Client Need

The City of Santa Rosa Office of Community Engagement (City) and the Community Advisory Board (CAB) sought a strategic planning process that would define measurable success metrics with stakeholder input, identify actionable opportunities for improvement, and chart a course for sustainable implementation of the plan to help the CAB better serve the community and coordinate with the City and Council.

Our Approach

We facilitated a strategic planning process with the City’s Community Engagement Department and the Community Advisory Board (CAB) to chart an actionable roadmap for their future. We recommended an eight step, iterative strategic roadmap process designed to build capacity, cultivate ownership, and establish buy-in among participants such that they become true owners and champions of implementation. We conducted over 30 interviews and held 2 focus groups that included City staff, City Council, the Mayor, members of the Board and diverse community groups. With data synthesized from the interviews and focus groups, we facilitated two workshops to develop the mission, vision, strategic objectives, metrics and year-1 work plans with CAB and members of the public.

Our contract has since been extended to include strategic guidance around plan implementation.

Outcomes

1. Engagement of diverse stakeholders through interviews and focus groups to inform the process, cultivate ownership and buy-in, and inform the initial planning direction.
2. Facilitation of  two workshops for the The Community Advisory Board, a 14-member volunteer group representing various neighborhoods throughout the City
3. A 5-Year Strategic Roadmap that was the product of our stakeholder engagement efforts with buy-in and support generated by diverse groups.
4. Logo and Branding services provided as added value to the project.