DRAFT

*** Insert Public Engagement Initiative Title ***

Date Submitted: Lead Department: Project Lead: Contact Person:

Executive Summary
Why?
What do you hope to achieve by engaging the public? / What is the purpose of this engagement initiative? Have you been given specific direction to engage, and if so, from whom?

What?
What will be the topic(s) discussed?

Who?
In general terms, what segments of the public are you asking (or are asking you) to participate?

When?
What are the anticipated start and end dates?

Where?
What geographic locations will be involved in the process?

How?
How can people get involved? (What specific things are happening? events? website? Twitter town hall? mail out survey? etc.)

Roles and Responsibilities

This section identifies decision makers and outlines roles and responsibilities. These indicators will help you meet the Meaningful Engagement Standard.

Identify Roles and Responsibilities What is your role? What is the Role of the Minister? the Deputy Minister? Senior Staff? What are the Roles of Other Government Departments? Communications Nova Scotia? etc.

DRAFT Is Executive Council Aware of the Issue? Have they given direction? Will there be a consultant involved? If so, in what capacity? Do you know who it will be?

Background and Past Approach

This section outlines your departments history with Public Engagement, this issue, where and how the public has interacted with the department in the past and how that relationship sits at present. These indicators will help you meet the Meaningful, Transparent and Sustained Engagement Standards.

Has there been any internal engagement on the subject? What approvals have been obtained/are required to date? Have there been previous attempts at involving the public on similar issues - What were they and have they been successful?

Environmental Scan
Is there consensus in the community on this issue (positive or negative)? If not, are there differing viewpoints within the organization? Within the community? Is there an expectation from the public for a certain level of engagement on this issue?

Goal
This section is designed to outline what you hope to achieve, the decision making process and to help determine and/or clarify the scope of this initiative. These indicators will help you meet the Meaningful and Inclusive Standards. What do you hope to achieve by involving the public in this initiative? What does success look like? Does the departments initial view fit in this list? gathering pre-existing opinions improving relationships generating new ideas building cultural change making a direct decision overcoming conflict gathering informed and considered opinions creating shared vision creating opportunities to talk to each other and to government building skills and capacity reaching consensus empowering participants

Decision Making Process & Scope

DRAFT Where will the information that results from the engagement process be used along with what has already been/going to be done? What is the scope of this engagement initiative? o Are all Nova Scotians invited to participate or only a few key stakeholders (or something in between)? o Is this a very high level discussion focusing on very broad topics or will the discussion be looking at very specific aspects in great detail (or something in between?)

Public(s) List & Analysis

This section is composed of a comprehensive list of individuals, groups, communities, including all those who are interested in or affected by this topic. This will help you meet the Meaningful and Inclusive Standards. Please be specific.

Public

Level of Involvement L/M/H

DRAFT

Implementation
This section outlines the logistics of your plan. List the different tools/techniques/events you will be using to address each level of public involvement and what information will be provided at each level. These will help you meet the Meaningful, Transparent, Method and Sustained Engagement Standards.

Opportunities for the Public to Participate

What are the different ways you will be involving the public? Facilitated meetings? Social Media? Web Site? Direct Mail? etc. What information will be provided and how? Does it vary from group to group? How will you keep the public informed about the process as it unfolds?

Outcomes
Will there be a final report? If so, will it offer analysis of what was said or recommend new strategy, legislation? Will the final report be shared? To whom? How? What decisions need to be made after the engagement and will the community be involved in that process? If so, how? If not, why? How will the affected community be informed of final decisions?

Evaluation
This step will help you meet, Sustained Engagement, On-going evaluation and Learning & Innovation Standards. . Is there an opportunity for those involved with the project to reflect on their experiences?

Budget
What is the total budget for this initiative? (meeting space, consultant, web design, travel expenses, etc.)