Page 3 - Community Engagement

Community Engagement in Governing Oak Park
Oak Park is
a diverse, vibrant, and highly engaged community.
CURRENT STATE
Oak Park is a diverse, vibrant, and highly engaged community. Oak Parkers are involved and invested in the community in a myriad of ways - from neighbors helping neighbors to formal participation on the many boards, committees and councils that support the broader infrastructure of the village.
Unfortunately, active participation in key Village decision-mak- ing has become a one-way street. Community members are too often either “in the know” or “out of the loop” with little space in between. Major capital improvements, impactful policy decisions, and critical development moves are too often designed, deliber- ated upon and decided without meaningful community input or consideration. Too often, crucial policy decisions are created in a vacuum and consensus is built behind closed doors, without con- sideration or formal input from the community at large.
Oak Park boasts 20 citizen commissions that were created to be hubs of community involvement and participation. In recent years we have sadly seen vacancies, resignations and a lack of regard for the work of these commissions at our Village Board table.
It is time for Oak Park to develop and implement a standardized Community Engagement Process, based on models from other similarly situated communities and using best practices informed by decades of research. By partnering with village staff, leverag- ing the Community Relations department, and establishing clear engagement thresholds and milestones, we can ensure that more of the diverse voices of our village are at the table as we chart the course for Oak Park’s future.
“By partnering with village staff, leveraging the Community Relations department, and establishing clear engagement thresholds and milestones, we can ensure more of the diverse voices of our village are at the table as we chart the course for
Oak Park’s future.”
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