Accept and involve the public as a legitimate partner. Work with communities rather than for or to communities.

Be consistent and timely. Reliably communicate and attend meetings and events with communities. Use multiple channels of communication.

Use simple messaging. Prioritize graphics and straightforward language. Messages should be from credible sources. Create a message map: a document outlining what and how your company communicates with the outside world for clear and cohesive language among all team members.

Recognize the effects of concern and stress on discussion. During emotionally charged conversations, focus on what communities are hearing and remembering from you.

Lack of opportunity for community engagement. Decision making is done internally without working with communities to receive their inputs. Neglecting to share information with communities and not allowing questions. Or, opportunities for community engagement may be provided but have limited accessibility for community members (e.g. holding meetings during most community members’ work hours).

Poor communication. Instead of using plain language, communication is unclear and uses jargon that is not commonly understood by the public. Poor communication also includes not providing or meeting deadlines without communication with the public.

Inadequate distribution of information. Waiting for all facts before releasing information to the community keeps communities uninformed. Sharing information without connecting with the community first can result in: (1) providing information via one channel of communication, excluding individuals without access to that channel, and (2) when information is shared, it may not be understood or received in the first place.

Lack of empathy. In response to community concerns, a company neglects to understand real human experiences.

Proactive and transparent community engagement. Decision-makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected by decisions. They transparently communicate both the positive and negative impacts of decisions.

Integration of community concerns in decision-making processes. People have the opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and health before decisions have been made.

Committed Engagement. Working with the community to coordinate advisory groups; community listening sessions; hotlines, press conferences and telebriefings; and community forums, roundtables, or town halls.

Transparency. Company policies should be clear and open.

Benefits. Provide health and wellness benefits to employees. Integrate flexibility for team members. Consider implementing a 4-day workweek. Click here to read about LifeCity’s 4-day workweek trial, a practice that LifeCity adopted full-time in 2021.

Prioritize Engagement. Provide bi-partisan engagement training by joining Love Your City as a business and navigating to the Community Engagement badge to learn more. Create a Better Workplace roadmap with Beloved Community.

Set Norms. Agree to show up for each other and for communities in a certain way.