Serving nearly 1 million people, the City has benefits from amazing opportunities to engage key stakeholders on a number of important projects. To center equity and provide consistent excellence, we collaborated with city staff to develop this rigorous guide grounded in community-crafted engagement principles. The SOP-E supports staff and consultants, engagement partners, stakeholders in engagement efforts, and decision makers.
Developed content from our own national expertise, excellent examples from other cities, and best practices within the city, then vetted and refined guidance based on staff and community feedback. The SOP-E:
- Provides clear direction for determining what is (and isn’t) an engagement project
- Explains the key elements of engagement design, workplanning, and implementation
- Presents the city’s approach to determining the level of engagement
- Includes a robust section on evaluating engagement efforts against Charlotte’s engagement principles, with sample indicators of success and desired outcomes
- Adds links to additional community resources and a glossary of terms
