Citizen Engagement “I think what’s lost is people probably don’t feel engaged, they don’t feel like they’re part of anything,” she said. “They just live there… Then, it’s literally just government doing what we think the community wants.” Home to plenty of other examples of considerate modern comms, Hickory is certainly not the only municipality trying out new things. Kaminske was proud of Hickory’s efforts to be available in person to different populations in town, so they would feel heard. “That engages that community at a conversational level, and you have to have that. It doesn’t matter how much social media you do and how many fliers you put out there. If you’re not talking with them, if you’re not sitting with them, and listening, it doesn’t matter.” When it comes to engaging with historically unheard and underrepresented communities, the City of Durham launched an innovative methodology to engage these communities in conversations. Be Heard Durham is as an online, publicfacing portal that collects community conversations that city staff has with underrepresented voices. “Our specific goals with this portal are to strengthen equitable community engagement, to amplify these underrepresented, under-served voices, and to influence policy and decisions that impact these communities,” said Amber Wells, Community Engagement Analyst and primary manager of the Be Heard Durham portal. The City of Durham’s Community Engagement Strategists build relationships with community members. They wanted to implement a way to share these voices of Durham with the rest of its population. Laura Biediger, Senior Manager of the Community Engagement Division of the Department of Neighborhood Improvement Services, along with the department director (Constance Stancil) discovered the value of the Cortico software while at a meeting with Cortico representatives. This is the software upon which Be Heard Durham was built. Working with Cortico, Durham city staff were able to create and implement the protocol and the online portal for recording and reporting these important conversations that were being had about community needs and wishes. The online portal provides interactive elements that divide the qualitative data derived from these conversations into recurring themes. City staff can utilize this centralized database that is collected from these conversations to inform how they continued from page 25 continues on page 28 SOUTHERN CITY Quarter 1 2024 26
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