Q1: Why does Portland need this?
A1: Portland is growing rapidly and requires a resilient engagement structure that enables ALL Portlanders to be substantively engaged in the decisions that most impact their lives. The 2020 census shows Portland has grown by 12% since 2010 and 70% since 1970, and our growing pains are evidenced by the livability issues we see today.
A lot of meaningful work has come out of the existing District Office/Neighborhood Association framework. The City plans to build upon that excellent work to create a framework for Portland today and in the future. We will work with community members and other engagement and planning experts in a transparent, public process to bring today’s technology and engagement concepts to our framework.
City Council authorized the budget reallocation of salary savings from open positions for this effort because many Portlanders share a desire to improve the City’s engagement structure.
We hope you will participate in our listening sessions in early 2023.
Q2: How can we ensure PEP will work for the City and for us?
A2: PEP is the opportunity for all Portlanders to work with the City to design a more equitable community engagement model to solve issues today and in the future.
We are proud to share that more than 500 City employees participated in our process, so far. We have also received feedback from neighborhood associations, district coalition offices, and community-based organizations and activists on our neighborhood profiles. So far, we’ve only heard excitement and an eagerness for this process to continue.
We are happy to report that the majority of those who participated so far are very enthusiastic about having the public involved in this multi-month process to ensure that our engagement structure will work for all Portlanders.
We hope you will participate in our listening sessions in early 2023.
Q3: Civic Life has been through a lot of rebranding and reorganizing over the years. What is different about this one, and why are they doing this again?
A3: Portland is growing rapidly and requires a resilient engagement structure that enables ALL Portlanders to be substantively engaged in the decisions that most impact their lives.
Fortunately, City Council agreed and authorized the budget reallocation of salary savings from open positions for Civic Life to lead a citywide, multi-phase, multi-year engagement reimagining process now known as the Portland Engagement Project.
We are proud to share that more than 500 City employees participated in our process so far. We have also received feedback from neighborhood associations, district coalition offices, and community-based organizations and activists on our neighborhood profiles. So far, we’ve only heard excitement and an eagerness for this process to continue.
We hope you will participate in our listening sessions in early 2023.
Q4. Is this Code Change 2.0?
A3. No. Civic Life is leading PEP in order to hear from ALL Portlanders. We have no preconceived ideas on the outcome of this project. We don’t know if the Code will need updates to align with the results of PEP. If changes are needed, that process will only happen AFTER we have worked with community to figure out what that looks like.
Previous Code Change was designed and executed by a former City Commissioner and former Civic Life staff, all of whom are no longer working for the City.
Q5: How much will this cost, and who will approve this plan?
A5: City Council authorized the budget reallocation of salary savings from open positions for Civic Life to lead a citywide, multi-phase, multi-year engagement visioning process now known as the Portland Engagement Project.
- Council, employees, and Portlanders working within the existing engagement structure understand its complexity and share a desire to improve it.
- In early 2023, the City will launch extensive listening sessions throughout Portland. In spring 2023, the City and PSU will host an engagement summit to inform the input/ideation that will occur in the listening sessions.
- In mid-2023, the City will host informational meetings to share a data-rich profiles that includes extensive data points detailing race, language, food/housing security, and more by neighborhood to identify livability issues so that we can work together to directly address them.
Throughout this process, Civic Life will be holding regular progress meetings with City Commissioners, who ultimately have final authority to approve the outcomes of this planning effort, including determining its funding and resource allocation.
Q6: What is Council’s role in this plan? Why isn’t it more involved? And what is the public’s role?
A6: City Council agreed that the need for this project exists and authorized the budget reallocation of salary savings from open positions for Civic Life to lead a citywide, multi-phase, multi-year engagement reimagining process now known as the Portland Engagement Project.
Currently, elected City officials are not involved in designing or refining plan elements. This is by design, so that Civic Life (on the City’s behalf) can examine how it engages community members in a non-political way, and through a process that won’t be disrupted by elections or changes in Council leadership.
Throughout this process, Civic Life will be holding regular progress meetings with City Commissioners, who ultimately have final authority to approve the outcomes of this planning effort, including determining its funding and resource allocation.
Q7: Who is overseeing this effort to hold Civic Life accountable?
A7: Throughout this process, Civic Life will be holding regular progress meetings with City Commissioners, who ultimately have final authority to approve the outcomes of this planning effort, including determining its funding and resource allocation. Ultimately, it is those Portland community members that participate in PEP, as well as other City agencies and employees, who will determine the results of this project and hold the City accountable to that.
Q8: Everything is fine the way it is. Why is Civic Life doing this?
A8: Portland is growing rapidly and requires a resilient engagement structure that enables ALL Portlanders to be substantively engaged in the decisions that most impact their lives. The 2020 census shows Portland has grown by 12% since 2010 and 70% since 1970, and our growing pains are evidenced by the livability issues we see today.
A lot of meaningful work has come out of the existing District Office/Neighborhood Association framework. The City plans to build upon that excellent work to create a framework for Portland today and in the future. We will work with community members and other engagement and planning experts in a transparent, public process to bring today’s technology and engagement concepts to our framework.
Here are some past examples of work that continues to be relevant, and will help us enhance the City's existing engagement framework:
But first, we need to examine our engagement framework to identify and eliminate barriers (language, accessibility, housing/food insecurity, childcare, working multiple jobs, etc.) keeping Portlanders from participating in the decision-making and solution-planning efforts that effect their lives.
Change is hard, but we are excited to share that the majority of those who have participated so far are very enthusiastic about what they have seen and about having the public involved in this multi-month process to ensure that our engagement structure will work for all Portlanders. We hope you will participate in our listening sessions in early 2023.
Q9: We needed change yesterday. Why does this plan take multiple years to implement?
A9: Portland is growing rapidly and requires a resilient engagement structure that enables ALL Portlanders to be substantively engaged in the decisions that most impact their lives. The 2020 census shows Portland has grown by 12% since 2010 and 70% since 1970, and our growing pains are evidenced by the livability issues we see today.
A lot of meaningful work has come out of the existing District Office/Neighborhood Association framework. The City plans to build upon that excellent work to create a framework for Portland today and in the future. We will work with community members and other engagement and planning experts in a transparent, public process to bring today’s technology and engagement concepts to our framework.
But first, we need to examine our engagement framework to identify and eliminate barriers (language, accessibility, housing/food insecurity, childcare, working multiple jobs, etc.) keeping Portlanders from participating in the decision-making and solution-planning efforts that effect their lives. Doing this properly, to make sure all Portlanders have a voice and we do not perpetuate past wrongs, will take time.
We hope you will participate in our listening sessions in early 2023 and join us in building an engagement structure for all Portlanders to collaboratively solve civic, social and livability issues.
Q10: How were the internal stakeholders chosen to participate in this effort?
A10: Everyone at the City received an invitation to participate in the listening sessions. More than 500 employees, including those who regularly work in our communities across the city, participated either via survey or through facilitated group listening sessions.
The internal City employee listening sessions are complete. A summary report is expected to be issued in late 2022 as part of our effort to be transparent during this process.
Q11: How will Civic Life keep me updated on these efforts?
A11: We are committed to a transparent process.As an example, Civic Life collected feedback on the draft neighborhood profiles that were created by PSU and organized by neighborhood. These comments will help inform the data-rich map. We will also be posting updates to our website and circulate information at each milestone of the project. We hope you will participate in our listening sessions in early 2023.
- Neighborhood Profiles: Civic Life held a public comment period (from July to Sept. 2022) to collect qualitative feedback on which data points were useful and how we could improve the profiles. A summary of these findings will be shared soon and will inform the design and layout of our data-rich profiles.
- EXTERNAL listening: In early 2023, a robust effort will formally kick-off the multi-month listening session phase of this project.
- INTERNAL listening:The internal City employee listening sessions are complete and more than 500 employees participated. A summary report was issued in late 2022 and is on the main website.
- More info: email CivicLife@PortlandOregon.gov, or visit: portland.gov/civic/portland-engagement-project.
Q12: How can we ensure transparency in this process?
A12: We are proud to share that more than 500 City employees participated in our process so far. We have also received feedback from neighborhood associations, district coalition offices, and community-based organizations and activists on our neighborhood profiles. So far, we’ve only heard excitement and an eagerness for this process to continue.
We are committed to a transparent process.As an example, Civic Life collected feedback on the draft neighborhood profiles that were created by PSU and organized by neighborhood. These comments will help inform the data-rich map. We will also be posting updates to our website and circulate information at each milestone of the project. We hope you will participate in our listening sessions in early 2023.
- Neighborhood Profiles: Civic Life held a public comment period (from July to Sept. 2022) to collect qualitative feedback on which data points were useful and how we could improve the profiles. A summary of these findings will be shared soon and will inform the design and layout of our data-rich profiles.
- EXTERNAL listening: In early 2023, a robust effort will formally kick-off the multi-month listening session phase of this project.
- INTERNAL listening:The internal City employee listening sessions are complete and more than 500 employees participated. A summary report will be issued in late 2022.
- More info: Email CivicLife@PortlandOregon.gov, or visit: portland.gov/civic/portland-engagement-project.
Q13: Why/how were these consultants selected to lead this work?
A13: Pregame is a strategic planning and team planning change management consultant. They have worked with many Portland-based private and public sector organizations in designing frameworks that are informed by those who work/participate in them.
Pregame has helped Civic Life lead our internal listening sessions. To add continuity to our efforts, we have enrolled Pregame to formally execute the external engagement process starting in early 2023
Portland State University is a leading Portland-based academic institution. PSU currently houses the Population Research Center and National Policy Consensus Center (NPRC) in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government. We have contracted the neighborhood profiles/map building work with PRC and asked the Center for Public Service and Oregon’s Kitchen Table of the Hatfield School of Government to help us convene a diverse global engagement summit. The summit will host social scientists, public engagement professionals and community experts to present unique concepts to Portlanders.
Finally, we are supporting effective and efficient internal engagement collaboration and resource delivery. To begin, we are meeting with the 50 equitable engagement practitioners throughout the bureaus and are implementing a cohort learning network to strengthen their work and to better coordinate the engagement work across the city. For the launch of this body of work, we will work with the Centre for Public Impact who will bring ideas from many other cities around the nation and world to strengthen and inform our improved internal engagement practitioner network.
Ideas and lessons learned from the summit, from other cities and from employees all will inform PEP and the eventual updated engagement framework.
Q14: What does success look like and how will it be measured?
A14: Success means as many people as possible participate in this process.
More than 500 City employees participated in this process. We have also received feedback from neighborhood associations, district coalition offices, and community-based organizations and activists on our neighborhood profiles. So far, we’ve only heard excitement and an eagerness for this process to continue.
As a starting point of showing what measurement and success looks like, you can find the preliminary results from the City employee listening sessions and Neighborhood Profiles survey that will help inform the Portland Engagement Project’s efforts. At the end of the public external listening sessions, a summary report will also be issued.
We know the community’s feedback, ideas and solutions coupled with data-rich profiles will help the City/community identify community-specific issues so that we can work together to directly prioritize and uniquely address. In the end, Portlanders can expect an enhanced framework that includes the participation of hundreds in this public process that integrates today’s technology and engagement concepts offered by all Portlanders.
Q15: How will information be reporting out about PEP and what will the frequency be?
A15: Progress about the Portland Engagement Project can be best tracked on our website (portland.gov/civic/portland-engagement-project). If you’d like to be notified about timely updates, please be sure to sign-up for Civic Life’s bi-weekly email communication that will have periodic updates about PEP and PEP-related activities. See responses in Q11 and Q12.