(Cochrane, AB) – Cochrane is reaching out to residents to encourage participation in a survey aimed at enhancing public engagement efforts. The municipality is in the process of developing a comprehensive Public Engagement Framework that will establish practices and processes for internal staff working on public engagement activities.
The Public Engagement Framework is an internal tool to support staff who work in this space and will outline the structure and key elements in Cochrane’s approach to public engagement. It will provide consistent and clear guidance on how to plan, deliver, report and evaluate public engagement activities.
“Public engagement is really about how the public interacts with Cochrane to contribute to decisions. It involves activities that take place online or in-person, such as surveys, discussion groups, or open houses,” Kristin Huybrecht, Manager of Intergovernmental Relations & Corporate Communications, Town of Cochrane. “To help create a framework that supports meaningful engagement, we’re looking to understand residents’ experience with public engagement and what might need our attention to improve our efforts.”
Cochrane residents can have their say on this important initiative by responding to a short online survey posted on Let’s Talk Cochrane (www.letstalkcochrane). The survey will be available until December 8th and is anticipated to take less than five minutes to complete. The input collected will help inform when Cochrane will engage and what steps it will take to involve members of the public in issues and decisions that impact them.
Later this week, Cochrane is hosting a focus group on public engagement. Residents for the focus group were randomly selected by an external consultant. To ensure a mix of people, the sample was stratified based on voluntary census information collected during the spring engagement earlier this year.
The results of the survey and the focus group will be brought forward to Council in early 2024, along with an updated public engagement policy and the draft public engagement framework.
To participate in the survey, visit: https://www.letstalkcochrane.ca/engage.
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