ABSTRACT
Community engagement is simply giving stakeholders and people who will be using or impacted by a proposed project a voice during the design process. During the early design phase, the public is invited to participate in a public meeting and perhaps design workshops, and then later, when the preliminary and final designs have been prepared for public review. The process has become the norm, a strategy ensuring social equity is considered on public projects. Landscape architects, through the process of design create built works for clients: corporate, government, or private including v communities. The goal of the design process is to incorporate the needs, wants, and desires of clients. So, early in the design process, there is a pre-design phase where the landscape architect will include discussions with a client to determine the client's desires and wants for their project, as in what is the landscape architect to design: The project program. In the case of public clients, such as a city parks department or downtown development district, the landscape architect will schedule a series of meetings not only with the client but the community to be served by a particular park, for instance. The term community engagement is the term encapsulating the activity for gaining input from a community. Community engagement is a powerful vehicle for working collaboratively with the community of people in physical proximity. This chapter summarizes the properties for successful community engagement. A successful community engagement process deepens the relationship and trust between government organizations and the communities they serve.
