Ongoing Engagement

Ongoing engagement helps parks reflect the diverse needs and priorities of Los Angeles’ many neighborhoods.

Meaningful engagement involves surveys, public meetings, advisory committees, workshops, focus groups, and pop-ups. Feedback from these engagements directly shapes park programming, amenities, and site planning for updated and new facilities. Public involvement should begin during planning, continue through construction, and extend beyond opening to make sure parks continue to serve their communities.

A woman and a family, including a couple and their child, are participating in a public feedback activity at a park. They are looking at a large poster board on an easel that asks, "WHAT TYPES OF SPECIAL EVENTS/FESTIVALS WOULD YOU BE MOST INTERESTED IN?" The board displays several photo options. In the background, there is a playground with other children playing.
Families share input on desired events during a pop-up at Jackie Tatum Harvard Recreation Center.
The Robert Group, 2025.

When and How to Use the Engagement Guidelines

The following engagement guidelines are recommended for use when there is a significant capital improvement project (at a site or system wide scale) and in the long-term stewardship, operations, and programming of individual RAP sites. The overview below is followed by a more detailed description of how the engagement guidelines can be used for specific projects and in day-to-day operations. These guidelines are a starting point, and each engagement process should be considered and adapted to its community history and context accordingly.

Acquisition

Community engagement during the acquisition phase of a park project should keep residents adequately informed about the acquisition process, and guided by community input. This includes information on the location of the new facility, its classification (e.g., neighborhood park or neighborhood nature park), potential amenities, accessibility measures, and plans to thoughtfully integrate it into the existing community.

Vision Planning

Community-driven vision planning encourages and empowers residents to take an active role in shaping their environment and city. Whether planning for a new park or reimagining an existing one, engagement at this phase should involve multiple sessions for community members and key stakeholders to develop a robust and inclusive vision for a new project with RAP. The community’s vision will set the course for a park that meets the needs and cultural contexts of its community. At this stage, RAP can begin building a base of community members to champion the new park site.

Design

Co-design engagement activities invite residents into the design process, giving people opportunities to make decisions about the park, including determining needs, prioritizing amenities, and creating site plans. Through that process, community members can develop a sense of ownership over a space they were directly involved in shaping.

Construction

Keeping residents and immediate neighbors informed and engaged during park and facility construction is vital to maintaining a strong base of residents committed to the park’s success and sustainability. Communication during the construction phase is often sparse, yet providing updates and other vital information on the project’s completion can avoid surprises and community distrust. RAP and its CBO partners should schedule semi-regular meetings with the community to update on progress and create opportunities (e.g. “community build days”) to invite residents into the process, where possible.

Operation

RAP should create a transparent process for keeping residents informed of the ongoing operations and maintenance at sites, and provide opportunities for residents and CBO partners to actively shape programming where possible. For additional guidance see the Long-Term Stewardship, Operations, And Programming section below.

Evaluation

In periodically evaluating parks and recreation facilities, an engagement process should help determine community metrics of a site’s success that can supplement RAP’s own metrics.

Engagement Guidelines

Community engagement is vital to an equitable, inclusive, and sustainable park system. An equity-driven, community-led approach will not just result in engagement findings that are more reflective of Los Angeles’s diverse population, it will also lead to projects that offer multiple benefits, including:

Inclusive and accessible public spaces: Engaging a broad range of community members—particularly those not traditionally included in park planning processes—allows for a diversity of expertise about park uses, safety, desired amenities, and many other elements. This on-the-ground knowledge from residents, alongside input from less-served community groups, can lead to parks that better serve local communities and all Angelenos alike, resulting in better system-wide alignment with community needs.
A sense of communal ownership: People who participate in planning and designing their park are more likely to develop a sense of healthy ownership and pride, cultivating long-lasting stewardship relationships with their local public spaces. This connection can help improve park safety, maintenance, use, and sustainability, and leads to greater trust and transparency.
Leadership identification and cultivation: Park planning and design processes offer a platform to cultivate community leaders. The result is an active group of residents with stronger ties to the site, facility, and staff which aid in fostering an overall sense of trust.
Equity in access and outcomes: Historically, park planning and resources across Los Angeles have not always been equitable. Engagement, particularly in marginalized communities, needs to be a core element of planning processes from the beginning, with the aim to reduce disparities in access to quality green space and provide equitable distribution of resources.
A diverse group of community members of various ages is seated in a room, listening to a presentation. They are arranged in rows and appear engaged, with some people smiling and others looking thoughtful. A laptop is visible in the foreground, and presentation posters are in the background.
Community members at an engagement meeting in Granada Hills share ideas to help shape inclusive and equitable park planning.
Mark Hovater, 2025.
A woman in a red shirt is placing a sticker on a large poster board at a public workshop. The poster asks, "WHAT TYPES OF FITNESS AND WELLNESS PROGRAMS WOULD YOU BE MOST INTERESTED IN?" and displays various options with corresponding photos. Other people and similar poster boards are visible in the background.
Engagement event at Jackie Tatum Harvard Recreation Center invites community voices on park priorities.
The Robert Group, 2025.

From design to operations, meaningful community engagement for park projects should aim to create dynamic and inclusive processes where every Angeleno feels welcomed and heard. Engagement at every scale should prioritize communities that have historically been underserved by public investment and underrepresented in park planning, budgeting, and decision-making processes. To implement inclusive engagement processes, they should be developed and implemented in partnership with community members and community based organizations (CBOs), and adapted to reflect and be relevant to specific communities needs.

Metrics can be used not only to define the milestones necessary for a successfully completed project but also the strengths and challenges of the engagement process itself. Creating a plan to routinely collect and report out engagement data during the life cycle of a project not only builds in transparency and trust, but also creates a standard that parks can use to keep themselves accountable to internal and community goals. An inclusive planning and design process binds communities together to be life-long stewards of the recreation and park system.

Capital Improvement Projects

Project Pre-Planning
Community-Driven Planning and Design Process
Implementation

Long Term Stewardship, Operations, and Programming

Parks Ambassador Program
Park Arts Streamlined Activities Allowed
Programming
‘Friends Of’ Groups and Park Advisory Boards
Hiring
Two young girls are seated at a table, focused on drawing and coloring. They are participating in a creative activity at an outdoor community event. In the background, there is a bustling crowd of people and white vendor tents.
Engaging young community members at Healthy Day for Kids helps build early connections and identify key stakeholders invested in neighborhood parks.
The Robert Group, 2025.
A woman stands at the front of a community meeting room, giving a presentation to a seated audience. A large screen displays a diagram with three overlapping circles, and several posters with charts are set up nearby. The room is decorated with plant garlands, and attendees are seated in rows of chairs, facing the speaker and screen.
Engagement Meeting held at Tarzana.
Selina Cheah, 2025.
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