What we heard – early survey results

The City of Kingston is evaluating how we engagement with the Kingston community. We’re evaluating our guiding framework, engagement resources and tools to identify areas of improvement and gauge the framework's success in achieving its intended objectives and identify areas for improvement.

What is public engagement?

Public engagement may mean different things to different people, but for the purpose of this evaluation, we have defined it as anytime the City of Kingston asks community members for ideas, information or opinions to help make decisions on projects or policies. Examples of public engagement you may have taken part in are information sessions, Zoom meetings, surveys, committee volunteerism and open houses.

What is the Public Engagement Framework?

Approved by Council in 2017, the City of Kingston's Public Engagement Framework is a comprehensive and inclusive approach aimed at involving citizens in decision-making processes. With a commitment to transparency and collaboration, the framework seeks to foster meaningful dialogue and active participation from all community members.

Next steps

Your feedback and the evaluation findings will provide valuable insights to enhance the framework and ensure that future engagement efforts align with our commitment to transparency, inclusivity and effective decision-making. We will also be gathering feedback through focus groups with residents and community organizations in the coming months. Interested in participating in a focus group? Sign up today!

Engagement results

Public engagement is an essential part of our work at the City and requires thoughtful evaluation. This survey was an initial step that offered us an opportunity to hear more about your experiences and identify opportunities for improvement.

Residents were invited to complete a survey from June 22 until Aug. 24 online, by mail or in-person at engagement pop-ups.

  • 1,500 visitors to the project page
  • 276 survey responses
  • 2 emailed responses
  • 14 signs ups for focus group discussions
  • Five pop-up events at Spring into Summer, Kingston Pride Community Fair, Canada Day, Skeleton Parks Art Festival and Kingston Public Market

Emerging themes

Based on the feedback provided through our survey, we can improve our public engagement in five key areas, including:

  • Authenticity and transparency: Many respondents voiced a need for more authentic engagement practices where community voices can impact decision-making, outcomes are not predetermined, and engagements are offered on meaningful topics.
  • Communication and awareness: Many opportunities to improve how we engage and how we share information were offered throughout the survey, including the need to use a broad range of communication methods to reach more voices, as well as making information easier to understand and access.
  • Responsiveness and reporting: We can improve how we share the results of our engagements, including how we demonstrate how feedback was used to make decisions. Many respondents also noted that their emails, phone calls and letters went unanswered.
  • Engagement tools and tactics: Balancing both digital and in-person engagement opportunities remain important, however, time and technology create barriers to participating in engagements. Registration requirements, along with survey bias and design flaws, were also noted by respondents.
  • Diversity and inclusion: We can improve outreach and engagement to ensure we reach all members of the community, hear from more voices and provide a broader perspective on projects. Respondents also shared that mental health, accessibility and the cost to participate (e.g. travel or childcare) create barriers to participation.

This survey was one of the first steps to evaluating engagement and additional analysis and verbatim survey responses will be shared in the coming weeks. Subscribe to project updates to be notified when they are shared here!