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Inclusive Community Workshop Resources

The Kelsey

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Sample Workshop Agenda

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Welcome and Introductions - Who is everyone? (5 minutes)

Greet attendees and thank them for joining the meeting.
Introduce yourself and any other key individuals involved in organizing the meeting.
Briefly explain the purpose of the meeting and the importance of community involvement in the project.

Overview or Goal of the Project- What is this workshop contributing to? (5 to 10 minutes)

Provide a brief overview of the proposed accessible affordable housing project.
Highlight the project's goals to meet the needs of the community it aims to serve.
Share key details about the project, such as the design features, amenities, and affordability measures.

Workshop Activities and Feedback Sessions (30 to 90 minutes)

Interactive, engaged activities to collect useful input form your workshop participants.
Can take many forms.
See the rest of this side deck for tools on how to plan these sessions.
Remember to record what was shared and learned.

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Sample Workshop Agenda- Adapt to Fit Your Project’s Needs

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Q&A - What questions do the participants have? (10 minutes)

Allocate time for attendees to ask questions about the project and the process.
Note down any questions that might take follow up after the session

Next Steps and Action Plan - What happens next? (5 to 10 minutes)

Summarize the key points discussed during the meeting.
Explain how and when you’ll follow up with the learnings from this session.
Outline the next steps in the project's trajectory.

Closing Remarks (5 minutes)

Thank all the attendees for their participation and valuable input.
Provide information on how attendees can stay informed and engaged in the project's development.

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Sample Workshop Agenda- Adapt to Fit Your Project’s Needs

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Example Pre & Post Session Surveys

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Example Pre-Session Survey

Example Post-Session Survey

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Workshop Sessions

Types & Tools

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Session Types

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Design Charettes

Brainstorming/Option Generation

The goal of a brainstorming session is to generate lots of options, answers, or ideas around a specific question.

Pose an open ended topic or question. A great way to do this is to start the questions with “How might we….?”

The point here is to generate quantity and abundance. (You can sort and prioritize later.)

IDEO’s rules of brainstorming

Defer Judgment. Creative spaces are judgment-free zones—they let ideas flow so people can build from each other's great ideas.
Encourage Wild Ideas. This isn’t the time to restrict based on “possible.”
Build on the Ideas of Others. “Yes, and…”
Stay Focused on the Topic.
One Conversation at a Time.
Be Visual- sketch, draw, doodle.
Go for Quantity.

Design Charettes are used by design professionals to get insight and inspiration to help direct their work.
It’s important to have physical components to work with to make it easy for everyone to engage in the design process.

Printed maps or site plans
Markers
Blank paper
Transparent paper
Physical representations of objects or buildings

The organizer talks the group(s) through a series of design exercises to explore ways of designing the space including different ways to analyze the site, think about circulation, understand challenges, or surface opportunities.

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Workshop Tools

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Sticky Notes

Personal Stories

Sticky notes are a great way to get everyone to participate in a workshop.
Make sure to have enough that every person can have their own stack.
For active brainstorming, everyone can record ideas as they come, and then share them by posting up on a common wall.
Stickys can be re-organized or grouped after an initial brainstorm to surface themes within responses.

Free-Form Discussions

Personal stories of lived experience are a great way to understand the nuance and depth of how the participants connect to the topic.
Ask open ended questions about lived experience to encourage participants to share as much or as little as they’d like.
Block out enough time that anyone who would like to share has the opportunity to do so.

As a organizer of a workshop, your goal is to speak as little as possible, and give space for your participants to share.
Sometimes the best way to learn new information is to give time and space for your participants to talk to each other and explore a topic organically.
Be okay with uncomfortable silence if it takes a moment before conversation happens.

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Examples of Workshop Sessions

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Example Sessions

Example Session 1: Stakeholder Brainstorming & Role Playing

Example Session 2: Moments that Matter

Example Session 3: Prioritization Ranking

The goal of this session is to become aware of any differences in thoughts, values, or ideas that may differ for different stakeholders

Start by brainstorming different people who might be part of the project
For each stakeholder, flesh out who they are- How old are they? Where have they lived? What are key elements of their lived experience?
Finally, as a group, spend time thinking about each stakeholder’s perspective.

What is important to them in this project?
What can their lived experience contribute?

In this session the focus is on brainstorming ‘non-negotiables’ and ‘negotiables’ elements of the program. What pieces of the project fall into each category for each participant?

Non-negotiables: The must haves for the project
Negotiables: The nice to haves for the project
Have each of these categories in large letters on a wall
Have everyone actively add to each category (sticky notes are great for this!)
Discuss why each falls into one category or the other

Give your participants a printed list of priorities for a project and have them spend some time ranking them.

Make sure to have large list- over 10 options
If something isn’t important at all, it shouldn’t be in the ranking
After everyone has worked on ranking individually, facilitate a discussion on why each person ranked priorities they way they did.
Were there any missing priorities?

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Headline Activity

Each person imagines themselves picking up the local newspaper in 2028. The newspaper has an article about housing in the area. What is the title of the article?

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Close to a city center
Close to public transportation
Community Shared Space
Retail Space
“Gentle Density”: Low Rise or Cottage Community
Works well with “neighbors”
All homes have affordable rents
Open/green space is available
On site staff ex: Inclusion Concierge
Environmentally sustainable
Easy access to community amenities
Complete by 2027
Parking is available
At least 25% housing for people with disabilities
Up to 50% housing for people with disabilities
Cross-disability focus
Having a lottery system for residents

Guiding Principles: Prioritization Activity

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Take 5 minutes to rank these priorities or other priorities you would include. Think of each as a tradeoff and rank based on what is more important to you and your role on the steering committee. If something is not important at all, do not include in your ranking

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Design Principles Activity

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Pick 3 Design Principles that matter most to you (or create your own!).

If a design principle matters most in relation to a certain space (public, shared, or private) feel free to note that.

To feel safe in my community.

To include people who are different from me.

To have shared community space in the building.

To be close to employment opportunities.

To have green space that is easily accessible.

To feel welcomed and invited to engage.

To connect with people who I have things in common with.

To avoid having to travel far to get to the things I need and like to do.

To look cared for and well maintained.

To access different

cultural attractions around me.

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To invite community healing.