A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report 22-40, regarding a Community Engagement Update

Community Engagement Update City Council November 20, 2023

Executive Summary ▪ This document provides an update on the City’s approach to community engagement and next steps ▪ Over the last twenty years, the City has cultivated a robust community engagement function, growing staffing and expertise across many departments ▪ And we’d like to share snapshots of how some departments are doing community engagement at each of its three levels: ̶ Outreach: DPW, CET@DHSP ̶ Engagement: CET@CDD, TP+T ̶ Empowerment: Budget, Human Rights ▪ … But this is only the beginning: over the summer, the City Manager’s office convened community engagement leadership to assess the current state of that function in the organization, and we identified two areas where improved coordination could enhance community engagement across the City: ̶ Within the function: Streamlined resource and best practice sharing, including shared resources for smaller engagement teams ̶ With departments: Earlier coordination and closer working relationship with departments that have community engagement needs ▪ From there, we have identified three workstreams to help us improve coordination in the aforementioned areas: ̶ Tools: creating a shared folder in One Drive for resource and best practice sharing among community engagement staff ̶ Success/Metrics: defining successful community engagement and identifying the appropriate metrics for different engagement activities ̶ Training: launch a training program for City staff to educate departments about the community engagement function, resources/best practices, and expectations 2

2022: City establishes Language Justice Division and hires FTE 2021: CDD creates Community Engagement Manager role 2023: DPW adds third FTE to community relations team 2023: Equitable and Inclusive Community Engagement Handbook and training launched by CDD 2020: Members of CET Executive Team lead efforts with the Family Policy Council to create a Language Justice Working Group 2022: City launches regular training on plain language 2022: CDD implements CET model 2006: ELOA grant provides initial funding for CET@DHSP 2002: DPW hires first community relations manager 2015: DPW adds second FTE to community relations team 2018: TPT hires its first communications manager 2009: CET partners with CPS to build its family engagement capacity 2007: CET develops Networking Events format 2008: City commits permanent funding to DHSP for CET activities 2013-14: CET@DHSP develops/pilots the “Making Connections” outreach worker training program Although community engagement is a relatively new function, we’ve been on a long journey, and it’s only the beginning 3 2014: City launches pilot for Participatory Budgeting 2009-Present: CET begins to provide ongoing technical assistance and support to other agencies and departments 2020: City begins funding the Cambridge Community Corps (C3) program to support Department of Public Health outreach during the pandemic 2000-2010 2010-2020 2020 - Present

… Which has cultivated a robust community engagement function, with deep expertise embedded across many departments Language Access Manager Operations Manager Immigrant Services Liaison Human Rights CDD Communications Manager Community Engagement Manager PT Outreach Workers (7) Budget Participatory Budgeting Manager Participatory Budgeting Specialist DHSP Dir. Community Engagement and Center for Families Communications Manager Full Time Outreach Workers (2) PT Outreach Workers (9) Community Engagement Manager DPW Community Relations Manager Project Administrators for Community Relations (2) Comm- unications Dir. Strategic Planning and Communications Internal Communications Manager Public Information Officer Dir. Media Relations, Content Strategy 4 TP+T Communications Manager Project Administrator for Community Relations Legend: Staff that provide functional support to other departments Note: Many staff embedded in these departments regularly do community engagement work, even if that is not their primary function (e.g., TPT Street Design Managers, CDD Project Managers, DHSP Youth Programs, Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program) Digital Media Marketing Manager

Community Engagement Team (CET) outreach workers are our colleagues on the front-line 5 CET @ DHSP CET @ CDD

Source: Inspired by Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) framework 6 Community Engagement: The process of using different strategies to make decision-making and collaboration in a community more accessible for all 1 Outreach: to provide information regarding opportunities, issues, and/or solutions to the community in ways that are accessible to its members 2 Engagement: two-way communication between community leaders and members to gain opinions about issues, projects, processes, or ideas that can inform policy discussions and decision-making 3 Empowerment: to give community members the tools, resources, and support to participate in the spaces where the key decisions that affect them are made Over time, we’ve developed a good sense of what successful community engagement looks like, and it spans three areas: outreach, engagement, and empowerment

7 1. OUTREACH DPW Spotlight: the DPW’s outreach raises awareness around routine maintenance, construction, infrastructure projects, and new services and initiatives

8 1. OUTREACH CET@ DHSP Spotlight: Strong focus on supporting families with young children and providing both individual and community-wide support

CDD Spotlight: CET@CDD and creating flexible opportunities for building relationships and engaging community members 9 2. ENGAGEMENT

10 2. ENGAGEMENT 2018 TP+T hires first Communications Manager 2020 Cycling Safety Ordinance precipitates TP+T-led community engagement TP+T hires Street Design Project Managers with a community engagement role 2020–2023 TP+T builds our engagement capacity and improves our outreach, learning more with each project TP+T Spotlight: Cycling Safety Ordinance sparks need for increased engagement capacity

11 Budget Spotlight: Participatory Budgeting empowers community members to decide how to spend part of the City's budget 3. EMPOWERMENT

12 HRC Spotlight: the Human Rights Commission creates opportunities to empower residents with information and access to City services 3. EMPOWERMENT Annual Fair Housing Event This annual collaboration led to the development of the citywide Housed IN Cambridge campaign. In FY23, we expanded access and engagement with the help of both Community Engagement Teams and regular outreach at the Community Learning Center. Which resulted in: • Record doubling of attendance at the annual event • Translation and interpretation use for 11 different languages • Quarterly drop-in hours at the library with regular use of interpretation to increase access to vital housing information

… With departments … Within the community engagement function ▪Varied access to City resources (e.g., outreach workers, like C3 and CETs, and contact lists) and varying familiarity with different engagement methods and best practices (e.g., writing in plain language, managing contentious public meetings) ▪Limited awareness of what’s happening in other departments (e.g., events, projects) ▪Community engagement not always embedded in early project planning ▪Inconsistent, broad definitions of community engagement and success and few standards for measuring and collecting data ▪Varied levels of community engagement expertise and training among project teams 13 Through our work over the summer, we identified two areas where improved coordination can enhance the City’s community engagement function

Tools ▪Create a shared folder in One Drive for community engagement staff, collating the following: ̶ “How to” guides on different community engagement methods (e.g., public meeting, pop-ups, plain language) leveraging existing content and resources ̶ Excel spreadsheet summarizing City technology and other resources (e.g., language access) that can be used for community engagement ̶ Excel spreadsheet summarizing physical assets (e.g., easels) and their location ̶ Excel spreadsheet documenting different outreach contact lists and who to contact ̶ Calendar documenting outreach events across all departments 1 Success/ Metrics ▪Finalize a definition of community engagement in the City of Cambridge, define success, and identify the appropriate metrics for different engagement activities through conversations with departments and community engagement staff 2 Training ▪Launch a training program for City staff to educate departments about the community engagement function, resources/best practices, and expectations for frontline staff when engaging the community ̶ Work with community engagement staff to develop learning objectives and a curriculum, leveraging existing resources like DHSP’s “Making Connections” training and CDD’s handbook/training ̶ Leverage meetings like Leadership Together or CAEII to elevate importance 3 14 … And we propose three workstreams, community engagement tools, training, and metrics, to capitalize on these opportunities:

Questions? 15