The IAP2 Intermountain Chapter recently hosted an online seminar focused on recent shifts in government mandates and cultural pressures around diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and how those changes affect our work in public participation—both professionally and personally. Chapter officers including Jordan King, Cristobal Villegas, David Jones, and Wendy Lowe presented various portions of the information shared during the session and were supported by Leah Jaramillo and Jessamyn Summers. 11 other people joined the session. It was conducted on Zoom but was not recorded.

The session began with a review of IAP2’s Core Values. Long-time IAP2 member Wendy Lowe shared that the Core Values were adopted in about 1997 by IAP2 members world-wide and have changed little in the intervening years. She expressed the opinion that regardless of one’s position regarding whether DEI principles are supported by government agencies, it is not possible to do effective engagement work without consideration of IAP2 Core Values.

Following the Core Values review, the session included two short presentations entitled Building Resilience and Know Your Rights. In addition, a variety of questions were asked over the course of the session. The first question invited people to share up to three words expressing how they felt about current positions held by government agencies. Responses were illustrated in a word cloud.

Another question invited people to share what they find most challenging now. Participants were invited to choose from four responses in addition to “None of the above.”  Of the 16 people who participated in the polling, 3 chose one of the responses, 6 chose two, 5 chose three, and 2 chose all four responses.

Responses included:

• 68.75% chose “I feel afraid for myself or loved ones”

• 62.5% chose “I worry that important stakeholder voices will not participate in engagement events we conduct”

• 62.5% chose “I have lower confidence that we can provide a safe environment for people to participate”

• 50% chose “I believe the changing landscape makes it hard to live up to IAP2's foundational principles”

• Not one participant chose “none of the above.”

 

A third question asked participants how they felt the recent policy changes related to IAP2’s core principles. For this question, participants could only choose one response. Of the 15 people who responded to the third question:

• 20% chose “I  think we can work around the policy changes with creative approaches?”

• 47% chose “The policy changes are in direct conflict with IAP2's Core Values”

• 33% chose “The policy changes are potentially problematic for our profession”

 

The rest of the questions focused on what participants would like to pursue in future training opportunities and other chapter events. That input will be given consideration as the Board plans upcoming events.