Inspirational Services

A Community SpeakOut 2004

Things seem to be heating up on all fronts with respect to planning, design and community engagement.

There are many calls for help as the demands of sustainability initiatives become felt at all levels of our society. And there’s a lot of fear and anxiety around. People are worried about the state of the world, local concerns, their financial security…

There’s a lot of worry about…

I know that people working in government, the development industry, community engagement, planning and design are busy and eager to do the best they can with limited resources. yet things seem to ge getting harder!

Don’t you wish there were a one-stop shop where you could take your social planning questions and get fast and reliable advice?

And don’t you wish that things could be a little more “creative”: better options than those tired and boring “Open Houses” and argumentative public meetings?

That support is here. Here are some of the services I can offer you:

Community Engagement

  • Ways of linking sustainability policies and projects with community engagement processes to build and strengthen community capacity
  • Community education processes to help local people understand sustainability issues such as automobile dependence, housing density, population change, intergenerational relationships, environmental ethics
  • Advice on designing and implementing community engagement programs that yield real results
  • Training for staff and community members in community engagement, workshop facilitation and recording and related tasks
  • Inspirational presentations and workshops about community engagement models and approaches: including “Working at the Edge” and fostering creativity in engagement processes.
  • Tested, reliable approaches for evaluating your processes so you can refine your approaches
  • Engagement processes for children and young people
  • Community engagement with sustainability (“Kitchen Table Sustainability”)
  • The SpeakOut Model: workshops, presentations, guidelines and practical advice for implementing this model
  • Developing manuals, checklists, policies, templates and all the ingredients of a community engagement culture for an organisation such as a local council, a developer, a state or federal government department or agency
  • How to build community capacity about complex technical matters
  • How to be truly inclusionary in your engagement processes
  • Community engagement and governance: the missing link
  • Engagement processes that are nourishing and support personal growth

Housing Design

  • Advice on site planning and design: from the residents’ perspective
  • Post-occupancy evaluations of housing and residential areas
  • Community engagement processes targeted to housing planning and design issues
  • Guidelines for higher density housing
  • Advice on the reasons for resident opposition to density increases
  • Children’s needs in higher density housing
  • Housing design for older people and people with disability
  • Housing design for different cultural groups
  • Workshops and presentations on the deeper meanings of housing
  • Lessons from five years as an owner builder of an ecological house
  • Responding to the 30-Year Plan (or equivalent)

Parks and Public Open Spaces

  • Innovative ways to link health and planning in local communities
  • Advice on site planning and design: from the users’  perspective
  • Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) considerations
  • Needs of children and young people in public spaces
  • Community engagement processes that yield real advice about parks and public spaces
  • Site-planning and design guidelines for parks and public spaces
  • Research into design of public spaces
  • Evaluations of public space planning and design
  • Workshops and presentations on “sacred landscapes”: how to map and protect local places that are precious to your community
  • Environmental psychology and user needs in public parks: lessons from the research
  • The healing benefits of Nature in towns and cities: lessons from research

Ethics

  • Workshops and presentations on professional and applied ethics
  • Workshops and presentations on environmental ethics (caring for Nature)
  • The ethics of community engagement
  • The ethics of sustainability and sustainable development

Keynote Addresses

I have many inspirational topics and can tailor-make a keynote address for your specific circumstances.

Topics could include…

  • Caring for Nature in difficult times
  • The ethics and politics of community engagement
  • “Kitchen Table Sustainability” how to engage local communities with sustainability issues
  • “Kids, Nature and the Bubble Wrap”: How to design our cities and towns to ensure that children grow up to know and love Nature
  • “Planning, Advocacy and Activism”: keys to a rewarding professional life as a planner
  • Managing the intergenerational workplace
  • “The Study of Success”: Examples of successful community engagement programs in Australia

That list barely scratches the surface of all the available offerings.

Please contact me directly by email at wendy@sarkissian.com.au or by telephone:  0402 966 284 (international: + 61 402 966 284).

I hold dual citizenship and can easily work in Canada.