Council Approves Making 'Food for Feedback' an Annual Community Engagement Event in Burlington
At our April 18 Burlington City Council meeting, we approved making "Food for Feedback" an annual community engagement event in our city to help us continually receive input from residents. At our March 29 Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability (CSSRA) Committee, we also received a staff report from the Corporate Communications and Engagement department providing a status update on engagement, communications, and volunteers from 2022 in Burlington.We approved continuing the Food for Feedback at Central Park for 2023 and rotate future events between different suitable locations across the city.In January 2022, Council was presented findings from the statistically-valid 2021 Community Survey and the consulting firm that facilitated the survey had remarked the findings for Burlington in all categories, including engagement, were very high and not often achieved by municipalities. The next Community Survey is scheduled for Fall 2023. This year is also the 10-year anniversary of our City's Community Engagement Charter.
MY TAKE:This is great work by staff. The different channels and vast array of ways the community can engage with the City — it’s great to see. I’m very much looking forward to the review of our City’s Engagement Charter. Thank you to our Corporate Communications and Engagement team for this comprehensive review.To view the full staff report and related documents, please see the links below:
- Staff report: CC-01-23 2022 Annual Engagement, Communications and Volunteer Report
- Staff presentation: CC-01-23, Engagement, communications and volunteer update for 2022 Staff presentation
- For additional Appendices & supporting documents, please click/tap the link
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Background:The Community Engagement Charter (Engagement Charter) was approved by City Council in April of 2013. The Engagement Charter was created by residents with support from City staff. It is an agreement between and among Burlington City Council and residents concerning community engagement with City government and establishes the commitments, responsibilities and fundamental concepts of this relationship.To ensure the continued success of the Community Engagement Charter, the City invited members of the Charter team to help develop an Engagement Charter Action Plan. This team of community members and staff was known as the Charter Action Team (ChAT). The Action Plan aims to bring the Engagement Charter to life and to embed engagement into everyday practice at the City of Burlington. The Charter Action Plan was approved and adopted in April 2014. Along with Vision to Focus alignment, community engagement is part of the strategic direction An Engaging City in the Vision 2040 Strategic Plan. This strategic direction clearly demonstrates the City’s commitment to include residents in decision making. In 2020, there was a department name change to “Corporate Communications and Engagement” which emphasized the importance the City places on community members being engaged, empowered, welcomed and well served by their City through outstanding customer experiences.It should be noted that 2023 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Community Engagement Charter. The community has changed in the last 10 years and staff plan to engage with residents to refresh the charter and to capture the essence of what engagement looks like in Burlington for 2023 and beyond.Burlington has been and continues to be a leader in community engagement. In 2017, the City of Burlington was awarded “Organization of the Year” in Canada by IAP2 (International Association for Public Participation). In January of 2022, Council was presented findings from the statistically valid 2021 Community Survey; there were continued gains made in the area of engagement.Percentage indicates a combined rating of either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree”:
| STATEMENT | 2015 | 2019 | 2021 |
| Residents have enough opportunities to provide input into decision-making about city projects and service. | 65% | 77% | 79% |
| I would like to provide input to the City for the purpose of influencing decision-making about city projects and services. | 63% | 76% | 80% |
| The City does a good job of engaging residents in decision-making about city projects and services. | 54% | 71% | 75% |
| The City would welcome my opinion when making decisions about city projects and services that impact me. | 57% | 71% | 75% |
| The City uses input from residents in decision making about city projects and services. | 50% | 70% | 71% |
| The City’s decision-making about projects and services is reflective of the voice of the majority of residents. | 46% | 63% | 65% |
The consulting firm that facilitated the 2021 Community Survey remarked that the findings in all categories, including engagement, were very high and not often achieved by municipalities. The next Community Survey is scheduled for the fall of 2023. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly made us rethink how to engage and collaborate with each other. Going forward, there will be a need to have in-person, virtual and hybrid engagement opportunities to allow for broad participation and to give people a choice for their voice.2023 will be a year where there will be a variety of large and small initiatives that require public input, and it is also the 10-year anniversary of the Community Engagement Charter.Some of the engagement goals for 2023:
- Establish a resident roster, which was previously paused due to COVID. The aim of the roster is to create a ready list of residents that represent a cross section of the community. This roster can be used for activities such as focus groups or user testing of new City initiatives;
- Launch the 2023 Community Survey;
- Continue to on-board the remaining City services that require volunteers into the new volunteer management software and program;
- Celebrate and refresh the Community Engagement Charter;
- Creating a demographic profile of Burlington to help with communications and engagement; and
- Explore innovation and engagement best practices.
Through the efforts of staff, council, members of advisory committees, and the many passionate and engaged residents of Burlington, we will continue to work together to build capacity so that the best decisions are made. Together, we will continue to work to make Burlington one of the best cities in which to live, work, play and retire in.