This indicator evaluates the public’s experience with a project’s engagement process.

Understanding participant experience helps the City create accessible engagement plans that acknowledge community members’ voices.

• Assess participant satisfaction using participant satisfaction surveys, discussed in Step 6: Create and Implement a Public Engagement Plan, and Step 8: Evaluate the Engagement Process.

Demographic representation evaluates the degree to which participant demographics match the demographics of the project’s impact area. Local demographics can be used as benchmarks to compare with participant demographics.

Demographic representation provides a fuller picture of the public’s experiences and priorities, allowing diverse perspectives and backgrounds to be considered when the City makes decisions. If the demographic proportions of the people who participated in a project are significantly different than the project area’s population, it may mean that some voices were missed and/or that others are over-represented, which is relevant information for a decision-maker to consider.

• Staff should seek to engage participants who represent the demographics of the project’s impact area, e.g. the entire city or a specific community. Measure participant demographics against the project area’s demographics.
  • A project's participant demographics may not immediately match the actual project area demographics, but over time, staff should seek continued improvement.

Reach is the number of people who became aware of or engage in a project.

Reaching a broad swath of people affected by a project promotes inclusion in the engagement process so that the public has ample opportunity to become aware of and/or participate in decision-making.

• Assess in-person reach by reviewing sign-in sheets, sign-up forms and comment cards.
• Review digital engagement such as social media reach, paid or earned media impressions, email open and click-through rates and project webpage views.
  • For social media or earned media, work with the Communications Department to gather reports on impressions/views.
  • Work with the Web Services team (accessible to City Staff only) to gather webpage analytics such as page visits.

This indicator evaluates the degree to which public comments are focused to the project’s input areas and can therefore be used to help inform decision-makers.

Assessing quality of public input helps determine clear objectives and parameters for participation were effectively provided.

• Track all public input in an organized manner. Once the public input period is complete, conduct a content analysis.
  • If responses are not focused to the topics at hand, evaluate how project overviews, prompts or questions can be more straightforward for the next project.