WSP-Community Resilience and Emergency Management

SOQ | Community Resilience and Emergency Management

Community Engagement 

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Reaching a Diverse Range of Community Members

Representative WSP Projects

Creating a Welcoming Environment for Feedback To foster authentic dialogue, we use participatory methods that empower community members as co-creators:.

State Route (SR) 99 Lynnwood and Unincorporated Snohomish County Pre-Design Study WSP led targeted outreach with limited English proficiency (LEP) communities, organizing focus groups with Vietnamese and Spanish-speaking residents to inform multimodal corridor design. Feedback directly influenced crosswalk placement, sidewalk width, and transit access points.

ONGOING FEEDBACK LOOPS

COMMUNITY BASED TASK FORCE REUNDERSTANDING

COMMUNITY “WALKSHOPS”

WSP approaches engagement not as a checkbox, but as a meaningful opportunity to understand, uplift, and co-create with the communities most impacted by past infrastructure decisions. WSP’s Community Engagement Support team works in close collaboration with our clients to design and implement equitable, transparent, and community-driven engagement processes. When developing an engagement strategy, we identify and prioritize communities who are most impacted, have been structurally excluded, and are prioritized through our clients’ equity index. Together, we build on our clients’ strong foundation of neighborhood partnerships, City community relationships, recent trust-building, and public health collaborations to ensure all voices are welcomed, especially those from communities that have been historically underserved or marginalized. Through a process rooted in cultural understanding, trusted partnerships, and shared decision-making, we

■ Diverse task forces include local residents, youth, health professionals, people with mobility impacting disabilities, first responders, and agency partner ■ Task force guides outreach priorities and co-develops key strategies and goals. ■ This group helps the project’s direction reflect real community concerns.

■ These field-based sessions pair residents and transportation professionals to assess on-the-ground safety conditions and placemaking/ placekeeping opportunities. ■ By walking corridors together, we combine technical analysis with lived experience.

■ Community input doesn’t end with one event. ■ We maintain regular communication through newsletters, project websites, and social media ■ We report back to participants on how their input is shaping decisions.

Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) Regional Safety Action Plan WSP implemented an equity

focused public engagement process using crash data and demographic overlays to prioritize engagement in high-risk areas. This ensured safety investments were aligned with community-identified needs.

Strategies ■ Community-Based Partnerships ■ Culturally Responsive Materials and Events ■ Multiple Channels for Input ■ Rapid deployment of communications staff ■ Visual storytelling and digital support ■ Collaborative emergency communications infrastructure

create accessible and inclusive opportunities for participation that reflect the unique identities, experiences, and needs of our clients’ diverse neighborhoods. We are an integrated team who gets both engagement and mobility. We design engagement activities around project milestones, taking the time to provide information and craft questions for meaningful community input. This ensures participants’ time and expertise is provided and/or translated into usable results for true co-creation.

CASE STUDY: OREGON WILDFIRES CRITICAL CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION SUPPORT

WSP’s Communications Advisory Services team played a crucial role in supporting Oregon’s recovery efforts after the devastating 2020 Labor Day Wildfires by establishing and managing a comprehensive crisis communications program for the newly-formed Wildfire Debris Management Task Force. The team rapidly deployed experts to assist with media relations, stakeholder engagement, and public outreach, effectively communicating the cleanup process and buidling community trust during a complex disaster compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Key services included: ■ Integrated public information officers ■ Content development and dissemination for online channels ■ Direct management of media content ■ Media relations and tours ■ Community Story and progress updates to key stakeholders ■ Videography and graphic design and publishing ■ Blog and website support ■ Building community trust through public meetings and extensive outreach activities

Removing Barriers to Participation We design all engagement activities with inclusion in mind.

LANGUAGE ACCESS ACCESSIBILITY

COMPENSATION & INCENTIVES We offer stipends or gift cards for parWticipation in focus groups and working groups to acknowledge and value people’s time— especially those from lower income backgrounds.

TRUSTED FACILITATORS

Translation and interpretation services are provided for Tacoma’s top non-English languages—Spanish, Tagalog, Korean, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian—where needed to eliminate language as a barrier to participation.

A vast majority of venues and digital platforms are ADA compliant, and events are structured to be welcoming to seniors, people with disabilities, and families.

Our outreach teams include facilitators who reflect the demographics of the community, ensuring participants feel comfortable, heard, and respected.

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