Focus Groups

Focus groups are a quick means to generate ideas and get reactions. With the aid of a professional facilitator, a small group of people, and a meeting space, in only two hours you can have pages of responses and opinions about a plan or a newsletter or any specific element of your project. More>>

Group/Public Mapping

Group mapping is a creative approach for collecting feedback, ideas, and information. It can help people discover more solutions than first thought possible; it can also reveal more conflicts. It gives people the opportunity to visualize a resource in a different way, and sometimes we find that is helpful for making a project feel more real — which, in turn, can strengthen support. More>>

Inventory

Before we can decide what to do, we need to know what is there. That is the purpose of an inventory. An inventory should focus just on those places and things that make a community special and meaningful or that threaten and impact an area. All too often we have seen inventories become unwieldy, too exhaustive, too detailed. The ultimate test of the value of an inventory is how the information is used. More>>

Photo Inventory

Conducting a photo inventory can have tremendous benefits. Through film, people can express their visual preferences and become more aware of what is important in their community. It can aid communication as pictures assure people are talking about the same place or thing. It can also be a tool for people to "vote" on what they like best. Most of all, the power of this technique is that it gives the broadest range of age groups, from senior citizens to children, an opportunity to be involved and have a creative voice. More>>

Public Surveys

We may think we have chosen the best ideas or plans for a community or resource only to find ourselves facing opposition. To avoid that situation, first ask the people who live, work, and recreate there. Find out their opinions on a survey. The data from surveys can guide, shape, and change future actions. Surveys do even more than gather information; they help inform people about a group’s ideas and build support for what is being considered. They can also help identify opposition before controversy erupts. More>>

Stakeholder Analysis

There are two overriding reasons to identify and involve stakeholders in a planning process. One is that from stakeholders, you can get values-based information: find out what is important to whom and why it is important. This needs to be taken under consideration along with factual information obtained from studies, data, and resource experts. Second, we find the end result is more likely to have broad-based approval because, if stakeholders are involved throughout the process, the final recommendations represent compromises among potentially conflicting objectives. More>>

Story Telling

There is no better way to find out what is valued by a community than by asking people to tell their story. Simply inventorying the resources of a place can be too removed from the emotional experiences that are part of a community planning effort but are often overlooked. A story makes the character of the place come alive for the residents and visitors. More>>

See also:
    Community Tool Box