What Will be Offered

This workshop is designed as a primer to assist local, regional, and tribal governments and partner organizations build resiliency through careful integration of public engagement and community problem solving concepts, tools, and techniques to enable effective collaborative decision making.

The workshop recognizes that a variety of resiliency needs are intensifying at the local level and affect a wide range of economic and social sectors, environmental systems, human and natural populations. It also recognizes that communities face a heightened need for innovative and robust problem solving in a dynamic and often time and resource constrained environment. The Workshop provides a special focus on Virginia communities through state-of-the-art knowledge, practices, and applied learning activities.

The Workshop begins with a first module (#1) that provides resiliency concepts and definitions that can be translated to the targeting, development, and adoption of community-level response actions. It is specifically oriented to Virginia localities. It is followed by a second module (#2) with a framework review of public engagement mechanisms and capacities that are available to local organizations and build on traditional public engagement mechanisms to a more complete set of collaborative best practices. It includes strategies and tools for matching public engagement to specific resiliency and community problem solving needs.

The Workshop concludes with a final applied synthesis and workshop module (#3) that demonstrates how public engagement and community problem solving tools and procedures can be matched and integrated to address specific resiliency challenges in a multi objective environment. It includes methods for the use of well informed, collaborative decision-making tools, procedures, and best available knowledge sources, including university research, for translation to policy and program development in the community multi stakeholder environment.

What to Expect

The workshop will be conducted over six weeks through three modules for a total of 10 hours. Each module will involve 1) two hours of preparatory videos, readings, and discussion questions provided virtually through Canvas, 2) one hour of live instruction and discussion during a weekday lunch hour or afternoon, and 3) one follow up hour of open instructor assistance (optional). Module 3 will include one additional hour for completion of an article of learning such as a recommendation memo. Each module is designed for completion over two weeks. Individual and shared learning experiences will be included.

All learning materials will be available online through Canvas and by email. Prerequisites are not required for the Workshop, but basic familiarity and interest in local and regional government and community level issues and sector level policy and programs, public involvement, and problem solving are recommended.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

To ensure higher levels of cognitive learning and independent thought, assignments will not require or encourage use of AI. If used, AI should enhance your learning experience, not substitute for it. See Mason guidelines for AI use in learning for more detail.

 

Continuing Education Credits and Requirements

Participants will receive one Continuing Education Unit (CEU) through ten hours of instruction and discussion activities with instructors and peers. A CEU credit will be issued based on completion of the course and attendance.

Who Should Take the Workshop

The workshop is designed for policy, planning, and public affairs staff involved in issue areas related energy, environment, economics, and infrastructure at the Local, Regional, State, and Tribal government levels, as well as professionals in private and nongovernmental organizations involved local government, public private cooperation, and community problem solving activities.

What Participants Will Gain

When you successfully complete the Workshop, you will be able to:

• Frame specific community level resilience challenges using critical concepts, definitions, and approaches required for translation to public engagement and community problem solving.
• Design public engagement processes that are inclusive, collaborative, systematic, and strategic to achieve community supported resiliency goals and priorities.
• Design community problem solving processes and activities that integrate public engagement and achieve specific goals and objectives through use of technical and communications tools, templates, and translational procedures.
• Review existing public engagement and community problem solving processes and tools and recommend design improvements to fulfil resiliency planning objectives and needs.
• Advise leaders on how to define and act on resiliency needs through enabling actions that build and deploy capacities for community level public engagement and problem solving.

Workshop Topics

Module 1: Resilience

• Resiliency concepts, definitions, and case examples
  • Theory and concepts, including adaptability
  • Working definitions, goals, and metrics
  • Examples in Virginia
• Drivers and impacts of local risk and vulnerability
  • Climate and non-climate factors
  • Affected sectors and systems
  • Affected populations
• Types of community level response actions
  • Resiliency policies, programs, and projects (what you do)
  • Local implementation mechanisms (how you do it)
  • Who is involved (interested and affected parties)

Module 2: Public Engagement

• Public engagement concepts, practices, and implications
  • Shared decisions, multi objective choices, objective evaluation
  • Stepwise collaboration, consensus building, co-development\
  • Measurement and determination of public preference
• Methods for improved local collaboration and consensus building
  • Passive (e.g. public input) and interactive (e.g. stepwise decisions)
  • Formal (e.g. recorded votes) and informal (non-quantitative)
  • Group (e.g. representative stakeholders) and individual (e.g. public surveys)
  • Open and closed decisions
• Barriers to community level community problem solving and collaboration
  • Time and resources
  • Public interest in participation
  • Know How -- facilitative and evaluative capacity

Module 3: Community Problem Solving

• Resilience planning, analysis, and design
  • Goals, objectives, metrics, and outcomes
  • Baseline conditions and goal gaps
  • Multi objective response options
• Practices for public engagement and community problem solving
  • Process design choices, parameters, and capacities
  • Matching the process to issue and capacity
  • Matching the process to participants
• Case specific review of public engagement needs and responses
  • Case review of failure
  • Case review of success
  • Sketch a home-grown case of your choosing

Workshop Schedule

Learning activities and assignments will be explained in more detail within each of the learning modules (Lessons in Canvas) and follow the schedule below: