Community Outreach
Always Busy Consulting’s (ABC’s) team has always been embedded in the community and understands the importance of community involvement and engagement. ABC’s history of successful projects in the Pittsburgh region has built upon decades-long partnerships with a wide variety of stakeholders. It is these relationships that help ABC amplify their clients’ messaging and increase engagement.
- Embedded in the community
- Decades-long partnerships
What we do
- Develop and implement community engagement and outreach strategies
- Develop strong community partnerships with stakeholders of the community
- Garner trust between communities, agencies and developers
- Resolve conflict between residents and project teams
- Mediate disputes and bring the parties to agreement
- Organize and facilitate community meetings
Conflict Resolution · Community Trust · Mediation
When a project meets a neighborhood
Large projects rarely stall over engineering. They stall when the people who live beside them do not trust the people building them. ABC is brought in to close that gap, and to keep the conversation open when it gets hard.
Conflict Resolution
When residents and a project team are at odds, ABC steps in as the party both sides can talk to, and finds out what the objection actually is.
Community Trust
We garner trust with the community through presence and follow-through: community meetings, one consistent point of contact, and reporting back on every promise.
Mediation
We bring residents, agencies and developers to the same table and help them reach commitments specific enough to be held to.
How we bring people to the table
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Listen first
We meet residents and community leaders on their ground before anyone presents a plan.
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Carry it back
We put the community’s concerns to the agency or developer in plain terms.
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Convene
We organize and facilitate the meetings where both sides work through the dispute.
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Follow through
We track what was agreed and report back to the community on what was done.
For developers and project teams
Preparing developers to work with a community
Much of the conflict around development is avoidable. ABC briefs and educates developers and their teams before they walk into a public meeting.
- The history of the neighborhood and what has been promised there before
- Who its leaders are and how decisions really get made
- How to listen and respond in a way residents will credit
On the public record
The experience behind the work
Allequippa Terrace
Stephanie Turman played a hands-on role in the HOPE VI redevelopment of Allequippa Terrace, now Oak Hill, in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, serving as a bridge between residents, the housing authority and developers. That experience shaped the approach ABC brings to its clients today.
Pennsylvania disparity studies
ABC served on the study teams for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and PennDOT disparity studies, conducting in-depth interviews and focus groups with business owners and other stakeholders and assisting with community engagement.
Source: 2024 Commonwealth and 2024 PennDOT disparity study reports
Does your project depend on a community’s confidence?
Talk with us before the first public meeting.
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