Centering Equity and Inclusion in an Engagement Framework

How can we develop an engagement framework that better serves all residents, and in particular, equity-seeking groups?

This was the leading question for the City of Victoria, BC as they worked to update their municipal public engagement framework with an inclusion and equity lens, following a 2019 City Council directive to embed distributional, structural and intergenerational equity into the City’s corporate policies, including in its civic engagement. While the City’s original engagement framework included commitments to inclusion and accessibility, further work was needed to ensure the City’s engagement approach was informed by diverse perspectives, identities and lived experiences. In response, the City of Victoria’s Engagement and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion staff partnered with the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue to embark on the All Our Voices project, a two-year research and consultation process consisting of three phases:

Phase 1: Relationship Building and Research

Throughout 2021, the City’s Engagement and EDI teams co-hosted 22 online Community Conversations with 55 organizations that serve or represent equity-seeking groups in the City of Victoria. This phase helped to build trusting relationships with equity-seeking communities, while beginning to explore what inclusive and equitable engagement could look like. City staff also engaged in research and learning on inclusive and equitable public engagement, including multi-day courses and workshops from Simon Fraser University and IAP2.

Phase 2: Community Engagement

Insights from Phase 1 were incorporated in the second stage of broader community engagement, which included online and in-person community roundtables, individual coffee chats, idea boards placed in community spaces and an online survey. This phase was an opportunity for the City to “learn by doing,” piloting inclusive practices while tailoring them to local community contexts.

Phase 3: Integrating and Implementing

The updated All Our Voices Engagement Framework developed by SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue (the Centre for Dialogue) and City of Victoria (the City) staff weaves together learnings from the engagement process alongside the Centre for Dialogue's Beyond Inclusion Guide and guiding City strategies, policies and reviews such as their broader municipal Equity Framework. However, reports don’t always translate into practice without additional guidance. The Centre for Dialogue also collaborated with City staff to design a user-friendly staff handbook and planning templates and to deliver two City-wide staff trainings. These accompanying resources helped to introduce changes in the Engagement Framework, increase staff understanding of what equity in engagement means and automate the incorporation of inclusive practices in the planning phases.

Over the course of a two-year consultation process, including focused conversations with 55 local organisations, public roundtables and an online survey, the All Our Voices engagement process asked the community–and in particular, equity-seeking and historically marginalized communities–questions such as:

• What could the City do to make it easy for you to share ideas and feedback?
• What would make it feel safer or welcoming for you to share ideas and feedback?
• What would make you feel that the City heard your ideas and feedback?

So what can an equity-focused engagement framework look like? Alongside general introduction to the purpose of public engagement, the All Our Voices Engagement Framework includes:

• An up-to-date snapshot of the demographic diversity of the City
• Definitions of terms such as “equity,” “inclusion,” “anti-racism” and “reconciliation” in relation to public engagement
• Seven pillars and seven principles of equitable engagement, incorporating the feedback they received from their local community
• A checklist to scan for accessibility barriers
• Suggested guidelines for respectful participation

When the Centre for Dialogue co-created the Beyond Inclusion guide for equity in public engagement, a process like the All Our Voices consultation and framework were what we hoped to inspire others to lead. For as much as we could provide good practices from research and our own consultation process, additional values, principles and approaches for equitable engagement are likely to emerge in each context. Beyond Inclusion was always meant to be an invitation (or provocation!) for ongoing conversation.

We’ll now share highlights of the conversation that took place in the City of Victoria, in response to the three key questions they posed: