Inclusivity is at the heart of any good community engagement strategy. My work is focused on minority-majority and under-represented/under-resourced communities. We actively reach beyond the "usual suspects" to ensure that our plans and studies are truly representative of the community. Participants will learn how to identify the "hard-to-reach" members of their community and be presented with a number of strategies they can use to bring these folks into the planning process. Community engagement represents the foundation of much of our work as planners; thus, if our engagement isn't inclusive or equitable, there's no way for the final product to be. Through the humorous lens of engagement failures, I'll teach participants not only how to avoid the mistakes we've witnessed, but also how to dust themselves up and try again. I'll present a Top 10 list of fails including: not posting the meeting advertisement, advertising the wrong date/time, ensuring that the selected meeting space is available at the designated day and time, scheduling over another important community event, dealing with protestors, and what to do when you tried to reach beyond the usual suspects but ended up with... only the usual suspects!
