Many government communication and service delivery plans assume that constituents have easy access to online resources and can comfortably work with digital tools.

But that’s not always the case. Challenges range from access barriers (bandwidth, devices) and comprehension barriers (language, ease of use) to trust and safety.

During our CX Community of Practice Session on April 13, we spoke with Kevin Borja, Senior Planner, City of San Diego, City Planning Department, and discussed strategies for extending good service to the broadest range of constituents possible.

Below are a few key takeaways from that session, as well as the recording that you can watch in its entirety.

1. How is San Diego’s planning department working to better support underserved communities? Borja explained that the city created an inclusive public engagement guide as a way to receive more consistent outreach and engagement with our community. “We’re hoping to standardize public participation techniques to foster consistency, transparency, and inclusivity across our projects,” Borja said. “We hope that the standardization (can help us) make better, more sustainable decisions based on community input, help us reach communities and engage underrepresented groups, and then also is an opportunity for us to build trust where trust has diminished with government in recent years.”
2. What has the department learned about underserved groups in particular? Borja said that with the guide, “we identified different barriers that prevented people from meaningfully engaging, (such as) the need for additional resources, specific information on how to engage with the city, and support on how to make voices heard during decision-making processes.
   We went through both qualitative and quantitative analyses to understand who was underrepresented and found that it was most frequently people of color and youth. We also found that older adults, individuals with limited time due to work commitments, and members of the LGBTQIA community were all also underrepresented in different decision-making processes. Addressing those patterns of underrepresentation and barriers is really essential for us to reflect the needs of our community.”
3. As far as some of the techniques that you laid out in the guide, what are some of the most effective ones? “Providing a warm welcome, ensuring that information is clear and accessible and in languages that are (prevalent in) the community, and then practicing active listening among staff members really shows that the city has a commitment to this engagement process,” Borja said.

Want more CX tips to improve your constituent services? Join us next month on Monday, May 11 from 4-4:30 p.m. ET/1-1:30 p.m. PT as we talk about “Common AI Use Cases in CX.”