skip navigation
MRSC logo

Have a Research Question?

Ask MRSC

Have a Research Question?

Ask MRSC

Community Engagement Resources

This page highlights a variety of approaches for obtaining public feedback and for involving the public in shaping plans and programs of Washington State local governments through community engagement.

Overview

Effective community engagement practices create a vehicle for participatory local democracy by giving members of the public the opportunity to become directly involved in guiding policy decisions that will shape the future of their community. Meaningful engagement is based on a two-way communication process between the public and their elected community leaders, and it can play an important role in building trust in government. Additionally, such engagement and outreach are key components of any efforts by local governments to address social equity and inclusion.

There are no one-size-fits-all approaches to community engagement efforts. Local governments have a range of options and methods from which they can choose depending upon their particular needs and circumstances, many of which are presented here, along with recommended resources and examples.

Resource Guides for Community Engagement

There are many sites that publish, curate, and make available extensive resources relating to community engagement and public participation tools and techniques. Here are a few that we have found to be most useful, together with links to some selected references. 

Frameworks for Assessing Community Engagement Needs

Several organizations have created community engagement frameworks based on increasing levels of engagement and the public’s role at each level. Participation levels typically range from inform, consult, involve, and collaborate, up to empower. The engagement frameworks are usually presented in a matrix, which can be helpful in deciding on the types of meeting formats and engagement techniques that may be best suited for specific engagement needs and objectives.

One of the best frameworks is the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Spectrum of Public Participation and the accompanying Public Participation Toolbox matrices.

Public Meeting Tips, Tools, and Techniques

Even as digitally enabled interactions become more ubiquitous, face-to-face public meetings are still one of the most common ways that local governments engage and interact with the public. The most common settings in which local officials and members of the public meet occur during regularly scheduled meetings of an agency's governing body (i.e., council, commission, board). Public hearings account for yet another large portion of the types of meetings where local officials interact with the public.

Dealing with Conflict and Disruptions During Public Meetings

From time to time, elected bodies are faced with conducting controversial, emotionally charged meetings or public hearings where tensions are high, and tempers may flare. Such meetings can really test the members of the elected body and staff. Here are some resources that can help you to prepare for difficult meetings and manage them in ways that can make them less stressful and more productive for everyone.

Guides to Help the Public Participate Effectively in Meetings

Meetings of a governing body (e.g., city or county council/commission) can sometimes be confusing and intimidating for first-time attendees. To help new attendees or anyone else who may need some assistance with how to participate effectively in public meetings, many local governments offer guidelines and suggestions. These are often posted on a legislative body’s webpage or on the webpage of the governing body. Printed versions can also be available at meeting sites.

Here are a few examples of guides designed by Washington local government:

Public Meeting Formats

This section highlights several types of public meeting formats that are frequently used by local governments depending upon their particular engagement needs and objectives. Engagement frameworks like the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation are often used to guide which approaches to use, and it may involve more than one format. 

Public Hearings

Local governments are sometimes required by state law to hold public hearings for legislative or quasi-judicial purposes.

  • Legislative hearings are usually held to obtain public input on important legislative policy matters that affect a wide range of citizens, such as those required for budget adoption or comprehensive land use plan updates.
  • Quasi-judicial hearings involve the legal rights of specific, identifiable parties, such as consideration of land-use variances or permits or site-specific rezones.

Public hearings can occur as part of a regular or special public meeting or, in some circumstances, can be held separate from them. Public hearings are obligatory when due process is required or when a specific statute or local regulation requires one.

Local governments may also hold a public hearing when they want public input on a sensitive or controversial policy issue that has broad community interest. Testimony from both sides of an issue is usually recorded for public record, which generates a report summarizing key points.

Below are some recommended resources:

  • MRSC: Public Hearings — Provides an overview of local government public hearings, including types, procedural requirements, and tips for successful hearings.
  • ILG: Getting the Most out of Public Hearings (2005) — While an older resource, it remains useful by offering practical ideas to maximize the effectiveness of public hearings. 

Remote Meetings

Local governments use remote meeting technology to connect with the public via web-based platforms or phone conferencing tools that allow individuals to attend and participate in public meetings. Remote meetings became the default meeting format during the COVID-19 pandemic, and hybrid meeting formats, which mix in-person and remote attendance, remain a feature of our post-pandemic world as local governments look for more ways to promote inclusion and participation in their communities.

Like in-person meetings, remote and hybrid meetings are open to disruption, particularly by non-community members intent on malicious action (e.g., Zoombombing). Below are some examples of how local governments have developed policies and procedures to better manage public comment, including that taken from remote attendees:

Open Houses, Workshops, and Forums

Local governments often convene informal gatherings — like open houses, workshops, and forums — that provide attendees with a “hands on” experience where they have the opportunity to interact with officials, department staff, and each other, to ask questions, provide feedback, and learn about particular issues, proposals, and projects that affect them.

These events are usually facilitated by staff but may also include participation by elected officials. Their informality sets them apart from more formal, regular legislative body meetings and public hearings, which contributes to their effectiveness in attracting members of the public. Don’t forget the coffee, tea, soft drinks, and snacks, which can go a long way toward creating a welcoming environment.

Below are some recommended resources and examples:

Focus Groups and Other Small Group Processes

Focus group meetings provide fertile ground for understanding the unique needs and interests of various community groups. They are designed to get at the unique perspectives/opinions of specific groups, to benefit from the groups' shared knowledge, and to understand how various groups would be affected by programs or policies. 

Some communities chose to break a larger audience into small "roundtable" discussion groups to focus on specific issues since the small group setting can offer a more comfortable setting for speaking freely, listening, and interacting with others.

Below are some recommended resources:

Charrettes

Charrettes pair members of the public and stakeholder groups with design professionals and other experts in intense, creative work sessions held over a short time period. The process promotes consensus-building toward a common vision, harnessing the talents and energy of design professionals (as well as the public) to help participants visualize alternatives and to recommend design solutions.

Below are some recommended resources and examples:

Equity and Inclusion

Community engagement efforts that are focused on equity and inclusion are designed to increase access to local government information and resources by people of diverse races, cultures, gender identities, sexual orientations, physical ability, and socio-economic status through the implementation of inclusive outreach strategies, plans, or policies. Inclusive outreach and engagement programs seek to build and maintain strong and sustainable relationships with community groups that have been historically underrepresented in local government outreach efforts.

Recommended Resources

Social Media

Local governments have fully embraced social media platforms in their efforts to find new and more effective ways to engage with the public and create greater trust and transparency. Such platforms offer a variety of ways for agencies to share news about local events and issues, address concerns, provide emergency information, and showcase engaging content.

Recommended Resources

  • Digital.gov: Improving the Accessibility of Social Media in Government Toolkit — Contains helpful tips, real-life examples, and best practices to ensure that your social media content is usable and accessible to all citizens, including those with disabilities.
  • Government Social Media — Supports public sector social media professionals by hosting national events, facilitating local training, and organizing a community of social media managers working in local government across the country.
  • MRSC: Social Media Policies — Provides an overview of various approaches to social media policies for local governments, including sample policy language and examples.

Email and Text Alerts

Email and text alert services give community members the ability to sign up to receive electronic updates, notices, and news about the issues they care about. Such delivery methods are particularly effective for issues/projects that will play out over an extended period of time since they provide timely updates about milestones, new developments, and opportunities for more direct engagement as the issue or project advances

Alert systems are also used for emergency communications purposes, providing subscribers with real-time information about severe weather events, public safety or health concerns, utility disruptions, major traffic incidents, and other similar emergency notices.

Examples

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps allow agencies to instantly engage with the public on many issues. For example SeeClickFix allows community members to photograph and report problems like potholes or damaged streetlights, submit this to a public works department, get a tracking number assigned, and receive status alerts until the problem is resolved. 

Apps also offer the ability to “push” notifications out to subscribers, which has proven to be an effective way of engaging with citizens.

Examples

  • Bellevue: MyBellevue — Allows the public to request services and access city news, jobs, and social media.
  • Federal Way: Eyes on Federal Way — Allows the public to report non-emergency issues from their smartphone. The app also tags the specific location of the issue through the user phone’s global positioning system, making it easy for city staff to respond.
  • Shoreline: Submit a Service Request — Allows people to report and track non-emergency issues through the city’s website or via mobile app.

Web-Based Engagement Platforms

Web-based engagement platforms allow local governments to share information and solicit ideas and opinions from community members on community issues, plans, and projects. These tools are designed to facilitate public participation in local decision-making.

The webpages below are examples of how an agency can offer the information on current projects (with links to project documentation) and give community members the opportunity to ask the agency questions about the project, take surveys, share or comment on items, and discuss project plans with other community members, all in an online format.

Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting includes a range of engagement techniques that center around involving community members in the local government budgeting process, either as an educational exercise, where, for example, they might have the chance to build their own budget through a budget simulation “game,” or more directly as part of a process in which a portion of a jurisdiction’s budget is set aside to allow community members, often through neighborhood organizations, to vote on how to use it.

There are a variety of participatory budgeting methods, and the best match will depend on how your jurisdiction wants to engage with the public, the types of projects that can be funded, and how much funding is available.

Recommended Resources and Examples

Advisory Boards/Commissions

Local governments have long used advisory boards/commissions to assist elected officials in a number of policy-making areas. The most common types are standing boards or commissions, such as those for planning, human services, and parks and recreation. Members of these advisory bodies are usually appointed by the governing body of the agency, and they serve multi-year terms.

Ad hoc advisory bodies are usually appointed and convened for a limited period of time to consider a program, project, or set of issues, and to report back with their advice and/or recommendations to the governing body. Similarly, a task force is assigned a specific task, often with a time limit for reaching a conclusion and resolving a difficult issue, subject to ratification by official decision-makers.

For more information and examples, see our webpage on Advisory Boards and Commissions.

Youth Engagement

Youth engagement programs are designed to provide opportunities for youth to learn more about their local government, develop leadership skills through firsthand experience, and contribute to the conversation on community issues, including those that uniquely affect young people. For more information and examples, see our page Youth Participation in Local Government.

Citizen Academies & Public Education Programs

Public education programs are designed to give community members the knowledge and skills they need to understand and more fully participate in their local government.

Examples include citizen academies, community leadership academies, police ride-along programs, and community emergency response teams (CERT). These programs, in particular citizen academies, sometimes called leadership academies, may be in-person or virtual, and specific to one topic or to general governance.

Examples

Recommended Resources

Volunteer Programs

Many local governments have established volunteer programs in their communities to take advantage of the diverse talents and interests of their community members. Examples include environmental stewardship, park maintenance, community emergency response, customer service support, special events support, and many others. For more information and examples, see our page on Volunteer Programs and Policies.

Community Newsletters

Local governments produce newsletters as a way to share information about special events, agency activities, announcements, and more. Historically these have been in a printed format, either mailed directly to community members or distributed through a local newspaper, but many local governments have developed e-newsletters to deliver content electronically to subscribers.

Recommended Resources and Examples

Surveys

Community surveys play an important role in gaining insight into the public's views and opinions about a wide variety of issues and can reach hundreds or even thousands of individuals via phone, mail, email, or online.

If, however, an agency has small sample sizes and low response rates, the survey may have difficulty achieving results that are statistically valid. When that is the case, the primary value of a survey should be to provide general insights into community attitudes and opinions that may or may not accurately represent the opinions of the entire population.

Recommended Resources

Speakers Bureaus

A number of communities have established speakers bureaus, populated by staff or others, which are available to make presentations on local government programs or topics.

Since service organizations, school classrooms, and other community organizations need short programs or speakers on a regular basis, it is a great opportunity for local jurisdictions to get the word out about services and programs, emerging issues, or to discuss plans on the horizon. It is also a great way to stay connected with the community and to glean the interests/concerns of the community group hosting the talk.

Recommended Resources and Examples

  • Richland Speakers’ Bureau — City staff are available to speak to community groups or schools on a variety of topics by appointment. Tours of some city facilities are also available.
  • University of Kansas: Developing a Speaker’s Bureau — As part of the university's broader community toolbox, this chapter offers an overview of steps involved in creating a speakers bureau, including how they can be used to raise public awareness of local issues, increasing your organization's visibility, increasing public understanding, and providing positive role models.

Tours

Guided, self-guided, or even virtual tours offer a firsthand look at agency facilities and operations, giving viewers an increased understanding and appreciation of how their government works. 

Recommended Resources and Examples


Last Modified: April 13, 2026