New York City’s Pursuit of Community-Centric Project Management: A Close-Up

New York, NY – As municipal and regional governments in the United States continue to amplify their engagement with communities, there is a notable shift towards integrating and institutionalizing community engagement across and within agencies. This is aimed at fostering a community-centered design, which is increasingly being recognized as crucial for the success of government projects and initiatives.

According to World Economic Forum, an in-depth analysis of the early results from the federal “Build Back Better” program, which is part of the American Rescue Plan, reveals that a significant 65% of state applicants lacked a robust community engagement plan. This underlines a pressing need for more effective strategies in integrating communities in project planning and implementation.

In the past year, New York City has witnessed the establishment of The Mayor’s Office of Engagement, the Community Planning and Engagement division under NYC Planning, and the renewal of the Civic Engagement Commission. This underscores the city’s commitment to enhancing community engagement and participation. The federal government is also playing a role in this shift, as seen with the integration of community engagement requirements in its funding calls, exemplified by the “Build Back Better” program. This program evaluates potential funding recipients based on how they plan to engage residents and community leadership throughout the duration of the project, emphasizing the need for structured processes to map and engage residents and collect impact data for evaluation purposes.

The city of Brownsville in Brooklyn serves as a poignant example of the challenges and opportunities presented by community engagement. With a population of 117,000, predominantly identifying as Black, the community has faced issues with community engagement not due to a lack of commitment or willingness from the government, but due to a strain on capacity. Addressing these challenges requires a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating skills such as service design, conflict resolution, and social psychology research, all integrated into a comprehensive process.

Resident leaders in Brownsville have shared valuable insights on effective community engagement. They emphasize the importance of leading with local voices, removing participation barriers, and harnessing existing local resources. These strategies not only empower community members but also contribute to a more informed and productive effort.

From a social science perspective, community-centered research is crucial, and adapting academic approaches to fit new contexts is necessary. Lessons learned from this work highlight the importance of considering all collaborators as valuable contributors, designing with goals and constraints in mind, and striking a balance with validated content.

As governments at all levels increasingly adopt data-driven community engagement, leveraging these insights becomes imperative for achieving greater equity at scale. The city of New York, with its recent initiatives, stands at the forefront of this transformation, serving as a model for other municipalities striving for meaningful and effective community engagement.