Richardson to consider Community Inclusion and Engagement Commission strategic plan

Rick Robinson, managing director for Ramsee Consulting Group, presented the strategic plan to council. Robsinson has worked with the commission since August to help the group determine its goals and strategies.

The plan has four goals, Robinson said, the first—the stakeholder experience goal—is for Richardson to be a community where everyone feels welcomed, connected and empowered to engage in meaningful ways.

The second goal, focused on cultural and societal impact, is to celebrate the city’s diversity and promote trust, connection, collaboration and cross-cultural understanding.

The third goal—ecomonic impact—is to maintain and enhance the city’s reputation as an inclusive community that attracts businesses, residents and visitors that contribute to a thriving community.

Lastly, the final goal focuses on development by ensuring the commission’s success by enhancing member skills and fostering collaboration with the city departments and other partners.

“The difficult part was to see what is missing today,” commission chair Rashmi Varma said. “Richardson itself is very inclusive already.”

Zooming in

To achieve the goals, the commission created several strategies, Robinson said. Concerning stakeholder experience, strategies include improving communication messaging and channels, fostering an increased sense of community and building knowledge and trust in city services.

The strategy related to the cultural and societal impact goal is to identify or create opportunities for sharing, engaging and connecting.

For the economic impact goal, the strategy is to improve marketing and communication channels.

Lastly, to achieve the organizational development goal, standard operating procedures and success metrics will be applied for commission members.

“The challenge here was to not focus on tactics but keep it high level on strategies,” Robinson said. “But rest assured there are pages of tactics to support these strategies.”

Some context

Council directed staff to create an advisory group focused on accessibility, community involvement and other metrics to improve municipal programs, projects and services. Members were appointed in May 2024 and began work shortly after to develop the plan following guidance from council.

What’s next?

Council was receptive to the plan and will vote to approve it at a later meeting.