Public Outreach and Engagement
Bay Area, CA
Project Description
Our design philosophy has been influenced by our belief in the “power of place” – the result of creating spaces that bring people together, inspire action, and satisfy a community’s practical needs in creative and efficient ways. We hope to help create a collaborative and equitable community engagement process for every project to meet the needs of the neighborhoods and honor the values of the place.
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We take pride in working with local communities to ensure that individual stories are threaded into the fabric of each project. We also look at broader educational research and cultivate relationships with experts to make sure that we are bringing the best and latest knowledge to each project.
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We are practiced leaders in bilingual facilitation and community engagement. Our team has the capacity to provide the following languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin, Hokkien, Czech and Slovak. We value the personal, deep knowledge and diversity of local residents, as proved in the diversity of our team, and we will collaborate in the process to bring awareness and investment into each project.
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BASE is adept at designing projects in close collaboration with public agencies, project stakeholders and communities. Sketches, diagrams, GIS analysis, three-dimensional renderings, material boards and physical models are all common tools we use in our design process.
services. Public Outreach
Engagement
Facilitation
Mapping and GIS Analysis
Graphic Design and Illustrations
languages. English
Spanish
Portuguese
Czech
Slovak
Mandarin
Hokkien
Children's Museum of Sonoma County
BASE collaborated with the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County (CMOSC) in 2011 to design and create the first phase of the museum's landscape known as Mary’s Garden. The museum is now looking to expand and create a new outdoor area for older kids the Fort FAM Area.
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CMOSC contacted BASE to assist them with the creation of a community outreach plan for the vision of the new area. Due to COVID, the outreach plan included online facilitation to gather input.
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We had a series of zoom meeting with the local school children and we were able to gain valuable input through novel digital tools. We also held a community meeting on site following social distancing protocols. The members of the community were able to draw up their ideas and we had a renowned local artist who sketched ideas in real time. We also had voting stations that were set up on the weekend so the neighbors passing by could be informed and provide their feedback.
client. Children's Museum of Sonoma County
year completed. Ongoing
Parklab Gardens
Park Lab is a collaborative initiative designed to activate vacant lots with ecology and creative, community-serving uses, beginning with the vacant lots of the future Mission Bay Commons. The project is a private-public partnership; Mission Bay Development Group (MBDG) holds a master lease from OCII, which includes the Park Lab parcels and they have collaborated with many private and non-profit groups to activate the space.
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BASE worked with the Park Lab team to secure a Complete Neighborhoods Grant Program (CNP) for Planning for Capital Projects Proposal from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to support planning and outreach for the neighborhood garden project. Our work included community outreach with key stakeholders, including MBDG, OCII, and TNDC, master planning and design of Mission Blocks P12, P13, and P15.
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Our work generates experimental landscapes that bring together diverse community members, cross-sector organizations, and entrepreneurs. The creative work starts and continues with activation from Phase 0 interim uses to long-term programming. We also trained youth from a non profit on pollinator habitat and how to plant the gardens for the site.
client. Mission Bay Development Group
year completed. 2018
City of El Monte
In 2010, El Monte was awarded funding from the State of California’s Strategic Growth Council to establish an Urban Agriculture Initiative Program (UAIP), which was a one-year program that resulted in the development of a recommended list of action items for the City to achieve sustainable food production policies within its borders. Over a 10 month period, and in collaboration with PMC, we engaged city staff, non-profit organizations, school districts and community members from across the city, seeking input on all aspects of urban agriculture. Most of the outreach was conducted in Spanish with strong participation from youth on the steering committee.
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We helped the city draft the UAIP Report as well as a guide for several issues the community wanted to develop. It included a guide to start farmers markets, edible schoolyards, community gardens, and recommendations on possible changes to city policies and ordinances.
client. City of El Monte, CA
year completed. 2013-2015
Ashland Cherryland
This project was a collaborative effort with the community, the client, and the project team to improve the sustainability and livability of unincorporated communities of Ashland and Cherryland in Alameda County.
Elements of the plan included a widespread, bilingual community outreach program and interactive data collection tools such as an online interface in which community members were able to compile data and help determine the “green score” for their street.
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Other components such as a sustainable plant palette, a matrix of best practice resources and research, a memo of best practices, and an urban greening vision poster helped shape this product into a tool for a variety of users, public and private alike. This project coordinated with ongoing County efforts such as the Economic Development Strategy and the Public Health Element of the General Plan and amplified local programs already in place such as healthy food and community health programs.
client. Mandela Marketplace
year completed. 2012-2014