Connecting While at a Distance

With COVID-19 changing the way people interact with each other, BERK is adapting our approach to in-person engagement, and planning for new ways to listen to, involve, and collaborate with a broad range of community members.

Adaptive Engagement Tool

  • Interactive, visually rich Storymaps and Dynamic Polls integrated with project webpages

  • Virtual Open Houses: join anytime and live streaming

  • Facilitated, online Discussions with Breakout Groups and Polls

Traditional Engagement Tool

  • Static Surveys

  • Open Houses

  • Focus Groups

But it’s not so simple as out with the old and in with the new. Online tools can be less effective for some engagement contexts and goals.   .

  • Online tools can be a partial, but sometimes poor, substitute for face-to-face interactions.

  • Not everyone has easy access to a computer or affordable high-speed internet, especially when libraries and schools are closed.

  • Not everyone is comfortable with online interactions.

Technology-enabled  options need to be implemented in ways that ensure equitable and robust participation. It is important to supplement digital promotion and digital engagement opportunities with efforts that exist in the physical world.

Here are some ways the BERK team is bringing community-wide engagement opportunities to ALL community members:

Storymap for Bremerton Eastside Employment Center Subarea Plan with embedded survey and draft plans (BERK, 2020) Click on the image to see for yourself!

 
 

Postcard asking for input on the Port Townsend Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan Update (BERK, 2019)

 
Postcard asking for input on the Port Townsend Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan Update (BERK, 2019)
 

Promotion of the engagement opportunity goes beyond posting in the digital world:

  • Posters or business cards at essential businesses (pharmacies, grocery stores, laundry mats, etc.)

  • Games or puzzles included in the local newspaper.

  • Online surveys (example: Bremerton Eastside Employment Center Subarea Plan) provided in hard copy, with drop boxes conveniently located around town, or the ability to snap a picture of the survey on your smartphone and submit it.

If we all do our part, we will move beyond the current crisis. And in the process, let’s use this as an opportunity to explore other ways of engaging our communities in conversations that matter.

BERK workMichele Eakins-TeSelleengagement, community, virtual, online, storymap, open house, facilitation, marcia, rebecca, allegra, radhika, jescelle, julia, brian, erika, kizz, kp feature, jct feature, john, ben h, mi feature