January 23, 2024 - Virtual Public Dialogue Session Notes

Contact

Link to Jamboard:Community Dialogue - Virtual 3 - Google Jamboard

Background: There were approximately 50 participants. Two breakout groups were created for smaller group discussions.

Summary: On January 23rd, 2024, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) hosted a virtual Dialogue session on Zoom to seek recommendations on how CARB can better engage communities when developing programs, policies, and regulations. The event started off with a brief presentation that discussed who the staff working on this effort are, the purpose of the draft Community Engagement Model (Model) being developed, and what the draft Model currently includes. After the presentation, folks transitioned into two smaller breakout groups to participate in discussions regarding key questions relating to outreach, engagement, and follow-through. At the end of the meeting, each breakout group gave a report out of key ideas that were discussed. Key ideas and themes included: ensuring materials are accessible, increased partnership with community groups, being more proactive as an agency to address community concerns and taking the time to listen and build trust with community-based organizations (CBOs) and communities.

Notes from Jamboard with Supplemental Notes

Outreach

1. How can CARB best inform you that something is going on?

a. For example, regulatory updates, grants, enforcement issues
b. Email, social media, etc.

  • General outreach
    • Email x 4
    • Text
    • Dropbox, and shared calendar (regular meetings).
    • Newsletters + 2 – But keep them under 7 mins of reading length
    • Social media - Twitter, FB, Instagram to reach different demographics
    • Robust outreach using many different forms of communication, online, mail, radio, tv - the idea that not everyone has access to the same resources
    • Offer a single place to check for all Programs throughout CARB
      • Calendar that includes details about the meeting – purpose, audience, format
      • Important to post information somewhere in advance
      • Also, how to access the webinars, meetings, discussions, listening session, ACT, climate change, etc,. If I don't know which category the meeting is I spend a long time searching before I can get in and frequently I don't find it at all so I give up. The calendar used to list all that was happening that day and at what time so I knew the time I could go straight to it.
      • Bulletin board on website - list all notifications that have been sent to community (passing a regulation, regulatory actions taken, etc).
      • Itemized dashboard or community board
      • Updates by topic on the website or by message type
      • Information on vehicle availability in specific communities - with a list of grants available from CARB and others
      • Current information directly from CARB, difficult to access on CARB website and is in multiple places
      • Important for CARB to be able to be reached
    • Collaborate to increase outreach and relationship
      • Partner with community leaders at NGO's and CBO's
      • Establish deeper connections with community organizations
        • Partner with community organization and ask them to email people they think would want to participate
      • Coordinate better with Air Districts, County and City to better align in providing general information.
      • Use existing networks such as AB 617 CSC or local and officials x 3 to share information
      • Better interagency coordination! Send notifications to all environmental related agencies in the state, from DTSC, CBOs, AQMD, Metro, etc. Everything is connected
  • Need to include
    • Language justice, including sign language access
    • In-person community meetings. DAC residents may experience challenges with technology literacy and access.
    • Multiple opportunities for input
  • Other feedback
    • Appreciate events like this and having live documents
    • Emphasize the importance of participation and community input
    • Show examples of how the updates impact people - scenarios, perhaps, to give more context.

2. How should we communicate information so it is relatable and understandable?

a. Enough background, clear language, more visual components like charts, maps, infographics, etc.

  • Accessibility
    • Accessible language, easy to read and understand
    • Plain English x 2
      • When providing information summarized, make sure it is plain language and has hyperlinks
    • Language justice
      • Multiple languages for notices, materials and on websites
      • ADA compliant color choices with more than color coding so those with visual differences can decipher the info
      • Definitely bilingual at the minimum.
    • When doing outreach be cognizant of your audience. Make sure information is CLEAR and EASY to understand to all
    • Remember that ~ 28 % of Americans are scientifically literate, meaning 72% are not, so consider making it more elementary level.
    • Reduce acronyms and abbreviations and define key terms x 3
    • Fewer acronyms and providing more definitions to technical concepts
    • Have a hyperlink on acronyms so they can see the definition of the program and history, or staff contact
    • Have a glossary of scientific and technical terms at hand anytime new materials are released. Make available in all languages
  • Visual and interactive information
    • More visual components: simple diagrams and infographics
    • Interactive tools, such as ArcGIS Storymaps
    • A picture is worth a thousand words.

3. What types of meetings are most useful?

a. Webinar, phone call, in-person meetings, virtual meetings?

  • In-person community meetings. X 4
    • DAC residents may experience challenges with technology literacy and access.
    • Give the ability to build relationships but virtual meetings/webinars are good for one way information delivery
    • Engagement requires some in-person meeting depending on the project or topic
    • Quarterly in-person would be good to meet people face to face and connect and Zoom most of the time for efficiency.
    • Hosting meetings in a variety of locations to try to provide equitable access to in-person meetings
  • Hybrid x 4
    • Include hybrid options to allow for the greatest inclusion
    • Hybrid meetings (in-person & virtual) that are recorded for those with scheduling conflicts
    • Hybrid is the future; it includes in-person connections/needs but also folks who aren't able to make it in-person but still want to engage and advocate.
    • Perhaps CARB staff can be present in a room full of stakeholders who are attending the meeting virtually. The CARB staff can assist the community with virtual meeting.
  • Focus on connection and less on format
    • Opportunities to connect with one another, whether it be with breakout rooms online or the opportunity to interact in-person
  • Webinar with plenty of room for Q & A.
    • Icebreakers... "bring a picture of smoke/air". Helps set the mood for the meeting.
  • Keep people’s time in mind

Engagement

1.  Please talk about a government engagement process that went well.

a. What did you like about that process?  

  • What is important or makes engagement go well
    • Staff qualities
      • Being patient and taking the time to build trust with communities - opportunities to listen to feedback and comments
      • Needs more training and prep work in DEI
    • Partnerships
      • CBO Pre-meeting with community
      • Using CBO connections to help field and summarize questions and concerns from communities
      • Willingness to work with other orgs and non-profits to share information. Two-way street between orgs and gov agencies
    • Agency collaborations
      • Engagement processes that involve multiple level of government that are all on the same page, collaborating
      • Echo from before, when you see interagency coordination instead of hot potato
      • Authentic and consistent long-term and in-depth relationships
        • Meeting communities where they are at
        • Consistency with participation and building relationships.
        • Knowing community places with a following/space
        • In our AB 617 we had the same CARB member since the beginning and making that connection where resident feel confident that their voices are being heard thru the state agencies
        • Getting a staff person's passion across can sometimes be difficult as a city/gov agency staff. Familiarity with place and people is critical
        • Head staff/leaders (CDPR EO) attends and herself gave the scoop news about their trial of sharing sparing schedules with community
        • Virtual office hours - city of LA planning was really accommodating
      • Power sharing and outcomes
        • When policies are actually implemented by environmental justice community advocacy
        • CARB should give more leverage to all the programs that are in communities.
      • Lack of familiarity: place, culture, relationship(s) (e.g., new staff.)

2. Please talk about a government engagement process that did not go well.

a. What could have been done better?

  • What hurts engagement
    • Staff qualities
      • Apathetic staff
      • Lack of listening to people at the local level
      • Micro-aggressions from staff interacting with community members
    • Engagement format
    • The lecture format does not work, interactive and engaged is better
    • AB 617 - CSCs feel overwhelmed from presentations and discussions sometimes. Prefer discussion format
    • Processes where the community does not have a chance to speak do not work
    • When agencies tell folks to not repeat the same thing -- but that's the thing -- there's an issue at hand that needs to be addressed. We repeat ourselves because they don't listen
  • Lack of trust
    • When agencies expect community members to trust them without taking the time to build trust and get to know individuals
    • At a CARB meeting of the Environmental Justice Action Committee held at HQ in June 2023, an invited attendee was questioned by CARB security and not easily allowed to attend

3. How should CARB balance engagement versus communities being asked to do too much?

  • Partnering with trusted organizations in a community
    • Attend other community meetings and apply the principles to that the community wants to see to the work
  • Know the local context
    • be cognizant of community events and ongoing meetings/events, etc.
  • On-going and early communication and discussions
  • Providing the opportunity to engage but not having an expectation of what that looks like
    • By communicating honestly with community members to get an idea of their capacity to engage and participate - provide the assistance and support if it's too much
    • Sharing information publicly so that interested folks can read/look at if interested and when they can
    • Early outreach is best, not sending the information right before the meetings
       

Follow Through

1. When you provide feedback, what is the best way we can show that your feedback was heard and considered?

  • Actions
    • That our feedback (by the people) was put into policy and it helps environmental justice communities
  • Explanation / Transparency
    • Be more transparent about what happens with the feedback, what is the process, what types of discussions are there, and how it will be used, what is the intention
    • If feedback is not integrated into the process, providing some explanation or justification on why so that there can be a common understanding x 3
    • I always want to know the “why” when something can’t be done. Knowing what the barrier is will help those providing input.
    • In Legislation, they use the strikethrough, underline (insert) to show how the Legislative act was changed.

2. How would you like CARB to share what feedback was received and how it was addressed?

  • No notes on Jamboard

3. How can CARB be a better long-term partner for your community?

  • Relationships
    • Community liaison or someone who is based in the community
    • Staff designated to specific parts of the region to help build trust.
    • Fund CBOs to connect you to the community.
  • Leadership
    • Be more proactive as an agency
    • Be aware and be at the forefront of problems that arise
    • Keep other agencies accountable on community outreach. CARB should be a leader
  • Listening
    • By continuing to put in effort to listen and improve based on feedback, the process is constantly evolving
    • Ask communities what they need and doing their best to provide that within the limitations that exist
  • Action
    • Continue to do advocacy, don't just let it be a check mark. CARB as leadership is important.
       

Group Report Back

  • Outreach
    • Simplifying outreach materials
    • Provide materials upfront so people can decide if they want to participate
    • Language access-translation in multiple languages
    • Utilize visuals, infographics
    • Have pre-meetings with CBOs/others to help us get the word out
    • Respect peoples time- provide information before the meeting
  • Engagement
    • Work and engage with CBOS for outreach, engagement, and follow through. They have a built-in level of trust with the community.
    • Attend community-led meetings to learn from the community, apply what they are doing to our community engagement efforts
    • A mix of meeting types- consider that internet access may be limited so in person meetings are still essential
    • Have some way to have 1:1 conversations to build relationships. Break out rooms in virtual meetings, in person organic interactions
    • Many folks prefer hybrid meetings
    • Record meetings
  • Follow-Through
    • Make the process more transparent- share key details before meeting
    • Show line-item changes, the way the legislature captures changes
    • Be transparent as possible- why or why not feedback is incorporated
  • Accessible Information
    • Make sure all meeting spaces are accessible & safe including addressing micro/macro aggressions
    • Make the website more accessible- bulletin board of events/regs upcoming, etc
    • Infographics, accessible language (ADA, language justice)
    • Less acronyms- provide hyperlinks for background information about a topic
    • Calendaring system is confusing- Not clear what type of meeting it is on the calendar, getting into meetings is confusing. Date, topic easily accessible on public calendar
    • Interactive tools- GIS/storymapping
  • Relationship Building
    • Better interagency coordination
    • Have meetings with the intention of building relationships
    • Make sure staff are familiar with the place/can build trust and connections with community
    • Have staff that are familiar with a place, known by a place. Staff that are embedded in communities we are trying to work with
    • How important being familiar with a place (needs, culture, what works for them) is, overcoming the challenges
    • How CARB can be more proactive- be lead agency to bring agencies together
    • Have community liaisons to build trust/relationships
    • Staff conversations about active listening, having problem solving conversations