Public Outreach: Listening to the Voice of the Community

At Saratoga Associates, our approach to public outreach begins with a facilitation team of landscape architects, architects, engineers, and planners. This broad perspective and experience provides us with the technical knowledge and communication skills needed to engage communities and stakeholders. Our team knows how to address public goals and concerns quickly and efficiently, while keeping in mind cost and budget constraints. This approach brings people and ideas together to create a tailored design solution.

We are recognized for our regional leadership in public outreach and community engagement. We know that the projects we gather input on will become a part of the fabric of their communities for generations. Our focus is to remain neutral and transparent during meetings and to use multiple engagement methods to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to receive information and provide feedback. The strength of our projects comes from the unified vision the community creates. By building support and educating each other, we are able to bring projects from concept to reality.

Every every community and its projects are unique and must be treated as such. To be successful, each solution must come from the contextual and site-specific characteristics of the project location and surrounding community. We have learned that each community and its stakeholders are instrumental in guiding the design process. Our ability to gather input from an array of stakeholders greatly improves the probability of success for public projects. We have decades of experience working with project committees, local leadership, public officials, college students and faculty, and political interest groups to bring people together in support of projects.