Ideas in action

In early 2021, the City of Toronto received funding from The Rapid Housing Initiative, a federal program aimed at accelerating the creation of affordable housing. Working closely with the City of Toronto, Ideaspace supported the communications and engagement program for the development and delivery of seven supportive housing sites across the city. 

In partnership with the City of Toronto, we created and implemented a plan to share information about the project with neighbours, invite people to provide input on the building design, and share community benefits of providing housing for people experiencing homelessness. 

Ideaspace designed a suite of accessible communication materials about each project and arranged to have them translated to ensure diverse communities could receive information and participate in engagement opportunities. We coordinated and facilitated inclusive stakeholder meetings, open houses and community public meetings. We also provided a dedicated Community Liaison who managed a project phone line and email and responded to questions and feedback from the community. 

We ensured all community feedback was captured and shared with the project team to inform project planning on the housing developments.

Temporary modular housing (TMH), developed in partnership between the City of Vancouver, BC Housing and Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency (VAHA) creates much-needed housing on various sites across the city for people experiencing homelessness.

Working with multiple agencies, Ideaspace developed and delivered a comprehensive engagement strategy to support the launch and ongoing implementation of temporary modular supportive housing in the City of Vancouver.

We planned and facilitated stakeholder meetings and community information sessions to introduce proposed TMH sites to residents, businesses and other stakeholders and Diana established and facilitates Community Advisory Committees for each approved site. To connect the community to the project team, we provide a dedicated Community Liaison to respond to public inquiries about the sites.

In early 2020, Ideaspace worked alongside YWCA Metro Vancouver to lead representatives from the non-profit sector in planning a coordinated approach to participating in budget lockup.

Working at an accelerated pace, Diana designed and facilitated a series of four in-person planning sessions where she led representatives from eleven non-profit organizations in identifying shared interests, determining consistent messaging and creating a tactical plan and media strategy with the aim of amplifying awareness of shared priorities on budget day.

Several organizations received mentions in news articles following budget lockup and participants reported that the sessions helped to improve their knowledge of media strategies, communications planning, government relations and the non-profit sector as a whole.

We partnered with SFU's Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT) and West Coast Environmental Law to design and lead a series of community dialogues to engage Crescent Beach residents and business owners in reviewing and discussing options for responding to sea level rise caused by climate change.

A series of interactive, hands-on community meetings gave participants the opportunity to explore and consider possible solutions from all angles. 

We captured community values, ideas and priorities in an illustrated final report that will be used to inform the ongoing development of the City's Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy. 

In early 2016, the YWCA Metro Vancouver commissioned the Ideaspace team to conduct a research project to establish the connections among sexualization and hypermasculinization of girls and boys and violence against women, and demonstrate how they create an environment that supports violence against women. 

Our research is shaping the YWCA Metro Vancouver's Culture Shift Project - a critical initiative to shift the attitudes and practices that perpetuate the sexualization of women and girls which contributes to violence against women.

We engaged youth and leading experts across Canada to inform a set of practical and achievable recommendations for action. Click on the link below to see our final report and the YWCA's plans to shift culture.

Ideaspace and Russell Commmunications worked with UBC's Risk Management Services to develop the RUN, HIDE, FIGHT workshop to help students, faculty and staff know what to do if there is an active shooter on campus.

Diana led the development of a modular workshop, wrote supporting materials and delivered a train-the-trainer session. The workshop and supporting materials are being delivered campus-wide by UBC personnel and online.

In Fall 2019, Ideaspace was hired to design and lead a multi-phase engagement program to inform the development of Surrey’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy.

Diana planned, designed and led a series of four focus groups that gathered extensive feedback from over 40 EV industry experts and other key stakeholders on the topics of individual EV adoption, fleet EV adoption and EV charging infrastructure. Two online surveys, which received over 1,800 responses, explored barriers and solutions to EV adoption and sought input on proposed City actions to help accelerate the transition to EVs.

To present findings from the engagement program to the public and City Council, Ideaspace prepared a suite of easy-to-read summary reports that showcased meaningful feedback and featured data visualization.

During the spring and summer of 2017, Ideaspace created a dynamic consultation strategy to inform the design and location of the City of New Westminster’s new skate park.

To gather input on the project, Ideaspace tailored creative events for skateboarders of all ages, including pizza party group chats and a skate competition with over 70 participants. Diana facilitated a community open house to further explore community interests of three potential skate park locations. Equipped with insightful feedback gathered by Ideaspace, the City has begun construction planning for the new park.

We worked with the City of Maple Ridge Social Policy Advisory Committee to create and facilitate a speakers series and community dialogue held over four evenings at the ACT Art Centre.

The events featured guest speakers sharing their perspectives and personal experiences related to the root causes of homelessness, the role of mental health and addictions, housing affordability and ideas for solutions. Participants were invited to share their comments and ideas about what they heard during the open dialogue sessions each evening.

The series was attended by over 630 people and the online broadcast shown to over 450 unique viewers.

Diana worked to bring together Aboriginal youth across the province, first creating and then leading a workshop series at the Gathering Our Voices conference to identify which anti-smoking messages might resonate with their peers and how the message could be made into a Public Service Announcement (PSA).

She then went out into two communities with a production crew to work with groups of teens to bring the PSA ideas to life. Youth played roles as actors, special effects coordinators, makeup effects, and lighting and learned all aspects of video production. 

Metro Vancouver recently implemented a new bylaw to reduce and prevent spent grains, fruit and yeast from smaller fermentation operations from going down the drain. 

To support bylaw development, Diana worked closely with Metro Vancouver to implement a consultation program which included workshops, interviews and small group meetings to gather feedback from brewers, vintners and distillers on the proposed requirements. Drawing on her communications expertise, Diana created a fact sheet and web content summarizing the need for the bylaw and how the proposed requirements had changed over the course of the consultation. As the bylaw was coming into effect, Diana led the creation of a Bylaw Implementation Guide and reporting form to help stakeholders comply with the new regulation. 

The unprecedented dry and hot summer of 2015 prompted the enactment of Metro Vancouver's Water Shortage Response Plan (WSRP) Stage 2 and 3 restrictions early on in the summer, for the first time since 2003.

To gather feedback, Diana designed and led a communications and consultation program which included meetings, workshops, focus groups, interviews and an online survey to hear from municipal staff, stakeholders, internal staff, and the public about their experiences related to the restrictions. The input was compiled into a final report and used to inform a technical review and update of the plan. 

In November 2021, Ideaspace worked alongside the City of Toronto to develop a video that addressed the stigma often associated with supportive housing by telling the stories of people who live in, work with and create supportive housing across the city. 

Ideaspace developed a storyboard that connected people’s firsthand stories together in a meaningful way. We coordinated and conducted interviews with 22 participants including people with lived experience of homelessness, elected officials and non-profit housing providers and Indigenous housing providers. Working closely with a videographer, we wove the clips from the interviews into a story demonstrating the importance of creating more supportive housing for people in need.

The video resides on the City of Toronto’s supportive housing page and continues to provide information to community members who have questions about supportive housing.

In December 2017, the apartment building at 1766 Frances Street, owned by Vancouver Native Housing Society (VNHS), was damaged by fire. VNHS is now planning to redevelop the site to provide affordable rental housing with an emphasis on serving Indigenous individuals and families in Vancouver.

Ideaspace led a robust community engagement program throughout 2020 to gather public input and provide information to previous tenants on the redevelopment process and steps to take to return to the site.

Working nimbly to respond to the shifting landscape of COVID-19, Ideaspace used a virtual format to deliver two community open houses, two tenant information sessions and a public engagement training session for VNHS staff and Board. A project website featuring online display panels and a feedback form allowed people to learn more about the proposed redevelopment and submit their comments.

Image credit: GBL Architects

Throughout 2017, Ideaspace led a series of dynamic and interactive public engagement events to shape the update of West Vancouver’s Official Community Plan.

Diana immersed participants in discussions and creative exercises at World Cafes and Ideas Forums, and used innovative digital polling to explore community perspectives at a series of Directions Workshops.

The events gathered community input on housing, transportation, the local economy, parks and environment, and social wellbeing. Feedback received through these events has been reviewed and incorporated into the draft OCP. To present the draft OCP for final review and comment, the Ideaspace team created a video demonstrating how community input has shaped the plan and highlighting key areas of the plan for review before it was approved by Council in June 2018.

Ideaspace, in collaboration with wastewater management experts Kerr Wood and Leidal managed the development of four wastewater management best practices guides for Metro Vancouver, from concept to completion. The brochures will guide the region’s pools and ice rinks, car washes, carpet cleaners, and automotive repair shops on the safe, responsible disposal of wastewater.

After identifying key stakeholders, the Ideaspace team designed and led a series of focus groups that revealed real-world wastewater management practices and opportunities for behaviour change. Using feedback from these focus groups and working alongside engineering industry partners, the Ideaspace team wrote, designed and produced clear, concise wastewater management guides that have been customized to suit sector-specific needs and that can be easily distributed and formatted to meet a variety of needs.

Vancouver City Council established an Independent Election Task Force to recommend changes based on Council directives concerning the delivery of municipal elections in the city of Vancouver.

As Task Force facilitator and author of the final report, Diana structured a consensus-building process and work plan to ensure members can share ideas, express opinions, deliberate, collaborate and ultimately achieve their mandate with a sense they contributed in a meaningful way.

The reform directives all have the potential, if implemented, to contribute to improved public confidence in the electoral processes at the municipal level and increase voter engagement.

Over the past three years, we have been working closely with the City of Vancouver’s Housing Policy team to engage local communities in discussions about homelessness, winter shelters and supportive housing complexes across the city.

As dialogue facilitator, Diana focuses on creating a safe environment for participants to learn about housing strategies, meet project teams and share their ideas and comments with project partners to inform decision making related to Operations Management Plans and policy development.