NEWS RELEASE
CITY OF GUELPH
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Today the City of Guelph launched its new online engagement platform. The site, Have Your Say Guelph, which will host all online engagement opportunities for city projects, currently features three different activities for the Community Plan project with more to come.
“Finding new and innovative ways to reach and engage our community is important to us,” says Derrick Thomson, chief administrative officer. “We’re excited to test this new platform with the Community Plan, extending our reach into the community and meeting people where they are. These tools give us the opportunity to talk to people about our community’s direction who may not attend public events. We want the community to be heard and to know we’re listening.”
The engagement platform uses eight activities to ensure that in-person engagement activities can be mirrored online.
- Places – a simple way to gather feedback and ideas onto a map
- Ideas – a way for people to submit different ideas and show support for others
- Forums – a tool for transparent community discussion
- Questions – a tool for asking questions and receiving answers from the project team
- Guestbook – a space to leave a short comment or note
- Stories – a space for community members to share stories with one another
- Surveys – allows for quantitative data collection
- Polls – allows people to provide a quick answer to one question; results are shown in real-time
Guelph’s Community Plan
The city, alongside community members and partners, is working to build Guelph’s Community Plan, and it needs everyone’s voice. Guelph is growing. Our population is expected to grow from about 130,000 people in 2016 to 170,000 in 2030.
The plan will lay the foundation for a strong, welcoming and prosperous future for our community; one where everyone has a sense of belonging, can access essential services and earn a good living.
Once built, the plan will guide the work of our local government for the next 10 to 20 years and will give community organizations and citizens a shared road map to monitor progress and share what we learn.
Be heard. We’re listening.
- In person – join the community plan team at various community events.
- Online – engage in various conversations online at guelph.ca/community-plan.
- On your own – have a conversation with family, friends, neighbours and coworkers, then share your thoughts with the Community Plan team. There’s even a DIY conversation guide to help get the conversation started.
#makeyourmark
Visit guelph.ca/community-plan to learn more.
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