Community Engagement
FEATURED PROJECTS
Shaping the future of the Windy City.
Metropolitan Planning Council and the City of Chicago
Launching a master plan for the third largest city in the nation requires collaboration. When the Metropolitan Planning Council and the City of Chicago announced their first citywide planning process for the Windy City since the 1960s, we convened and facilitated a series of virtual stakeholder workshops to engage a cross-sector group of 80 Chicago stakeholders to hear from other cities around the country and collaboratively outline what should come next. All Together designed the final report as a workbook to begin aligning needed partnerships and resources, engage participants to continue shaping the planning process, and serve as an engagement tool for future phases of the We Will Chicago Plan. All Together has remained involved in the process, as part of the consultant team leading facilitation for Phase 2.
Lifting up the legacy of this phenomenal community.
Groundwork NRG and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, KS
Telling and preserving the stories of NE Kansas City, Kansas is an exercise in discovery. The neighborhood was once home to abolitionists who created a freeman’s colony and aided those enslaved in escaping through the Underground Railroad. Along the Missouri River at Kaw Point, the Lewis and Clark expedition party camped on their way from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. Groundwork NRG and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County are working to create the NE KCK Heritage Trail that integrates land use, green infrastructure, and job access, with expanded transportation options, participatory community planning, and NE KCK’s rich history. As a part of the planning team led by Collabo Planning, All Together is leading the effort to gather stories from the community to design and program physical and digital memorialization along the future trail.
Creating stop-in-your-tracks content.
The City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development
Clark Street in Uptown is at an exciting crossroads. The corridor anchors and connects iconic Chicago neighborhoods. It is filled with a mix of uses, mobility options, parks and historic cemeteries, and a diverse population of residents and business owners. But it is also in need of a strategic vision for its future and its own unique identity. All Together is working hand-in-hand with the community and business owners, to develop a unified vision that guides future investment and public realm improvements along the corridor. Starting with a dynamic and engaging project brand, we’re tapping into existing communication channels throughout the corridor to ensure more people know about the project and get involved.
Breaking down zoning and the legacy of racism.
City of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin’s Zone Tosa for All
How do you get a community to feel excited about zoning and invested in a new, equity-focused approach? Alongside our project partners Duncan Associates and P3 Development, we did just that. All Together led engagement and communications strategy for the Zone Tosa for All project, which focused on integrating equity into future planning efforts, as well as zoning and development decisions. While it’s just a start to confronting the legacy of racism and its ongoing effects on the built environment, it’s progress. And because of that, we are all in.
Building engagement into wayfinding design, countywide.
The County of DuPage, Wheaton, IL
Through our work on the DuPage County Trails Master Plan, we crafted a detailed engagement plan that summarized when different engagement pushes would occur throughout the two year long process, who needed to be engaged, and how to make the process accessible. The plan explores how digital and physical engagement could be utilized to gain insights from trail users—from an interactive project website to temporary signage with QR codes along County trails. While the project is ongoing, the first survey has already received over 2,000 responses. A project brand brings cohesion to the planning process and builds off of existing trail identities and sets the stage for a broader rebranding of the county-wide system of trails, led by All Together, to come.
Engaging a community in the midst of Covid.
Metropolitan Planning Council and City of Chicago 49th Ward Office
When the Metropolitan Planning Council and City of Chicago’s 49th Ward Office came to us looking for a creative spin on traditional outreach methods in the midst of COVID, we sprang into action. Social media and SMS text updates, extensive flyering, interactive polling, virtual workshops, a series of educational videos, and socially-distanced in-person workshops were strategically combined to ensure that the voices of the community were heard and amplified.
Mobilizing an entire city
around accessibility.
City of Evanston, IL
Disability doesn’t discriminate, so why should our parks and sidewalks? In partnership with the City of Evanston and the planning team, we’re communicating the importance of this project in a makes-you-stop-in-your-tracks-to-learn-more kinda way. Through digital and intercept campaigns, paired with interactive workshops and surveys, we’re mobilizing the entire Evanston community to help create a blueprint for the City to enhance the accessibility of its parks, municipal facilities, sidewalks and intersections, and programs and services well into the next decade.
