Pop Ups and More: You Might Need a Larger U-Haul

We know, as planning practitioners, community engagement can be challenging and time-consuming. But we often forget that we have the ability to make the process engaging, exciting, inspiring, and accessible. We are challenging our colleagues who are burnt out from pivoting during Covid, or tired of seeing the same individuals or organizations at public meetings only to get a laundry list of wishes and issues, to break out of the box and try something new. Participants in this session will learn or re-learn processes that help reach the different levels of the social ecological model and reach across the engagement continuum.
The session starts with a brief reminder to think through WHY you are engaging the public, before choosing WHAT engagement activity to use. Thinking through the WHY allows facilitators to design a more comprehensive approach, so the engagement process concludes with reliable and useable input. The framework presented at the start of the session is a guide for facilitators to determine WHO is being reached or who is NOT being reached, HOW to reach the public, WHY an activity is chosen, as well as the intended outcome and INTERACTION. The engagement strategy identifies the anticipated deliverable, how the deliverable contributes to the larger process, how the public input will be used in the plan, and the interaction type.
Once a practitioner understands WHY he or she is engaging the public and what data are needed, he or she can then start planning HOW and WHAT activities to employ. We want to inspire community leaders and decision makers to reach more diverse groups of constituents, enhance interactions and dialog, and gather useable and meaningful input. This session will explore tools and facilitation processes that the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Working on Wellness Environments team utilizes in communities throughout Texas to expand reach and encourage engagement.
Pop-ups is one way we can encourage community leaders and decision makers to reach those who are not being reached and create a more engaging input process. The pop ups we use typically fall within four categories such as mapping, drawing/building, chalk and talks, and activations. Mapping activities are used to gather information about what places people use and know about their communities. Drawing/building activities provide fun and engaging ways to include youth (and adults!) in the process. This activity is great at 5K runs, community events, and youth organizations. Activations, also known as demonstrations, are used to test out potential crosswalks, curb extensions for traffic calming, bike lanes, pedestrian signage, bench placement, games, and protected walking lanes. The purpose of pop ups are to go into the community and strategically engage in activities around town using visual and quick methods to reach more people in an accessible and everyday location. These engagements create visual displays that can lead to more in depth discussions, feedback, and ground truthing. Pop ups are also a great conversation starter, a way to pilot test ideas before large sums of money are invested, can encourage community involvement, make a case for public support, inspire change, strengthen the local economy, and accelerate local decision-making.