The One City. One Voice. Shared Purpose communications and engagement plan (2022-2026) has been guiding the work of the City’s Strategic Communications and Community Engagement department since the plan was established in 2022. Developed to further the goals and priorities of the Guelph. Future Ready Strategic Plan, One City. One Voice. Shared Purpose was prepared as a living document to ensure the City is effective, responsive and resilient as we communicate and connect with our community.
Central to the plan is the fact that communication between the City and the community must flow both ways. The plan sets out key pillars—Listen, Evolve and Elevate—that highlight this need to improve our work by nailing the balance: we reach out to the community, we listen, we learn, we improve.
Though the plan is only mid-implementation, action driven by One City. One Voice. Shared Purpose has already delivered significant results. An update to the City’s Community Engagement Framework was completed with significant community input and delivered in 2023. The updated framework, consisting of the Community Engagement Policy, Community Engagement Charter and Community Engagement Honorarium Policy, has reinforced Guelph as an innovator in community engagement.
This framework structures the way we involve the community in City decision-making to ensure we’re nurturing relationships, building capacity for participation, and creating meaningful opportunities to influence decisions. Our community engagement, as guided by the updated framework, also embodies the mission, vision and values of Guelph. Future Ready strategic plan, ensuring input from persons with lived experience and members of equity-denied groups are appropriately compensated for their valuable contributions to City decision-making. Ensuring diverse and varied perspectives are heard is key to creating a City that reflects the needs and wants of all within the community.
Heading into mid-2024 and beyond, accompanied by the new Future Guelph strategic plan, the dynamic One City. One Voice. Shared Purpose communications and engagement plan will continue to guide strategic initiatives that will further improve the work we do and the connections we have with our community.
