommunityEngagementGuide).
Kelsey Coats is Extension Assistant Program Outreach PSE at Texas A&M
AgriLife Extension (kcoats@tamu.edu).
June 2020 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2020 - Parks & Recreation
