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26 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / March 2021 ELEMENTS Community Engagement Post-pandemic Trends to Expect in Community Engagement C OVID-19 changed how we live and work, dine and recreate, collaborate and communicate. When we get past the danger of this pandemic, what will re- turn to “normal” or the way it was before COVID-19, and what are we doing today that will never “go back?” Will the streets that have been closed to automobiles and turned into beautiful blocks of outdoor dining, urban parks and dedicated to pedestrians stay that way? Will consumers go back into stores after discovering the convenience of online shopping and home delivery? Will people who have been able to work remotely from home go back into the corporate office? What we do know is that community en- gagement is changed forever and that is mostly a good thing. • Snapshot of the past. Community engagement was centered largely around trying to let people know that there are a couple of public meetings or open houses they are invited to attend to pro- vide their input. Progressive community engage- ment involved going to where people were – like festivals, association meetings and neighborhood events. A project-specific community or open house may have been attended by less than 100 people. Attendance of 200 was considered a big success. In-person engagement tools such as vot- ing with dots, sharing thoughts on sticky notes and keypad polling all helped give a voice to ev- eryone who attended. This type of community engagement worked in our prepandemic environ- ment. • The pivot. By the end of March, across the coun- try in-person community engagement mostly ceased. Immediately, social media became a crit- ical channel to reach and inform constituents of upcoming engagement opportunities. Virtual open houses, town hall meetings via Zoom, online surveys and interactive websites were launched. In most cases, robust virtual replacements gar- nered significantly higher participation than tra- ditional in-person gatherings. COVID-19 made us reinvent how we communicate with communi- ties with social distancing in mind and that has brought this process some lessons learned and some future benefit. • A view of the future. What we learned around engaging communities in 2020 has been critical to inform 2021 trends and beyond. We want to ensure that community members’ understanding and perspective on issues, topics or “the project” are informed, heard and equitably represented: • Equity and inclusion. To hear every voice, we must reach the often marginalized and disenfran- chised populations. Whether virtual or in-person, community engagement must be more responsi- bility for the people who already reach these peo- ple. A way to achieve this is through engagement ambassadors, providing training and materials for city staff, volunteers, and university students to be involved in conducting public engagement to Becky Zimmermann President, Design Workshop Improvements to the pedestrian mall in downtown Aspen is a project that hundreds of businesses owners, residents and visitors care about. The project website hosts narrative presentations to ensure that anyone can get information about the project at any time.