This facilitation handbook was created for the major project course of Langara College’s Applied Planning program in Vancouver, BC.
Engagement is an important part of community planning in Canada. Many planners agree that engagement is essential to the planning process, and that the way people are engaged should be chosen carefully. However, it is still treated as a check-box exercise sometimes, not being done meaningfully across jurisdictions and organizations.
Members of the public, stakeholders, and decision-makers are often engaged in person, and most of the time these activities are facilitated by someone else. Even in a digital post-pandemic age, in-person facilitation is still important. Some facilitators find that virtual engagements are more difficult, but at the same time it makes it more accessible than ever for people to provide input on community issues.
The purpose of my major project is to share best practices for in-person facilitation which is conducted during community planning engagement.
Research methods:
- Seven informational interviews conducted with professional Canadian planners and facilitators who work in planning
- Attending a six-hour “Fundamentals of Public Participation (P2) and Engagement” delivered by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Canada
- Online research, mostly of Canadian sources, as well as drawing from Langara course content
You can find the handbook below, as well as a recording of my final presentation that I captured while practicing at home.
Feel free to reach out to me any time if you have any feedback or want to discuss the handbook.
Download the handbook
The PDF in it’s originally published format includes alternative text, specified reading order, and other accessibility considerations.
No Generative AI was used for writing the handbook, but was used in a couple instances for research.
marina miller 
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