Hey there!

I’m glad you found me. My name is Lindsay and I’m here to help you (and others like you) reimagine how people, organizations and systems work together to create more equitable spaces, places, projects, and policies.

A little about me

I’m a facilitator, engagement strategist, intersectional feminist, mother to two tiny whirlwinds, partner to an urban planner who would always rather be in the woods, and lifelong curious student. I believe that involving people in the decisions that affect their lives has the potential to transform our communities.

I’ve always been interested in group dynamics, human connection, communication, and collaboration. I started off my academic career with an interest in ethnoecology, wildly inspired by the work of people like Nancy Turner, Michael Pollan, and Wade Davis.

But even when studying environmental science, it was always the people I found most compelling. I found myself fascinated by:

• How people interact with their environments

• How those environments shape who we are and what we believe

• How those beliefs influence how we show up in the world

• How the ways we show up create our communities

It’s no mystery that I finally found my way into the field of community engagement.

For me, community engagement is more than a job, it’s a calling. It’s the answer to a lot of my questions about how to build and sustain meaningful relationships that connect us to our communities.

Engaging meaningfully with one another – about the messy, hard, human things – can help us heal divides, bridge differences and build resilience in these times of uncertainty.

Getting to impact

The world is hard right now. Whether it’s in our homes, social circles, workplaces, or wider communities - there is a LOT going on. To get through it all, we often live like we’re on autopilot: we focus on getting things done instead of thinking about how we’re doing the work.

When this happens, our projects can often forget to include the people who are affected by our work and the decisions being made. More often than not, we fail to build solutions with those who have the hands-on experience and perspectives that we need to do transformative work - and that’s a problem.

Let’s change that.

Through my engagement practice and personal life, I find myself coming back to a question posed by Gretchen Krampf:

“In these times of global challenge, how do we meet the needs of individuals, families, and local communities while nurturing a sense of belonging, a capacity for resilience, and an ability to thrive?”

Watch her TEDex talk here.

Like Gretchen, I believe that deep within us we already have the answer to this question; but that somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten. And, as a result, our systems are failing us. Now more than ever we need to imagine new ways of being and doing... and I believe that we can only do that effectively and equitably as a collective.

We know how to do this. It’s within us - we have to connect back to ourselves. And, in doing so, re-connect to the collective.

How? Let’s dig into a few things that matter.

Understanding what’s at stake

Here’s the crux of it: You can’t solve problems you don't know exist. When something is outside the realm of your personal experience, you might not see a problem at all.

Having more diverse voices in boardrooms, at the proverbial table, within decision-making processes, from inception all the way through implementation, goes a long way toward recognizing the challenges that many people face in their communities.

I love community engagement because it helps individuals and groups translate individual power into collective action through effective collaboration. When done consciously, it creates a process where those who are often systemically excluded or under recognized in decision making processes become part of the conversation.

I’ve seen it time and time again - both in one-off meetings and in longer engagement processes - it’s only once we’ve waded through the problem, picking it up and looking at it from every angle possible, that new ideas come to light and new ways of thinking, being, or planning can be illuminated.

Asking hard questions

At a family dinner recently, people were teasing our four-year-old for his incessant “whys.” He comes by it honestly - as a teenager my father often reminded me that “you’ll never know what’s actually going on if you don’t ask the question.”

A small comment - but one that has forever shaped how I show up in the world.

Asking hard questions can leave us feeling deeply uncomfortable, vulnerable and exposed. And also - we can't create new ways of being and doing by staying in our comfort zones. I think that the only way to imagine something new is to lean into the places where we disagree and create space for critical dialogue - a place where we honour different perspectives and learn from them.

My friend and colleague Natasha Steinback says that:

“by allowing ourselves to ask the hard questions, we give ourselves opportunities to skip messy mistakes”.

When we only surround ourselves with people who think like us or hold similar values, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to know when our solutions might not match the needs of the wider community. By inviting people with different experiences or opposing viewpoints into conversation with us, we expand our view - shining a light on roadblocks and possible solutions that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to see (or even known to look for).

Community engagement is at its core a practice that instills in you a curiosity, willingness, and generosity of spirit to ask:

• Who might be affected by this plan?

• What might they have to offer this project?

Sharing our stories

We are storytellers by nature, so it’s important that we create the space for people to come together and share their stories. Stories matter. They shape how we understand ourselves and one another; which shapes how we create community and the places that hold those communities.

As Leslie Kern observes:

Stories “frame how we perceive the past and the present, shape our capacity for empathy with others, and most critically, mold the range of potential outcomes that we both desire and imagine”.

Check out her book Feminist City.

It also shapes the stories that we tell ourselves about decision-making processes.

When we are not included in shaping the decision, we are less likely to be able to visualize or understand our responsibilities in pursuing success for the project. Including the people who are affected by a project in the planning of that project allows you to make a stronger plan and also increases the likelihood that others will be interested in helping ensure your project is successful.

Jason Syvixay says it beautifully:

“Storytelling can give voice to all the different ‘authors’ of a community.”

As an engagement practitioner, I’m always asking myself:

• Whose stories are being heard?

• Whose stories are not being heard?

I love community engagement because I truly think it has potential to change the world - and create a more just, equitable future where everyone can thrive.

By creating space for people to gather, understand what’s at stake, ask the hard questions, and share our stories - we can help create a world where we all feel a sense of belonging and see ourselves reflected in the decisions that shape our communities.

So, are you ready to join me? Reach out and let’s chat about how to create space for your conversation that matters.

Not ready to make the plunge quite yet?

That’s cool. Stick around if you’d like to learn more about community engagement. You can expect to find content on this blog and on my social media feeds that’s geared to other practitioners and organizations looking to deepen their understanding of group dynamics, human connection and collaboration.

You can also find me on Instagram and LinkedIn. Follow me for tips, questions and imperfect insights as I rethink how organizations create space for conversations that matter.