I have been involved with a public participation event. I gave a summary of a report I had written, with some powerpoint slides. I wrote a survey, which was circulated at the meeting, and people followed up with it online. Getting some detail and feedback was really great. As the project was already many years in development, I think that the higher levels of participation (“empowerment” and “leadership” levels) had come long before, so we were probably functioning at the “reactive” level.
That being said, I’m not entirely clear what is meant by: “external organizations” in all of these descriptions. I’m assuming that this means organizations or consultants from outside the community. This may not always apply to community consultations, or didn’t at this meeting.
I know a lot of work around community visioning… energy use, environmental dream lists, have taken place over the years. It’s really hard to tell how useful these are. It seems that getting to down to work, implementing, is another art altogether. Does all the preliminary talking help? I can’t say for sure.
