News & Updates

Over the past few months, the IAP2 Canada team has continued to work on enhancing marketing and communications, launching new training and professional development, and improving our administrative processes. Our goals include strengthening and increasing awareness of the IAP2 Canada brand as the leading public participation and engagement organization, promoting best practices and the value of effective P2 to decision makers, and enhancing the digital transformation strategy to improve communications and learning systems so we can attract new business and partnerships to IAP2 Canada. View the updated Strategic Plan 2021-2024.

A few things we are currently working on to support these strategic goals include:

• implementing a new LMS system to improve efficiency, communication, and the overall user experience for our training and professional development services

• onboarding a new Association Management firm with a team of three people to support administration with the intention of improving member, trainer, and volunteer experiences

• enhancing our brand presence by updating web page design and content on the current website to make it more user and SEO friendly, changing the sitemap so information is easier to find, and enhancing our social media presence

• working toward a bilingual website in 2023 to better support our Francophone audience

• researching new website and membership platforms, for potential implementation in 2024-2025, that have more capabilities and updated features including better design, mobile responsiveness, accessibility, SEO tools, plugins, and integrations

• streamlining and updating our regular emails, including:

• • monthly “P2 Insights & Updates” email that provides timely, relevant updates about IAP2 Canada happenings

  • twice monthly “Upcoming P2 Training Opportunities” email keeping our audience informed of training and professional development scheduled for the upcoming 2-month period

  • new “Quarterly Connections” email that highlights relevant articles, successes, tips, tools, and resources to help support your public participation and engagement activities

If you have questions about any of these, or other IAP2 Canada initiatives, please get in touch at info@iap2canada.ca.

Les décisions qui ont un impact sur le public ne doivent pas être prises de manière isolée. La participation du public consiste à l'associer au processus décisionnel, à tirer parti de la diversité de ses idées, de ses points de vue et de ses préoccupations, et à utiliser ces informations pour prendre de meilleures décisions. 

Voici 6 raisons de s'inscrire au certificat en participation publique d'AIP2 Canada.

1. Élargir votre champ de compréhension et fournir des outils actuels et pratiques pour une participation publique significative et efficace.

2. Renforcez votre crédibilité professionnelle et ouvrez de nouvelles perspectives de carrière dans le domaine de la participation publique. 

3. Apporter un nouveau niveau d'expertise à votre organisation et améliorer la qualité de vos initiatives d'engagement public.

4. Apprenez à renforcer l'engagement et l'inclusion de toutes les personnes, y compris les groupes racialisés, les peuples autochtones et d'autres groupes qui sont plus susceptibles d'être négligés, en identifiant un large éventail d'idées, de points de vue et de préoccupations.

5. Prendre de meilleures décisions qui reflètent les intérêts et les valeurs du public en facilitant la communication, la mise en œuvre et la compréhension du processus, des décisions et de l'impact.

6. Renforcer la capacité à prendre des décisions en collaboration sur le long terme en améliorant les relations et en renforçant la confiance entre les décideurs et le public.

Qu'y a-t-il de différent dans le NOUVEAU certificat en participation publique d'AIP2 Canada ? 

Le certificat en participation publique d'AIP2 Canada s'appuie sur les fondements de la formation en participation publique et les meilleures pratiques du monde entier pour fournir aux participants environ 30 heures de formation spécialisée dans la participation et l'engagement du public.

Nous avons pris le meilleur de la formation sur les parties prenantes et l'engagement du monde entier pour créer le nouveau programme de certificat. La formation explore les meilleures pratiques, la manière de concevoir une participation et un engagement publics significatifs, et la manière d'appliquer ces connaissances dans votre travail.

Qui devrait participer ?

Les praticiens de la P2 constituent une communauté diversifiée de professionnels, de citoyens, d'universitaires et de décideurs qui s'engagent à impliquer le public dans les décisions qui le concernent. 

L'ensemble des cours du certificat en participation publique offert par l'AIP2 est recommandé pour :

• Les praticiens nouveaux et émergents qui commencent leur parcours dans le domaine de la participation et de l'engagement du public.

• Les professionnels expérimentés de la P2, afin de démontrer votre engagement en faveur des meilleures pratiques et des normes éthiques en matière d'engagement public.

• Toute personne impliquée dans des projets d'engagement à tous les ordres de gouvernement, de l'industrie privée, des services publics, des agences environnementales, des organismes communautaires, des organismes à but non lucratif et des fournisseurs de services en éducation qui souhaitent comprendre et mettre en œuvre un engagement significatif dans un contexte canadien.

En savoir plus !

Decisions that impact the public should not be made in isolation. Public participation is about engaging with the public during the decision-making process, benefiting from their diverse range of ideas, views, and concerns, and using that information to make better decisions.

Here are 6 reasons to enroll in IAP2 Canada’s Certificate in Public Participation.

1. Broaden your spectrum of understanding and provide current and practical tools for meaningful and effective public participation.

2. Enhance your professional credibility and open up new career opportunities in the field of public participation. 

3. Bringing a new level of expertise to your organization and improving the quality of your public engagement initiatives.

4. Learn how to increase engagement and inclusion for all people including racialized groups, Indigenous peoples, and other groups who are more likely to be overlooked, identifying a wide range of ideas, views and concerns.

5. Engage in better decision-making that reflects public interests and values making it easier to communicate, implement, and understand the process, decisions, and impact.

6. Build capacity for collaborative decision-making over the long-term by improving relationships and increasing trust between decision-makers and the public.

What’s different about IAP2 Canada’s NEW Certificate in Public Participation? 

IAP2 Canada’s Certificate in Public Participation builds on the foundations of public participation training and best practices from around the globe to provide participants with approximately 30 hours of specialized training in public participation and engagement.

We’ve taken the best of stakeholder and engagement training from around the globe to create the new certificate program. The training explores best practices, how to design meaningful public participation and engagement, and how to apply this knowledge in your work.

Who should participate?

P2 practitioners are a diverse community of professionals, citizens, academics, and decision-makers who are committed to involving the public in decisions that affect them. 

The IAP2 Hosted Certificate in Public Participation course bundle is recommended for:

• New and emerging practitioners beginning their journey in public participation and engagement

• Experienced P2 professionals, as a way to demonstrate your commitment to best practices and ethical standards in public engagement.

• Anyone involved in engagement projects in all levels of government, private industry, utilities, environmental agencies, community organizations, not-for-profit and education providers who would like to understand and deliver meaningful engagement in a Canadian context.

Find out more!

Les communautés de pratique sont des groupes de personnes qui partagent un intérêt, un ensemble d'idées ou des préoccupations communes et qui se réunissent pour se soutenir mutuellement, interagir et apprendre ensemble.

Ces communautés sont un excellent moyen de rencontrer d'autres personnes travaillant dans le domaine de la participation et de l'engagement du public, d'étendre vos réseaux, d'apprendre des autres membres de votre profession et de partager des idées et des problèmes. Les membres peuvent partager des ressources, des expériences, des histoires et des outils et renforcer leurs compétences et leurs connaissances dans leur secteur d'activité.

À AIP2 Canada, nous avons actuellement 4 communautés de pratique à la disposition de nos membres :

• Équité, diversité, inclusion

• Engagement des populations autochtones

• Secteur de l'énergie en Amérique du Nord

• Réseau de jeunes professionnels

De nombreux praticiens de l'engagement travaillent seuls ou en petits groupes, de sorte que ces groupes peuvent fournir à leurs membres des encouragements, un soutien, un développement et une caisse de résonance précieux.

En savoir plus

Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a common interest, set of ideas, or concerns and come together to support each other, interact, and learn together.

These communities are a great way to meet others working in public participation and engagement, extend your networks, learn from others in your profession, and share ideas and issues. Members can share resources, experiences, stories and tools and build their skills and knowledge in their particular industry.

At IAP2 Canada, we currently have 4 communities of practice available to our members:

• Equity, Diversity, Inclusion

• Indigenous Engagement

• North American Energy Sector

• Young Professionals Network

Many engagement practitioners work alone or in small groups, so these groups can provide members with valuable encouragement, support, development, and a sounding board.

Find out more!

Decisions that impact the public should not be made in isolation. Public participation is about engaging with the public during the decision-making process, benefiting from their diverse range of ideas, views, and concerns, and using that information to make better decisions. 

IAP2 Canada’s Certificate in Public Participation builds on the foundations of public participation training and best practices from around the globe to provide participants with approximately 30 hours of specialized training in public participation and engagement.

Why should you participate?

1. Broaden your spectrum of understanding and provide current and practical tools for meaningful and effective public participation.

2. Enhance your professional credibility and open up new career opportunities in the field of public participation. 

3. Bringing a new level of expertise to your organization and improving the quality of your public engagement initiatives.

4. Learn how to increase engagement and inclusion for all people including racialized groups, Indigenous peoples, and other groups who are more likely to be overlooked, identifying a wide range of ideas, views and concerns.

5. Engage in better decision-making that reflects public interests and values making it easier to communicate, implement, and understand the process, decisions, and impact.

6. Build capacity for collaborative decision-making over the long-term by improving relationships and increasing trust between decision-makers and the public.

Who should participate?

P2 practitioners are a diverse community of professionals, citizens, academics, and decision-makers who are committed to involving the public in decisions that affect them. 

The IAP2 Hosted Certificate in Public Participation course bundle is suitable for:

• New and emerging practitioners beginning their journey in public participation and engagement

• Experienced P2 professionals, as a way to demonstrate your commitment to best practices and ethical standards in public engagement.

• Anyone involved in engagement projects in all levels of government, private industry, utilities, environmental agencies, community organisations, not-for-profit and education providers who would like  to understand and deliver meaningful engagement in a Canadian context.

Upcoming core training courses hosted by IAP2 Canada

We’ve created the following options for IAP2 hosted training opportunities to allow for flexibility of schedule and the level of our learners.

IAP2 Hosted - Certificate in Public Participation Course Bundle - for Level 1 Practitioners  

• March 21, 2023 – April 14, 2023
• Early bird deadline is March 14, 2023

We recommend the IAP2 Hosted Certificate in Public Participation (for Level 1 practitioners) course bundle for:

• New practitioners beginning their journey in public participation and engagement

• Anyone involved in engagement projects, who wants to understand and apply the fundamentals of meaningful and effective public participation and engagement

Not yet ready to pursue the certificate program as a bundle? 

IAP2 Canada hosted courses are also offered individually throughout the year. Our upcoming core courses include:

IAP2 Hosted - Fundamentals of P2 and Engagement 

• March 21 & 22, 2023
• Early bird deadline is March 14, 2023

IAP2 Way in Challenging Contexts 

• April 4 & 5, 2023
• Early bird deadline is March 14, 2023

Designing P2 and Engagement

• March 27-30, 2023
• Early bird deadline is March 14, 2023

Applying Methods

• April 17-20, 2023
• Early bird deadline is March 22, 2023

If you're not sure where to start your learning journey for the IAP2 Canada Certificate in Public Participation, take a look at our learning pathways.

View all upcoming training

Did you know you can still register to access more than 35 on-demand sessions at your own pace through the 2022 IAP2 North American Conference (NAC) Digital Experience? 

The 2022 IAP2 NAC offered 3 days of live programming during the in-person conference that featured sessions by thought leaders from across the public participation and engagement landscape. 

Get ready to expand your skill set, gain insights and spark inspiration in your public participation and engagement practice.

Member Pricing

$400 plus taxes

Non-Member Pricing

$550 plus taxes

Did you attend the 2022 NAC in person?

Don't forget! All in-person full-conference registrants have on-demand access to the conference recordings with their registration.  

Virtual Hub Login

Meet our new co-chairs of the EDI CoP. In the coming weeks, the co-chairs will be working with the IAP2 Canada operational team to plan the schedule, topics and speakers of the EDI CoP for the upcoming year.   

Tanushree Pillai is an anti-racism educator, DEI facilitator, and communications consultant who speaks six languages. Tanushree has more than a decade of experience in communications, and has been doing EDI work in various capacities since 2016. Her professional, lived, and educational experiences in EDI are a strong part of her identity.

Dorsa Jalalian is a passionate urban designer, project manager, and community engagement specialist with over 8 years of public participation experience in the Middle East and North America. Dorsa’s lived experience and strong belief in diversity, equity and inclusion has led her to advocate for designing inclusive cities through community engagement and to initiate EDI conversations in her industry.

Stay tuned in the coming months for the launch of this Community of Practice to sign up for this educational topic. 

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are key priorities for IAP2. The goal being that EDI CoP participants come away feeling that they have gained knowledge and networks to help them advance their own careers, and that they have had the opportunity to share in order to assist others.

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Rencontrez les co-présidents de la nouvelle communauté de pratique sur l'équité, la diversité et l'inclusion

Rencontrez nos nouveaux co-présidents de la CdP EDI. Au cours des prochaines semaines, les coprésidents travailleront avec l'équipe opérationnelle de IAP2 Canada pour planifier le calendrier, les sujets et les conférenciers de la CdP EDI pour l'année à venir.   

Tanushree Pillai est une éducatrice en matière de lutte contre le racisme, une animatrice de l'IDE et une consultante en communication qui parle six langues. Tanushree a plus de dix ans d'expérience dans le domaine de la communication, et fait du travail d'ÉDI à divers titres depuis 2016. Ses expériences professionnelles, vécues et éducatives en matière d'EDI constituent une part importante de son identité.

Dorsa Jalalian est un designer urbain passionné, un gestionnaire de projet et un spécialiste de l'engagement communautaire avec plus de 8 ans d'expérience de participation publique au Moyen-Orient et en Amérique du Nord. L'expérience vécue de Dorsa et sa forte croyance en la diversité, l'équité et l'inclusion l'ont amenée à plaider pour la conception de villes inclusives par le biais de l'engagement communautaire et à lancer des conversations sur l'EDI dans son secteur.

Restez à l'écoute dans les prochains mois pour le lancement de cette communauté de pratique et inscrivez-vous à ce sujet éducatif. 

L'équité, la diversité et l'inclusion (EDI) sont des priorités clés pour AIP2. L'objectif est que les participants à la CdP sur l'EDI repartent avec le sentiment d'avoir acquis des connaissances et des réseaux qui les aideront à faire progresser leur propre carrière, et d'avoir eu l'occasion de partager afin d'aider les autres.

Engaging the public as a project is being developed is one thing; but how to track the engagement and monitor it over time is still an issue. A tool for helping to guide more effective community engagement planning took one of the top honours in the 2022 IAP2 Canada Core Values Award and has now received top honours from IAP2 International.

IAP2 International announced yesterday, at the IAP2 Australasian conference in Melbourne, Australia that the Conference Board of Canada received the IAP2 International Research Award for their project “Empowering Communities to Monitor Major Projects in Impact Assessments”, in which an Engagement Indicators Playbook was developed. The Board’s researchers recognized a need for a tool to help plan and sustain public participation and Indigenous engagement processes, in view of the growing influence of gender, equity, Indigenous reconciliation, climate action, and sustainability on engagement. 

The Playbook, its guidance, and its indicators, were developed through an iterative and participatory research process led by a research team, Colin Brown, Marta Bristow, Gillian Kerr, and Twiladawn Stonefish, from May 2021 to February 2022.

Learn more at https://www.conferenceboard.ca/focus-areas/sustainability/community-engagement-indicators

The award winners represent best practice in the field of public participation and serve as model of excellence for others to emulate. Winners and finalists are recognized for their contributions to the field in the areas of indigenous engagement, community development, health, infrastructure, environment, disaster and emergency services as well as for their creativity, innovation and inclusion. This is a testament to the tremendous expansion, professionalism, and impact of our field of expertise.

Finalists for the ’best of the best‘ international awards were gathered from entries submitted by IAP2 Regions in Australasia, Canada, and United States.

Source: International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)

How can digital and hybrid approaches support engagement when participants are polarized? We have all learned that power, privilege, and the inability to understand one another’s perspectives are key challenges for engagement today.

Risk-averse organizations might turn away from public engagement for fear of contentious online discourse, or lean into highly controlled digital strategies with flat surveys and limited conversation spaces; but many are leaning into the challenge to build digital and hybrid engagement spaces that are dynamic, equity-minded, welcoming, and creative.

Hear from experienced digital engagement practitioners about strategies and tools for bringing diverse voices into conversations and offering opportunities for consensus, while supporting safer/welcoming spaces for a divided public.

Thanks to 76 Engage and The HiVE, this webinar is free for all.

Technology Lead Sponsor

Technology Sponsor

Join us November 10 from 12-1pm Eastern / 9-10am Pacific!

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Joseph Thornley is founder and CEO of 76engage. He currently leads the 76engage development team and assists governments at the national, state and local levels to design, build and run effective online engagement initiatives. Prior to founding 76engage in 2015, he founded Thornley Fallis Communications in 1995v and 76design in 1999. He is a past Chairman of the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms and founding Director of IAP2 Canada’s National Capital Region Chapter.

Elizabeth Thornley designs and builds online engagement experiences aimed at providing the public and stakeholders with meaningful input and opportunities.

She has worked with local, provincial and federal governments.

Sophia Robison is an urban planner and advocate for community engagement for The HiVE & Social PinPoint. Sophia works to build a community of best practice in public engagement, particularly around the use of digital technology. Previously, Sophia worked in local government, notably with the City of Pittsburgh's Department of City Planning where she created the City’s first Public Engagement Guide and implemented that program across more than five City Departments. She created the City’s engagement response to the pandemic, EngagePGH, a digital one-stop-shop for all things public engagement for City residents.

Ose Akinlotan is the Neighborhood Planning Manager for the City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. She serves as the department’s Equity Liaison and has project managed master plans in the City’s Hill District and Hazelwood neighborhoods, as well as creating an educational series for City residents about city planning. She has navigated community engagement throughout the pandemic using various in-person, hybrid, and digital engagement tools. Ose earned a Master’s of Geography and Environmental Planning from Towson University and a bachelor’s in history from The Morgan State University. Before moving to Pittsburgh, Ose worked for the City of Dubuque, Iowa’s Planning Department and the Iowa DOT.