Engage, Empower, Implement: Guide to Community-Based Planning

Planners play an important role in people’s everyday lives, but their decisions are influenced by their own lived experience, breadth of education, and professional training. These influences become apparent when we try to address inequities in a system plagued by historically discriminatory policies and practices. Although the planning profession has evolved over the years to consider its impacts on public health and the environment, it hasn’t begun to dismantle the power dynamics that keep community members from making decisions about their own futures. In 2020, the Sacramento (California) Area Council of Governments (SACOG) decided to change that.

SACOG’s new funding program — Engage, Empower, Implement (EEI) — is funding a new community-led planning approach by starting at the beginning. Local governments must partner with community-based organizations to address the needs of and provide tangible benefits to disinvested communities.

Presenters share their experience with developing, failing, revising, and ultimately implementing a first-of-its-kind funding program focused on inclusive, equitable, and community-led planning. Throughout the program’s development, the team routinely challenged the planning status quo.. Now EEI is creating a systemic shift in the planning field and improving how planners approach community engagement.

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