CitizenLab's Blog
  • Platform
  • Services
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Guides
  • About
  • Contact
  • Schedule a demo
  • English
    • Español
  • Home
  • >
  • 🏛️ Blog
  • >
  • Engaged cities are smart cities: how to make the most of your stimulus funds

Engaged cities are smart cities: how to make the most of your stimulus funds

By Ben Gordon Civic Engagement 16/04/2021
CitizenLab's Blog
  • Platform
  • Services
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Guides
  • About
  • Contact
  • Schedule a demo
  • English
    • Español
City landscape with American flag

In March 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), committing to distribute $350 billion to state and local governments. Compared to prior packages, ARPA provides cities and counties with more flexibility in how they allocate these funds, igniting debates across the country as to how to best prioritize spending. 

  • Update 5/21/21: The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently released additional guidance on how ARPA money can be spent. Engagement platforms meet ARPA requirements as they:
    1. Increase efficiency and improve the efficacy of economic relief programs
    2. Reach residents faster with critical updates, including re-opening notifications
    3. Enhance public communication, particularly for hard-hit communities and those not reached by other forms of engagement
    4. Modernize IT infrastructure and promote collaboration between departments and local governments

Reflecting on lessons learned

As more local governments begin to create ARPA action plans, they should incorporate the hard-learned lessons of the past year, most notably that: 

  1. Community needs change quickly,  
  2. COVID-19 hit some communities much harder than others, and 
  3. With limited budgets and competing needs, demonstrating impact is critical.

These funds, along with the infrastructure-focused American Jobs Plan, also represent new opportunities to re-imagine the future of communities. For the first time in over a year, local governments can begin to look further ahead and plan for a post-COVID future. 

A more resilient, equitable, data-driven future

With so much at stake, local governments across the US are using community engagement strategies to prioritize their recovery spending. Doing so will help their cities become more: 

  1. Resilient, by addressing community needs as they develop;
  2. Equitable, by prioritizing groups that have been most impacted by the pandemic’s economic and social effects; and
  3. Data-driven, by using community feedback to guide budget allocation upfront and to demonstrate impact afterward.

In short, local governments are at an inflection point. In the words of Milzy Carrasco, Director of Neighborhood Engagement for the City of Lancaster, community engagement “has gone from something we should do to something we have to do”, and is now an essential tool for smart decision-making and local leadership. 

Engaged cities in practice

Here are three ways cities can use community engagement to spend smarter, and become more resilient, equitable, and data-driven in the process: 

1. Engaged cities are resilient cities

COVID forced cities to move fast and be flexible, and those with engagement strategies were at an advantage as they already understood existing community needs and had communication systems in place to help learn on the fly. As the focus shifts to recovery, city leaders can now use engagement to evaluate, learn, and prepare for future climate, economic, or public health shocks. 

Engage Carlisle logo

One potential solution: Cities can create a single online hub that residents can turn to for up-to-date, accurate information. This hub becomes increasingly valuable when residents can also immediately weigh in with context-specific questions, feedback, and ideas. For larger cities, it’s critical to align this hub with existing online resources and create a “no wrong door” approach, meaning residents can easily access the information they need regardless of the initial system (or website) they use. 

Resiliency in action: In the early days of the pandemic, Carlisle, PA’s (pop. 20,000) Community Action Network (CAN) stepped up to triage information and resources for those who lost their jobs or needed food or medical support. CAN, launched two years prior in partnership with Dickenson College, was able to quickly meet community needs because they already had the network and know-how in place, and could also get creative in meeting new challenges. For example, as the pandemic wore on, CAN marshaled Dickenson computer science students to help local businesses set up online stores. Carlisle has since invested in their own online engagement hub, Engage Carlisle, and is currently a finalist for the All America City Award run by the National Civic League. 

2. Engaged cities are equitable cities

COVID hit communities of color particularly hard. Black and Brown Americans have experienced much higher rates of job loss, as well as death and hospitalization. Cities must factor these disparities into their recovery spending and design engagement strategies that prioritize those communities most in need.  

Lancaster community poll screenshot

One potential solution: Equitable online engagement first requires cities to recognize and evaluate their own digital divides, and craft dedicated outreach strategies to communities that may not already be online. City leaders can create dedicated virtual spaces to engage specific communities based on demographics, neighborhoods, or local group affiliation. These virtual spaces can feature live engagement (e.g. regular online meetings) or asynchronous engagement (e.g. part of an existing online platform). This approach ensures all engagement is inclusive and diverse, and allows city leaders to rebuild trust and dive deeper into the issues facing now further marginalized communities.

Equity in action: While known for its Amish population, 40% of Lancaster, PA (pop. 60,000) residents are Spanish-speaking, and the city resettles the most refugees per capita in the United States. To raise awareness about their new online engagement platform, Engage Lancaster, City leaders launched a multilingual outreach campaign that included, phone and paper surveys (co-designed with residents), radio ads, and paper flyers with embedded QR codes to capture feedback and drive engagement to the platform. As a result, traditionally underrepresented communities began using the platform at record rates. Building off this success, the City is now planning to provide minority community leaders with their own dedicated online spaces within Engage Lancaster where they can regularly meet and coordinate their own community’s needs. 

3. Engaged cities are data-driven cities

After Google’s Sidewalk Labs decided to abandon its work in Toronto due to community push-back, it’s clear that a city can only be “smart” if its leaders understand local wants and needs. With a developed online engagement strategy, city leaders can make smarter, data-driven budget decisions and better measure and demonstrate impact after the fact. 

Youth4Climate engagement platform

One potential solution: One of the many benefits of online engagement is the amount of hyper-local and real-time data it produces. By setting up dashboards to track existing engagement initiatives, and incorporating Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to analyze comments, ideas, and written feedback, city leaders gain a granular understanding of where and when money needs to be allocated. Then, once money begins moving, cities can continue to engage both broadly and within specific groups and neighborhoods to evaluate and demonstrate impact.

Data in action: In 2019, youth-led climate protests sprung up around the world, pushing for more drastic action against climate change. In response, organizers of Belgium’s local group launched an online engagement platform on which youth from around the country could share, discuss, and vote on ideas and policy measures they wanted to see. The platform was an overwhelming success, but now organizers had a new problem: too much data. They needed to analyze and make sense of the movement’s thousands of ideas and comments, made in multiple languages, in a short time period. To do this, organizers used Natural Language Processing tools to identify common and emergent themes, helping them to identify 15 priority topics for further discussion and eventual transformation into policy.   

Planning for the future

Last year, COVID forced us all to think differently about how local government systems work and who they serve. This year, we must take that same open-minded approach to recovery spending, especially in light of the ARPA, and bring the community into the conversation as early and often as possible. Doing so will ensure city spending increases resilience and equity, and is supported by data. More importantly, a robust community engagement strategy will reinstill a much-needed local sense of “we”, creating long-term compounding benefits and building (and rebuilding) trust between local governments and their residents. 

Schedule a call banner

You May Also Like

Civic Engagement 4 days ago
3 things an online survey can and can’t do
person using a laptop
Civic Engagement 12/08/2022
How can cities tell their stories for higher community engagement?
Person using the CitizenLab platform on their laptop
Civic Engagement 04/08/2022
Mid-year CitizenLab update: the solutions we have released so far
Community of people sitting together in a circle
Civic Engagement 03/08/2022
Building CitizenLab’s Community of Practice
SocialMedia
Civic Engagement 01/08/2022
4 reasons why social media isn’t enough for community engagement
Solutions
  • All solutions
  • Strategy & Budgeting
  • Planning & Public Spaces
  • Environment & Sustainability
  • Mobility & Infrastructure
  • Neighborhoods & Community Development
Platform
  • Platform features
  • Services
  • Plans
  • Schedule a demo
Academy
  • Resources
  • Blog
Company
  • About
  • Jobs
  • Partners
Get in touch
  • +44 79 2676 4670
  • +1 530 270 3403
  • Contact form
Blog
3 things an online survey can and can’t do
How can cities tell their stories for higher community engagement?
Mid-year CitizenLab update: the solutions we have released so far
© 2022 CitizenLab: Community Engagement Platform. All rights reserved.
By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThe _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gid1 dayInstalled by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement1 yearSet by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
CookieLawInfoConsent1 yearRecords the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.
geot_rocket_citysessionNo description available.
geot_rocket_countrysessionNo description available.
geot_rocket_statesessionNo description available.
PHPSESSIDsessionThis cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
STYXKEY_geot_countrysessionNo description
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
CookieDurationDescription
bcookie2 yearsLinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID.
langsessionLinkedIn sets this cookie to remember a user's language setting.
lidc1 dayLinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_gat_gtag_UA_65562281_11 minuteSet by Google to distinguish users.
_gcl_au3 monthsProvided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services.
CONSENT2 yearsYouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
undefinedneverWistia sets this cookie to collect data on visitor interaction with the website's video-content, to make the website's video-content more relevant for the visitor.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to display advertisements when either on Facebook or on a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising, after visiting the website.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 months 27 daysA cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSCsessionYSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devicesneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-idneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt.innertube::nextIdneverThis cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requestsneverThis cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
intercom-id-p4lr69wg8 months 26 days 1 hourNo description
intercom-session-p4lr69wg7 daysNo description
loglevelneverNo description available.
trx_addons_is_retina1 yearThis cookie is used for checking if the user has a retina display.
wp-wpml_current_languagesessionNo description available.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
CookieDurationDescription
AMP_TOKEN1 hourThis cookie is set by Google Analytics and contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo

Please share your location to continue.

Check our help guide for more info.

share your location