Perhaps
you work for a local or county government, or are a professional
planner, working on their behalf. You help communities plan for their
futures to make life better for the people who live, visit and work
there. You may plan physical things – land use, streetscapes, traffic,
downtowns, corridors – or activities -- recreation services, business
attraction, crime prevention.
Those plans
must be based on the needs and desires of citizens and business owners,
but they are often hard to research. They may not know you need their
input, or may think they’re not affected. The worst case scenario
happens when they opt out of the planning process, then discover, late
in the game, that they oppose the results, and rise up in protest.
Telling them, “you had a chance to participate and you didn’t,” may be
true, but it won’t fix your problem. The Douglas Communications Group uses a wide menu
of tools to help planners find and engage people in their communities,
including publicity, direct mail, neighborhood associations, civic
groups and the Internet.
